Thoughts on Wikipedia vs. Britannica
I have been dissuading my students from using Wikipedia as a source for research for years. However, after taking a look at Wikipedia versus the more reputable Encyclopedia Britannica, I may have changed my mind.
Some of the things that I discovered as I looked back and forth between the two online resources are strikingly surprising. The articles on Simple English Wikipedia contained much more information on the things I chose to research than from the Britannica site. When researching information on Golden Retrievers, I found that the data on Simple English contained much more information than Britannica. Simple English had information posted in kid-friendly terms regarding the appearance, the activities, kinds, health, history and external links on the breed, while Britannica only mentioned the standard height, color and popularity from the year 2002.
Wikipedia allows anyone in the world to access the pages, but you must create a log-in if you wish to make modifications to the information in any way. On Encyclopedia Britannica, you must create a log-in in order for you to access all of the information on each of the pages. While Wikipedia allows for pages and pages worth of information to be written, Britannica seems to have articles with a 250 word maximum.
The English version of Wikipedia is much more detailed than either Simple English Wikipedia, or Encyclopedia Britannica. After learning that there are individuals that moderate the sites, and that there are individuals that monitor postings for various subjects, I feel a little bit more confident with the information found on wiki sites.
Feel free to access the changes that I have made to the articles on Golden Retrievers, Michigan State University, and the state of Michigan at the following address:
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