How, exactly, were the students going to be "held accountable" for their work in this context? Were they posting to Wikipedia under their real names, and did they have user pages that identified them specifically? I doubt any teacher would be so irresponsible as to demand something like that from underaged students... If you're saying they would have been "held accountable" within the course like they would be for any other assignment, that's not quite the same thing. I might also take issue with the idea that Wikipedia activity can "translate" to useful skills in later life, but that largely depends on what one plans to do with that life.
Regardless, you're not really describing how Wikipedia can "help children learn"; you're describing a means of motivating children to do what they should be doing anyway, which is try to get their facts straight in homework assignments. And, quite honestly, it sounds like this kind of motivation is mostly based on fear, perhaps of being publicly embarrassed by getting it wrong on a heavily-viewed public website. That sort of fear isn't always a bad thing, but obviously if you described it that way, it wouldn't sound quite as nice for the parents, would it?
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How, exactly, were the students going to be "held accountable" for their work in this context? Were they posting to Wikipedia under their real names, and did they have user pages that identified them specifically? I doubt any teacher would be so irresponsible as to demand something like that from underaged students... If you're saying they would have been "held accountable" within the course like they would be for any other assignment, that's not quite the same thing. I might also take issue with the idea that Wikipedia activity can "translate" to useful skills in later life, but that largely depends on what one plans to do with that life.
Regardless, you're not really describing how Wikipedia can "help children learn"; you're describing a means of motivating children to do what they should be doing anyway, which is try to get their facts straight in homework assignments. And, quite honestly, it sounds like this kind of motivation is mostly based on fear, perhaps of being publicly embarrassed by getting it wrong on a heavily-viewed public website. That sort of fear isn't always a bad thing, but obviously if you described it that way, it wouldn't sound quite as nice for the parents, would it?
June 1, 2011 - 9:54pmThis Comment
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