Colbert has done it again! Wikiallity: a substitute reality for those refusing to succumb to a standardized reality, including a ready-to-edit encyclopedia for the masses…you truly can change history if enough people agree with you. Unfortunately, our students take most everything they read on-line as gospel truth and are unable to see that the information garnered from that web-site is not subject to the extensive rigors of actually proving what is written. I’m not saying it is all useless factoids that are devoid of any truth, but when the average Wikipedia account holder can go in and ‘edit’ information as he sees fit, some serious flags should be going up. Using Wikipedia as a referenced source in classroom assignments is a point of contention I’m sure a lot of teachers have experienced. My high-school son said if he were the teacher, he’d allow one reference to be from Wikipedia as long as the student could find a “reputable” source to parallel his findings.

At the outset of this assignment, I honestly didn’t have much experience with Wikipedia nor open-source learning. I certainly wouldn’t have labeled it the wave of the future. But then who knew the internet would have been such a hit! I watched the Colbert video and read several articles both for and against open-source, collaborative efforts. I was even leaning toward favoring the concept as a way for schools to rein in the expense of textbooks; quite frankly the amount of money spent on books could probably feed a third-world country for several years. It’s absurd. As I was kicking around ideas and getting my thoughts in order to defend open-source learning, it hit me…sort of my “ah--ha!” moment. I understand saving money (who doesn’t like saving a buck?) I understand the value of collaborating (pooling information with others is a great way to brainstorm new ideas). I even understand the allure of having a hand in what our kids are learning (boy if I were teaching, those kids would be focusing on _____). What I don’t understand is abandoning traditional books in favor of texts written by a group of people who think they have more to offer than the experts employed to research and document facts to teach our kids. Talk about a 180 shift in my thinking. It should concern everyone that open-source textbooks give faculty and publishers the capacity to control and censor anything they don’t like. What’s to stop them from editing out sections of text that they don’t agree with or particularly like and successfully manipulating the text to say what they want it to say? Like Colbert said, “If enough people agree, it becomes true.” My question is, “Since when?”


Works Cited

Colbert, Stephen.” The Colbert Report.” New York, NY. 31 July 2006. Web. 30 August 2010. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report- videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality

Vance, Ashley. “$200 Textbook vs. Free. You Do the Math.” The New York Times. Business Day Technology, 31 July 2010. Web. 30 August 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/technology/01ping.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general