Heald of Dreams

This plea doesn’t apply to the teachers (or administrators, for that matter) who have figured out that Wikipedia is an incredible knowledge store, cornucopia of primary sources, and go-to site for most the free world. Rather, this plea is for those who, instead of teaching students about Internet site credibility, fact checking, verification, and crowdsourcing, choose to simply prohibit the use of Wikipedia.

Two of my kids were assigned papers within the last week and told they could use any sources other than Wikipedia. Seriously. Because apparently, the first three hits on Google are outstanding information sources.

(Read the rest of the article by clicking this link:)

A link to this article appeared in my Twitter timeline last night:

RT @briankotts: Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia http://ow.ly/1rYNvv #edchat #edtech #ukedchat- and librarians!

— LibWithAttitude (@LibWithAttitude) December 27, 2010

Those of you whom I teach already know that I encourage the use of Wikipedia as an information source, providing you exercise the same caution and common sense that I would expect to be used for any other source. However, I also expect you to be equally cautious in accepting what I say, particularly since I know you are likely to have heard from others that Wikipedia can't be trusted.

To my students: have a look at the article, and the comments below it, and familiarise yourself with how Wikipedia works, so that you can use - wisely - what is in my view one of the greatest contributions to the spread of human knowledge I've seen in my lifetime.

And to any teachers reading, if you think you have good reasons for 'banning' Wikipedia - maybe something I've missed? - I'd be happy to hear them. Otherwise, perhaps it's time for a rethink.

Thank you to Helen (Y13 English Language) for sharing this multimedia resource on the history of English. Lots of clicky, pressy stuff there for those who like that sort of thing (and make sure you have speakers / earphones for the audio clips of texts from different time periods).

This is great for A03 (context) on ENGB4, but don't forget that in the exam, there will be no data from before 1700, and that mere 'dumping' of knowledge about historical facts and events will get you nowhere.

It is understanding of the processes of language change, as illustrated by specific examples from the data given PLUS examples and concepts from your own language study that gets the marks.

I mentioned the new OED online to my language students the other week, and McCrum is right: it does make a diverting way to wile away a while.

The question of where the English language might be heading is a fascinating one. Remember my post about 'Singlish' a few weeks back? And this morning someone posted a link to an article about the Chinese battle with Chinglish.