Open Education Handbook/Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is arguably the biggest Open Education Resource in the world. The Wikimedia Foundation, the overarching foundation of which Wikipedia is a project, has the following statement at the heart of its mission: "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge". Wikipedia has been utilised by people all over over the globe as a way to "find out the answer to things".

Wikipedia continues its fight to be seen as credible in an education context despite the fact that research has shown Wikipedia to be a hugely useful tool in education. For some, Wikipedia itself raises significant questions about education and the way we learn.

David White from the University of Oxford explored some of these questions in a talk given at Wikimania 2014. David argues that the fundamental problem with both Google and Wikipedia is that they are ‘too easy’ and lose the side effect of finding information - learning. The problem is not Wikipedia but that learning needs to evolve and we need to shift from a 'pedagogy of answers' to a 'pedagogy of questions'.

Other Resources

 * Wikipedia Education Programme
 * Wiki Education Foundation
 * Wikimania 2014: Wikipedia belongs in Education
 * Wikipedia challenges us to adopt a pedagogy of questions
 * Almost Wikipedia: What eight early online collaborative encyclopedia projects reveal about the mechanisms of collective action