Cryptosmith

The commencement speaker at the University of St. Thomas today was the recipient of an honorary degree recognizing her charitable activities. As she warmed up her discussion of her work, she felt obliged to define her terms.

“According to Wikipedia,” she started to say.

And the senior class of St. Thomas burst out laughing.

I have never been so proud of a class of students. It gives me hope for the future.

I’ve spent the last few semesters teaching students NOT to use Wikipedia as a source. They are welcome to start there, but I don’t want a paper to have Wikipedia listed as a source.

Most students know why: a Wikipedia article might reflect nothing more than the misinformed opinion of the most recent editor.

If a Wikipedia article is any good at all, it has a great list of sources. Many editors are only comfortable with on-line sources, so students aren’t strained too greatly to actually look up the original sources. And that’s what most professors demand.

The students get it: the Internet is full of nonsense, and Wikipedia occasionally gets caught up in that. You have to dig deeper.

I don’t know that they will dig deeper once they’re freed of pesky professors nit picking their work. But at least they know right from wrong. That’s a really good start.

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