Wikimedia UK/Events/Wikimedia in Education/Digital Literacy: the Wikimedia UK Way

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

By Richard Nevell

The ability to discern good quality information from bad is a core skill of a researcher. For many years, students were warned off Wikipedia as being unreliable. This perception has shifted so that Wikipedia is more trusted than journalists, and is used as an arbiter of truth by sites such as YouTube in their efforts to combat fake news. At Wikimedia UK we encourage critical engagement with Wikipedia as a source of information. This paper will give an overview of our work in higher education and the results of our ongoing survey of students’ digital literacy skills. By showing students how the information is constructed we foster the critical skills needed to navigate information online. Most importantly when it comes to Wikipedia we ask students: write it don’t cite it!