Teaching and Learning How to Use Wikipedia Wisely

Wikipedia is widely used but often misunderstood. Despite its reputation, content on Wikipedia isn’t a free-for-all. Many articles are protected, and Wikipedia has safeguards to help maintain accuracy.

From now until September 30, you can sign up for our free, asynchronous online course: Using Wikipedia Wisely. You’ll learn how to teach students to use Wikipedia as a starting place for verifying online information and explore free, research-backed curricular resources from the Digital Inquiry Group for teaching students effective online evaluation strategies.

Eligible learners who successfully finish the course will receive a certificate of completion.

Sign up now for our free Using Wikipedia Wisely course

We encourage educators looking to integrate Wikipedia into their instruction to review the readings and videos below that explain the online encyclopedia’s strengths and limitations. You can also use our free curriculum resources to equip students with evidence-based strategies for using Wikipedia.

Readings

  • Caulfield, Mike & Wineburg, Sam. 2024. Teaching Students How to Use Wikipedia as a Tool for Research. Edutopia. This article discusses how Wikipedia can be used to validate sources.
  • Weaver, Brilee. 2018. From Digital Native to Digital Expert. Harvard Graduate School of Education. This article highlights common misconceptions in evaluating online information and introduces strategies employed by fact-checkers.
  • Ziv, Nadav & Wineburg, Sam. 2024. Go Ahead and Use Wikipedia for Research. The Boston Globe. This article discusses the history of Wikipedia and lays out how Wikipedia’s principles of transparency, evidentiary standards, and human intelligence point the way forward for AI.

Videos

  • Crash Course. 2019. Using Wikipedia. This video discusses common misconceptions about Wikipedia and how it can be used as a useful tool for verifying information.
  • Digital Inquiry Group. 2020. How to Use Wikipedia Wisely. This video discusses how to use Wikipedia as a starting point for research.
  • Digital Inquiry Group and iCivics. 2024. Using Wikipedia Well. This video discusses how Wikipedia protects its articles from vandalism and explore strategies for using it well.

Lessons

Assessments