eBlog by Tore Hoel

If a student at University of Oslo cites Wikipedia in a paper, he or she will fail. This was said by an advisor at The Faculty of Theology with a professional interest in Theological Dogmatism in a recent workshop om Social software, arranged by Teria at Oslo Unversity College (not to be mixed up with UiO).

My immediate response was to ask if the university still get students, but I should have bit my tongue, being so un-academic. Instead I should have waited until today and referred to the peer-reviewed (and accepted as a source at the UiO?) firstmonday, where Thomas Chesney is publishing an article on “An empirical examination of Wikipedia’s credibility”.

Although the study is rather limited, Clesney concludes subject domain experts find the “the accuracy of Wikipedia high”. Research staff was given two articles, one in their own expert domain, and one random. The experts found Wikipedia articles to be more credible than non-expert…

What I am asking is what would happen if the cited articles did not have the truth. Is not learning about testing the truth of untrue matters? If you are not allow to start with the devil -  well, then you must be situated in place that holds the truth, i.e. an theological faculty? (My tounge is bleeding!)