Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wikipedia

Click here for search! In this advanced world everyone wants each thing fast. People want to eat, walk, go to the office and study everything in an easy way. Wikipedia is the site where everyone can go and have a free and easy way to get all information.

Wikipedia is one of the free online encyclopedias. The Wikipedia website is easy to access, it is popular and anyone can go and post anything and edit it too.

First, Wikipedia is easy to access. You can get all information there. You can get each kind of information about history, geography, mathematics and sociology. You will not find any difficulty in accessing it. You will find it easily on the Internet. It is totally free for everyone. You don't have to pay money to access anything on this website. “Approximately 38 million people visited the English language version of the site in December 2006. Wikipedia is also easy to find; it frequently appears at the top of the Google searches and access is completely free.” (Byers, 2007, para.3).

Second, Wikipedia is popular and thousands of people like to access it. It is one of the most popular online encyclopedias. It is popular for everyone because it is free and no one has to pay to access it. One other factor that gets more popularity for wikipedia is that you can access it in many different languages. Wikipedia has many controversies, although it is popular among every one. “Contributing to the debate is the speed in which Wikipedia has grown. While any scholarly and academic sources have decades-if not centuries-of history, Wikipedia’s popularity has surpassed all of them in a matter of just six years” (Wolverton, 2007, para.8). He also mentioned that it is the ninth most popular website in the United States, although it was launched in 2001. “seven per cent of all internet users now visit the site every day.” (Martin, 2007, para.13).

Third, everyone can edit and post everything. People love freedom and Wikipedia gives that. It gives us freedom to write or feel anything about anything. Also it gives us the right to edit anything, which we want. For example, if someone wants write and post it online about the president and any government issues, they are allowed to do that everyone is allowed to share the information that they have. “While encyclopedias and journals are generally authored by scholars and peer reviewed before publication, Wikipedia articles can be written and edited by anyone at anytime, bringing about a debate over the risk of giving those outside academia the power to create and contribute to articles on scholarly subjects. Furthering this, users can add, alter, or remove information without registering a user account, giving those who visit the site free and anonymous reign over the available information” (Wolverton, 2007, para.7). According to D. Parry (2008), literacy not only means getting and reading information from different resources, but taking part in that and Wikipedia is the one which can give you that opportunity.

In conclusion, Wikipedia is easy to access is popular and everyone can edit and post everything. It is free and it gives you freedom to post whatever you want to. It allows you to get free information. You don't need to create an account on Wikipedia to access it. Everyone should take part in this free sharing web site.

References

Martin, N. (2008, January 21). Wikipedia clamps down on ‘unreliable’ editors. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/20/wiki120.xml

Parry, D. (2008, February 11). Wikipedia and the new curriculum. Science Progress. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://www.scienceprogress.org/
2008/02/wikipedia-and-the-new-curriculum/

Wolverton, J. (2007, January 22) Wikipedia wisdom. Valley Vanguard. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://www.svsu.edu/clubs/vanguard/stories/1141

Byers, M. (2007, March 03). Controversy over use of wikipedia in academic papers. Smith college Sophian. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2007/03/08/News/Controversy.Over.Use.Of.Wikipedia.In.Academic.Papers.Arrives.At.Smith2765409.shtml

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Someone needs more protections

According to P. Griffiths (2007), teachers need extra protection from abuse from pupils on web sites like RateMyTeacher.com. First, being abused from their own pupils. Sometimes affects a teacher’s health. Second, sometimes it affects a teacher’s career. Comments get worse and give remarks on their career. Last, some teacher takes all comments in positive ways even though comments are written in wrong words for them.

In this global world, it is easy for everyone to humiliate someone publicly. First, students having more technological freedom humiliate teachers. Second, it affects a teacher’s health. Last, it affects a teacher’s career.

First, their own pupils humiliate teachers by having more technological freedom. In this advanced world it’s easy to humiliate publicly. Government should take some steps against this kind of sites. For example, there should be certain parameters to criticize some one and set some more powerful rules and regulations. There should be parent’s involvement to solve this problem. Schools should set rules for parents that monitoring children while using Internet. For example, “a Sydney high school sent a memo to parents last year, asking them to monitor their children’s internet access after students were suspended for threatening school staff on a website.”

Second, being humiliated by pupils affects a teacher’s health. Sometimes criticism goes beyond a limit; pupils catch teachers on video and pictures that cause depression and psychological problems. A School should make a council board to counsel teachers. This kind of board gives good advice and helps them decide how to react when they are humiliated. In that hard time the board will give psychological support. The Teacher might commit suicide because of being humiliated sometimes very badly.

Third, websites like YouTube and RateMyTeacher.com, give freedom to harass their teacher online and it causes damage to teacher’s career. Teachers should make an organization to protest this kind of problems and websites. They can advertise their problem on television so more and more people and teachers come, and join their organization. This will make a difference. Social organizations should become involved in his problem and give support to teachers to stop or ban these sites. Bad comments affect teacher’s careers because all things, about him or her are online. Sometimes teachers lose their jobs. For example, if the teacher is the only one person to earn money, it will affect on his or her financial status and bring problems to the family. These websites are of big companies. They should have social responsibility and moral obligations.

Last, teachers are humiliated by using more technological freedom. These sites harmed their health and career. I strongly believe that government should be involved with strong acts and regulations and this kind of site should be banned.

References
Griffiths, P. (2007, November 15). UK union condemns “rate my teacher” Web sites. REUTERS UK. Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://uk.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=UKL1588395620071115