In the technologically driven culture present today, the Internet is seen permeating the social, intellectual and everyday lives of people of all ages more and more each day. As seen in the recent controversy over websites such as Myspace.com and Facebook.com, the Internet is used for both good and evil in the social world.

For high school students the Internet is also an important resource for homework assignments, reports and projects of all kinds. When it comes to research and fact-finding for school assignments there is one source the History and Law teacher Mr. Matt Nasif has seen “cited more than any other source.”

Wikipedia, ‘the free encyclopedia,’ hosts over one million articles from which internet surfers are able to gather information. As compared to other online encyclopedia like Encyclopedia Britannica Online, which hosts 120,000 articles, Wikipedia is not only large in size but is also growing and changing each day. Wikipedia allows any internet user to edit Wikipedia articles, meaning thousands of changes are made hourly each day.

The college professor living two streets over, the 25 year old high school drop out still living in his parents basement and the student sitting two seats in from of you in your fourth period class – they can all edit any Wikipedia article as they see fit, without even having to log into an account.

The prefix ‘wiki’ is defined as “a collaborative Web site set up to allow user editing and adding of content.” Wikipedia welcomes and encourages anyone to edit or create articles. According to the Wikipedia article entitled “Replies to Common Objections,” the author writes, “Wikipedia has a fair but of well-meaning, but ill-informed and amateurish work. In fact, we welcome it – an amateurish article to be improved later is better than nothing.”

As one can learn from a situation this past December in Nashville, Tennessee “amateurish work” is not the only pitfall of Wikipedia.com. According to an article by Katherine Seelye published in the New York Times, a man in Nashville, believing Wikipedia was a “gag” website created an entry suggesting that one of his co-workers was involved in the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. The creator of the entry was tracked down through the computer at his workplace from which the entry was created and resigned from his job to avoid further problems for the company.

An entry intended as a joke may have been viewed by hundreds of internet surfers before the problem was found and corrected.

“It’s scary that it can be so easy to edit,” Nasif said. He has seen Wikipedia cited more increasingly more often over the last several years and does not accept Wikipedia as a credible source on graded assignments.

“The information students read on Wikipedia could have been some high school kid getting his kicks for all they know,” Nasif said.

The Frequently Asked Questions page on Wikipedia.com warns that “it is of course possible for biased, out of date or incorrect information to be posted.” While Wikipedia tells its users that this information may be present within its articles, it also reassures readers that “inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly.” Wikipedia also states that “students should never use information in Wikipedia for formal purposes (such as a school essay), until they have checked external sources.”

Sophomore, Lauren Fazah, who uses Wikipedia second to Google.com when researching, feels she could recognize bias or incorrect information if it was present in a Wikipedia article.

Nasif, on the other hand, feels many students do not know how to recognize bias and it is crucial to teach students this skill during the “window of opportunity” at the middle school level.

“I don’t think a lot of people know [Wikipedia articles] can be edited by anyone. I use it a lot and I didn’t know. I still trust it though,” Fazah said.

“Everyone has become so programmed to believe whatever they read on the internet,” Nasif said.

Fazah feels Wikipedia is very convenient, especially since it is often one of the top five results when searching on Google.com, further adding to its appeal.

“Why should a factual site be governed by popularity?” Nasif said.

One day we may live in a society where the educated will use their powers for goof to allow websites like Wikipedia effectively reach their goals.

For now, Nasif believes students should stick to sources such as the HistoryChannel.com and Biography.com where “credible information is found just as easily as on Wikipedia.”