Contribute in Honor of Teachers
December 19th, 2007We must admire the student who makes a profession of knowing and writing for they are the experts upon which our intellectual society depends. No doubt the student’s love of learning has been rooted in the work of at least one exceptional teacher. Kudos to that teacher for the spark.Kudos too for the teachers whose sparks only smoldered as their students moved on to a work-a-day world but have now been fanned into the blaze of amateur scholarship called Wikipedia. Yes, these students were also infected by a life-long love of learning and their teachers deserve kudos as well.
Note this simple fact: the economics of electronic distribution allows part-time, self-motivated learners to write and then be read. This is a good thing. It means that one need not give up on scholarship if one is unable to make it pay the bills. One must scale one’s projects accordingly but one need not stop in their quest to produce informed and articulate literature.
Teachers have produced more scholars than they realized. Hurray. Electronic distribution makes these scholars visible. Hurray.
As you browse Wikipedia and find your curiosity stimulated by this work, please think kindly on the author’s teachers and the investment in their education that society has made. And, as you think of them, remember that electronic distribution has made this possible but not without some cost and that it is only our contributions that keep Wikipedia going.
Right now would be a good time to remember your best teachers, make a Wikimedia contribution with comment recalling the spark they gave you, and then start on the writing project that would make them proud.
Ward Cunningham invented the Wiki style of collaboration in 1995. He has been a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board since its founding. He specifically remembers his 7th-grade social-studies teacher explaining the real politics present at the founding of Pakistan and had recently refreshed his memory on the subject reading Wikipedia. This post is his personal opinion, and does not represent an official statement from the Wikimedia Foundation.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:36 am
LOL, this post is kind of ironic given Jimbo’s recent comments about all those “bad” teachers that don’t let students cite Wikipedia.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:22 am
i visit your webside and i said let me contact you, i am a soccer player playing defines midfile so wish to request to the manager if is posible for you to invite me for a test march in your club if could get a chance to play in team.
i hope my applycation will be fevoreble.
thanks
ayuk-egbe george
December 19th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
[Remove section here before posting - just want to say please feel free to add appropriate links to Wikipedia articles prior to putting on blog.]
About halfway through this I was ready to argue the case that in a significant number of cases it is likely the influence of parents who teach children to read before they go to school. And, that those among them (parents), who pick the right toys to encourage creativity and lateral thinking have the most influence. Yet, there’s a teacher in my personal story somewhere - my grandfather. I don’t have clear memories from that early, but I’m assured by family members that as soon as I could walk he was dragging me round Chamber’s Street Museum in Edinburgh and getting me to push the buttons on all the models that showed how some of the grand engineering of the Industrial Revolution worked - and Scotland’s part in it. I do have fond memories from when I was just about to go to school doing exactly the same thing, probably going round the museum and marvelling at the scale of some of the exhibits and being infected with my grandfather’s enthusiasm. When you’re 5 years old a huge steam engine going full-tilt or a Van Der Graaf generator throwing out foot long sparks is pretty damn cool.
As you get older it gets easier to put experiences such as this in context and have an understanding of how they’ve critically influenced your development as an individual. I’m indebted to my close family for instilling insatiable curiosity in me from such an early age. The various Wikimedia projects give me (a) access to a wealth of knowledge that helps satisfy that sense of wonder and curiosity and, (b) a place where I can share what I find elsewhere and help satisfy the same curiosity in like-minded individuals.
So, the question is… Do you think that something like that is a worthwhile thing to support?
December 19th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
this article is best
teachers were,are,will be, honorable till the end of
human beings
December 19th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I teach Literature to 14- and 15-year-olds in Georgia, and virtually anytime you step in my classroom, you will likely find Wikipedia loaded in my browser. Wikipedia has been a lifesaver for me so many times… in the old days, teachers would get asked questions and occasionally have to answer “I don’t know.” The student’s curiosity will be forgotten by the day’s end, and the overworked teacher will never think to look it up. Now, thanks to Wikipedia, my answer is not “I don’t know.” It is “hang on a sec.” Within seconds, my students have the answers to their questions — and if they were curious enough to ask, they probably care enough to remember. Wikipedia as an educational tool cannot be overestimated. By supporting Wikipedia, you are supporting immediate, high-interest learning in our classrooms.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I have for many years contibuted to teachers thousands of dollars each year to pay their salaries and retirements. What I have recieved in return is a dumbed down America with an education system that produces a mass of people that cannot fill out an employment application nor balance a checkbook and that have no idea what the United States Constitution is all about. I think I have a refund due me.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Being a right discipline is foremost important to have come up with new methodology for life. A good teacher will always give its student the correct direction for self realization with its souls giving it a purpose for the divine sight.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
As a teacher, I’d like to say DO NOT CONTRIBUTE IN HONOR OF US. Every time I have a writing assignment, my students never fail to hand in something they find on Wikipedia that is simply not true. Until Wikipedia creates higher standards for editing, DO NOT CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING, PLEASE.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
the best, information, when you need it !!!!!
December 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
To Brian McNeil: no, I don’t think this is worthy of supporting, any more than a porn site.
Wikipedia is so sad. It’s supposed to be as reliable as other sources but when you look at who contributes what to an article (’history’), you’ll see people you wouldn’t want to entrust your jacket to for a second.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Hey why we should honor teachers is because all they are trying to do is make us learn.They cant help being mean but they just want you to learn by your mistakes and stop talking out loud.The teacher i honer is Mrs.Mary Anne Okey.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I dont hate teachers but why are you doing this?
December 20th, 2007 at 1:12 am
If I was a teacher and I found out that one person donated to wikipedia in honor of me, I would feel that I probably do not deserve to be a teacher! No respectable teacher supports wikipedia. This blog is an embarassment to the profession of teaching. Wikipedia is neither reliable nor well written. No person should ever go to wikipedia to do the type of research demanded by teachers. People who edit wikipedia are not scholars. If they were, we would be reading Encyclopaedia Brittanica, not Wikipedia.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Thank you for giving me the information about everything i needed.this is a great achivement for me.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:09 am
keep giving the gift of knowledge to make the world a better place.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:47 am
why donate to a product of some kind of autocraticlly web puplishing?
In my opinion the whole wiki-shit is some kind of showmanship of a small group of people who “knows all”
some (all?) critical and true opinions and infos (i especially refer to infos about real life persons “posted” at wiki…) are not even heard but deleted by the “commons”…
i just can hope that the whole wiki-shit is deleted soon. Some people even believe the things puplished in wiki are the whole truth and refer to it…
greez,
Spalter
p.s. the whole wiki-thing depending on “who “knows” something can puplish something and call i truth…” is bullshit.
get some books or talk to the people related to the information ur searching instead of counting on poor wiki-informations…
December 20th, 2007 at 4:05 am
The thing is, we all use wikipedia. Well, at least most of us here. So we should actually think that there are people who put together stuff on wiki. Ofcourse, I’m not entirely sure myself as I didn’t really read that stuff really carefully…
December 20th, 2007 at 5:40 am
I intended to contribute an ongoing modest portion of my wage to support Wikipedia until I discovered that our school’s listing was deleted by Wikipedia’s editors while other schools in our area received no such negative treatment. (Actually I’m now told that our school’s information was deleted several times in a rather impressive demonstration of editorial arbitrariness.)
We teachers at Linda Christas certainly do not feel honored by Wikipedia.
Leo Vazina, Math Instructor
December 20th, 2007 at 8:27 am
i tell that the environment must be saved
December 20th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I remember my favorite teachers. They taught me to think independently, to consider that everyone doesn’t think the same way and to respect other cultures and traditions.
What does Wikipedia do? Wikipedia relies on “consensus” to generate content. What does “consensus” end up being in practice? “What everyone thinks.” Is this knowledge? Does this represent the sum of all human knowledge? And is this should be something which should be sent to “help poor children in Africa”?
No.
To honor my favorite teachers, I will NOT be contributing to Wikipedia. They would be ashamed of me if I did.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
It is a good idea to encourage Teachers, so that they can contribute their efforts for the sack of student’s welfare.
Thanks again.
from: Abhivandan Mehta (PGT, Computer Science, KV-3, AF-II, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India)
December 20th, 2007 at 10:38 am
and thank you “wikipedia” for recognizing the potential in the internet. grow free access
December 20th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I am looking forward to Wikipedia contributions from the older schoolchildren in the One Laptop Per Child program. They will be able to tell the world about many aspects of their cultures, languages, history, geography, ecologies, health, economic condition, governments, and much more that is currently not available from any source. We in our turn are providing them with educational content the like of which has never been seen in human history.
At some time soon we will begin to see collaborations between schoolchildren in developed and developing countries, now that they can contact each other. The OLPC XO laptop software is specifically developed to support collaborative discovery. As it is more widely deployed, the opportunities for collaboration will grow much faster than the population served. The number of pairs of participants grows as the square of the number of participants. For larger groups, the options grow even faster.
So please support the children in any way you can. You can make monetary contributions here or elsewhere, or write and edit Wikipedia articles, free textbooks and content (here or elsewhere), articles on the Laptop Wiki at http://wiki.laptop.org/, or encourage your children to talk to other children around the world. And yourself to their parents, and your children’s teachers to their teachers, and so on. Think of what you know that poor children and their teachers do not know, and give generously of yourself.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:59 am
As teachers glide around the world, eduaction in world problems spread into safe hands. New teachers are now moving around the world away from culture and religeon with a huge natural resource driven from their desire to consontrate on environmental issues. The British will not tollarate the world’s programmers of past.
Our program has removed many aspects of world power controlled in the wrong hands. Teachers will continue to travel worldwide in protecting our reputation as world beaters in literature, volcabulary and world politics.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Recently my brother had a school project. I will not say the subject because it doesn’t matter, what does matters is that about 80 % of the info he got from wikipedia . A great site indeed . I was amazed of this , he is a bit lazy when it comes to school , but in this case he actually learned something . By browsing and searching info , he was able to learn more , i remember the last time we had to make him read a history book , hard task !
Anyway this was my story , and i want to thank you in his name
December 20th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
[uk]Hello - I don’t mean to criticise, but you might have got the internationalisation slightly wrong on this page. Much of the world will spell the centre word in the title as ‘honour’. fixing the internationalisation might help generate more donations for everyone’s favourite charity.
[us]Hello - I don’t mean to criticize, but you might have got the internationalization slightly wrong on this page. Much of the world will spell the center word in the title as ‘honour’. fixing the internationalization might help generate more donations for everyone’s favorite charity.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
i hate wikipedia because people can break into it and write whateever they want.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
people need to stop putting stuff on wikipedia thats not true
December 20th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
An important thing to keep in mind, as both an educator and researcher, is that Wikipedia (as good as it is), is not peer-reviewed, and by creation can be altered by anyone, and should not be relied upon as an exclusive source of information. This is a very common misconception by many of my students. Although I encourage them to look at this site to get some overall information, I then ensure that they also refer and check the statements in professional journals, peer-reviewed books, and other sources.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Solutation from teacher’s AFERDITA and LINDITA
wE WOULD LIKE TO WRITE YOU ,WE ARE TEACHER OF ENGLISH FROM CLASS V,Iv,Ix our as teacher is wonderfull but we appreciate more.We have graduate in high school foreign language of english and now we studying in kuadro of education but we like to continue studying in University of Vienna, we more be needed work,support,aid,shelter and your protection.Can you introduce which document is need to brought and which date and month time for applicatoin is?Please turn me responsible.
Yours faithfully.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Sophists… who needs ‘em?
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-if.html
December 20th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Wikipedia is the ultimate tool for the autodidact. He shall never ever contribute to our enemies: the teachers, the least useful yet most respected job position.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I know multiple teachers who would never talk to me again if I donated to wikipedia in their name.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:06 am
i think its ironic how teachers hate wikipidea but you guys are raising money for them
December 21st, 2007 at 3:07 am
Jeez: how many people are going to say idiotic things like “don’t contribute in the name of teachers, any good teacher will hate you for it.” Are teachers really that short-sighted that they conflate the utility of Wikipedia as a final source for a research paper with its utility for SPREADING KNOWLEDGE? Yes, if student’s write papers based solely on Wikipedia they may contain inaccurate information. So what? Don’t let them use it as a source. Why does that make it an unworthy charity? Why does that make it an unworthy encyclopedia?
December 21st, 2007 at 4:44 am
Donate money to teachers! They out to give us re-imbursements! Most teachers, but not all, are not worth a damn. This is including my own experience and having 3 kids graduate the American school system. High School was the worst!! The comment I most often heard is ‘my union says I don’t have to report anything to you’. God forbid that a teacher really work to guide and expand the mind of a child. It’s all about test scores and the American public school system is backward and slow to change. STOP building more schools! We are in the 21st century! CT teachers are overpaid and under worked. They are as ‘cheap’ as madonna living in their material world. Guidance counselors are a bad, if not a worse joke! But I hope they continue having their extra-marital affairs right in front of our kids. I hope teachers are soon replaced by intelligent life!
December 21st, 2007 at 7:51 am
Teachers are heroes. The teachers who had the greatest impact on me, and my education, upon learning that I donated to wikipedia, would speak with me about it.
Those who had a philosophical or practical problem with wikipedia would debate with me. They would take great care to logically support their position, and force me to use the same care in developing a rebuttal. Those who agreed with me that wikipedia provides a wealth of well-researched & well-written information might play devil’s advocate in an attempt to get me to thoughtfully formulate a reasoned, considered defense of wikipedia.
Not one teacher who had a positive impact on me - not one - would stop speaking to me on learning I donated money to ANY cause I believed in. Not one would think they failed as a teacher (certainly not before engaging me on the particulars of my donation and belief in the concept).
I would ask any teacher who would take such dramatic - actually, melodramatic - action to look within themselves in an attempt to recognize why they were responding to an act of benevolence and belief with such vehemence and emotion. That’s another aspect of myself that I was only able to develop at the prodding of especially good teachers - the art of introspection. I would respectfully request that those who posted negative comments about wikipedia - posters such as Evan and Jayne above - spend some time reflecting on this.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:39 am
i can say thats good to hourour teachears.iwould give u ma vote
December 21st, 2007 at 10:49 am
Hi, I`m a teacher - and i`m sorry HOW teachers beheave themself..
HOW they treat students. HOW they stop to learn new things HOW they blame kids
INSTEAD of DOING and KEEPing the student wins ON their STUDY.
THE REASON for BEING a teacher: HELP to get KNOWLEDGE and not to stop it -
THE MOST IMPORTANT: HELPING THE STUDENTs to achieve THEIR own GOALS
December 21st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
To call Wikipedia contributors ’scholars’ is nothing short of ridiculous. Any person can log on to Wikipedia and type anything they like about any topic, regardless of whether they have any knowledge in that field at all and regardless of whether what they are saying is accurate.
We seem to be in an age where everyone considers themselves an expert regardless of the fact that they may not possess any qualifications at all. Haphazard, adhoc ‘learning’ as one goes through life is ‘not’ an education. Wikipedia is ‘fast-food’ information that appeals to the lazy masses. In a similar fashion to fast-food it is junk and of little benefit on the whole. It cannot be counted on to be correct and is therefore not to be trusted. And honouring teachers? Please… the ploy of credibility through association is very transparent. Don’t give to Wikipedia if you believe in accuracy, truth, and quality.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Teachers are like poets… On an inventory quest to knowledge, honesty and truth caught in systems of school, education, politics and culture. Oh, did I leave out economics? That’s what’s of less interest because words count more than coins or notes.
I study both myself and let me tell you - it’s a long journey up the ladder
If I had money I would donate to some rare and special literature teachers and doctors I have come across at university but I would give it someone teaching in an unknown place in the world for a better cause we should appreciate.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
it’s really great work ……….thanks for everyone sharing in this work
December 21st, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Hmmm… seems quite a total “for” Wiki or total “against” it. I would like to fit somewhere in the middle.
The root of the trouble is that people treat Wiki as gospel and is quoted as such. Some people quote newspapers, teachers, parents, the “News” (and less so now, politicians)as being fact, but only find that what they thought to be true is not. I use Wikipedia a lot as a basis of information and I ask the students to judge the accuracy of the information given. This is an education in itself - giving skills in analysis and research and coming to conclusions.
My point is that each person, student teacher or other, using Wikipedia or any other souce of information uses it as it is presented, and not take it as truth. If one strictly needs pure fact, then find those written by who discovered those facts. Use Wikipedia first, then find it and prove it correct/wrong of course informing Wikipedia of their errors. This slowly provides a data base of information as perceived to be correct.
Merry Christmas!
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:49 am
Wikipedia will never replace or be nearly as good as an encyclopedia or book written by a scholar. However, as far as effort is concerned, (concerning accuracy and citations), they’re right up there with the best- at least they try to make sure everything is cited and if not, mark it for citation. Equally, for many around the world and in our own country, Wiki is the best or perhaps only source of knowledge in some cases. It can be homework help to the latch-key child, and at the very least it’s better than kids going online and doing mindless, nonsense. Additionally, where else can you find the up-to-date info on modern, current and pop culture topics? Wikipedia can at least qualify as an adequate resource. If nothing else, go down to the links and go to an official site!
Do I fully advocate the use of Wiki? No. Obviously if you’re doing a paper on “Saharan Tribes”, you should find a real book written by a scholar. But the underlying reason for which Wiki allegedly stands for is quite good: Free knowledge and,as you know, good marks (and athletics) can get a poverty stricken child into a better position in life.
Obviously your choice to donate is a personal decision- and there are better things to donate to-but I would implore anyone that’s on the fence about the whole issue, consider how you use Wikipedia. If you’re a well versed scholar or educator, then no point in donating. If you or someone know know doesn’t have parents or teachers readily available for homework help, then Wiki might mean a bit more to you. It’s level of importance is different to everyone, but hey, cut ‘em some slack. If you don’t like it, then just don’t donate to them and don’t bash them, just do the best thing and never use or promote it. I work in sales so trust me when I say that without word-of-mouth advertisement and referrals, you are doomed to fail! If you do agree with what Wiki does for the world, then do what you want to support them.
December 22nd, 2007 at 7:11 am
As a teacher, I only wish that Wikipedia would close off anonymous editing, since the only way to improve quality is to make authors responsible for what they write. I have been dismayed by many of the irresponsible things Jimmy Wales has been saying lately — all coming on the heels of him supporting a known liar (the Essjay scandal), and now a report that his organization is so irresponsible it entrusted over a million dollars to a COO who was a convicted felon and was subjected to NO background check at any time of her employ. This is not a project that would currently receive my donation, and I pity those who have already contributed money to such an irresponsible operation.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:20 am
I donated to Wikipedia for a couple of reasons; first of all I use it daily every time I search for good info about words and subjects. This is very practical, much more than reaching for the largest dictionary or encyclopedia in bookshelf to be listing in them. I get great results and faster on the Internet in Wikipedia. The plan should put needed things ahead, what else could do it, how else could they do it!? I agree they are right to say what they did and I see it honest as well.
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 am
I think I have flunked this subject…conspiracy is all around us if you the world has taught me anything in going to the school of lessons its do not beleive anything you hear do not take it to heart or they will eat you alive…The world is bassed on a book of lies..read the fine print and commputers are being hacked..and beleive it or not this isn’t relly what bothers me what bothers me is me donating to a cause that could actually be identity theift and has no link to anderson cooper but might have link to another test to see if I’m gullable to fall for it.
And if it really isn’t ooops I think your team does deserve to have a bilions of dollars and go safe the planet on my behave……………..sighned Heidi Ann Berg
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 am
I am very much in favour of Wikipedia, and it has been extremly useful to me in the past. But what does it have to do with my teachers? - Nothing. This is just another idea to get money out of people. If you want donations for Wikimedia you should stop bringing in completely unrelated topics. And if you want Wikipedia to be respected you should stop employing methods like these!
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
The best site ever for education and information.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I agree with Matt’s comment, and I’m glad that wikipedia is here, and being supported by the more open-minded among the educators of American children. As a software engineer that has seen far too many MS lemmings spouting the unreliability of open-source products, it is good to see an open-source living project like wikipedia so successful.
Could it be improved?
Of course! It’s constructed be people, so it’s imperfect!
Will it be improved?
Of course! It’s open-source, so subject to peer-review and revision. Teachers caring about their subject, and their students, should feel free to pitch in, rather than criticize.
I thank my TA in English Literature for her assistance, and her assertion that no single source should be allowed to stand unchallenged, whether that source be Wikipedia, or Encyclopedia Britannica.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
The teaching profession is one that should be honored and respected. As we know, it is not a profession one would choose if the desire to make money is of utmost importance. However, there are so many rewards that will come from a career in teaching in that it provides a wealth of accomplishments and the satisfaction of helping students to learn about the world they live in. Many teachers have had the experience of having former students come back to express their appreciation for the education they received while under their instruction. Needless to say, the experience of hearing a former student say “thank you” is piceless and generates a true sense of joy and satisfaction that money can never buy. It is vital to our nation to raise the bar on the value of good teachers and to promote the profession into a class that rewards the teaching profession with increased compensation and to honor those who have stayed the course as a teacher.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
If I wasn’t a non-theistic Buddhist I’d say “Thank God”.
Here’s an educator with the right attitude. Ask questions, verify the assertions of others, check multiple sources. LEARN how to read and study with a critical eye. This blog post appealing for support is aimed at people who can read Wikipedia, and do so critically. I’d like to thank each and every teacher or lecturer who instils these qualities, and a sense of curiosity into the students they teach.
The rest of you can go back to trying to create the Mark I Model Citizen.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Wikipedia is simply a quick reference to get an idea about what something is about….never taken with much validity..but a GREAT resource for those quick answers…like the rest of the web.
Being a teacher myself as well, I do allow use, but not as a source for research. It helps them get an idea what their talking about.
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
After i have Wikipedia i stopped approaching others if get into a situation where in i have a question. Kudos to Wikipedia. Cant imagine the world without that. First used Wikipedia way back in 2003 i think at that time its not so big like it is now. Most of my weekends i will spend writing in wikipedia. Atleast i will try to cleanup the stuff if i dont know much technically about that particular topic.
Thanks wikipedia.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Just wanted to let you know that donating in honor of teachers might be great except for the fact that teachers tell their students that they are not permitted to use Wikipedia because anyone can access it and change the information. However, most University classes will allow it. Doesn’t make sense.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Critics of Wiki seems to take one of two stances. Wiki is a godsend and useful source of information or, Wiki lacks peer-review and is inaccurate. You can’t generalise like this. Some contributions are subjective and of course such Wiki contributions will be prone to criticism. That’s what makes the study of literature and history so interesting; it is subject to personal interpretation. On the other hand, all physicists I have ever met have an insatiable quest for the truth and errors in physics related Wiki sites are quickly corrected. I have read virtually every physics related article in Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wiki beats them hands down for interest, content, interpretation and regular update. Wiki reflects the fluid nature of modern knowledge and has evolved from the communication provided by the globalised internet.
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
I am a teacher. I don’t let my students cite a site that is not peer-reviewed, edited by anyone, and often just wrong. And wikipedia should be ashamed of themselves exploiting teachers in their fundraising drive. If you really want to honor a teacher, do great things with what you learn in the classroom. If you want to honor us financially, donate to a REAL education cause.
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Wikipedia is not a reliable sourse of education especially when its related to politics .
How can the history of your people be written by others ?
i think each country has to write the histoey of its people .
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:25 am
I also advise my students to take wikipedia information with a grain of salt and thoroughly cross-check anything and everything they see here. I’ve contributed extensively to articles on subjects that I teach and have seen them chopped and otherwise corrupted by users who have no idea what they’re typing about.
This website is certainly an outstanding resource for getting started with research on just about any subject imaginable. But it’s only a start - further reading is definitely required.
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 am
Wikipedia is the beginnning - not the end, and certainly not a complete know it all Oracle of Delphi. Students who make Wikipedia their ‘end-point’ for a paper are the ones who are wrong - at the risk of sounding repetitious, Wikipedia is a starting point, not the final destination.
Collaborative accumulation like this may not appear definitive to many, but consider the amount of information that an article will hold ten years from now about an event today. I’m willing to wager that Encyclopedia Brittanica will find itself rather short-staffed if it tries to keep up.
Trust is always a problem - that is why you must look for citations, and then test those sources for accuracy. My understanding is that Wikipedia will evolve into, if it hasn’t already, a body of commonly accepted knowledge instead of a destination foe truth seekers.
To Wikipedia - keep up the good work!
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:21 am
To those who feel that our public educational system is falling short- as a teacher I can assure you that I would love to hold my students accountable for what they do not know and/or what they cannot do. More than half of my 5th graders are failing at least one subject. If the parents don’t care, how can we expect our students to? If you want better children, give me better parents.
Back on topic - I’d like to thank my senior year Lit teacher. He would often preface a lesson with the enticing statement, “This is something smart people know.” I hadn’t run into too many teachers who knew what smart people knew, but the one who did was a beacon.
Those who love teaching help others love learning.
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:41 am
It would be much better if students gave that money directly back to the teachers.
I’ve been teaching for 25 years and make only $33,000. What a joke!
Maybe I should become CEO of your company and embezzle funds as the current one probably has after her DUIs etc.
Tom Stillman
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:04 am
okay i think wikipedia can help but i dont think you should even mention the word teacher here i mean wikipedia could be changed by a 5 year old and then be read by a 30 year old and believe it so you could donate as charity but its stupid to use in honour of teachers as a motivator just say to help knowledge grow…
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:54 am
Why I will not donate to WikiPedia:
It is true that most scientific articles in Wikipedia are at least minimally accurate. However, when it comes to recent history, controversial figures, etc., the articles are written in such an “objective” way that they present pure disinformation. Needless to say, “objective” is a subjective matter, when it comes to political and controversial figures. Unfortunately, in Wikipedia’s case some of these educationally important articles (much more important than math, in terms of education) are controlled by some “dictator-user” who imposes his/her often one-sided, hypocritical views by continuously preventing any changes he/she doesn’t like.
Disinformation is much more dangerous than ignorance.
Until Wikipedia finds a way to deal with this problem, there is no way I will give my money for a disinforming encyclopedia.
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 am
Those who can, learn. Those who can’t make rude comments about those who try to teach them.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 am
I am baffled by teachers who note that their students use Wikipedia with bad results, then suggest that Wikipedia should not be supported because of its supposed poor quality. Yes, it is inconsistant and has some glaring problems, but it is still an infant. It is not going away by any means, and will likely continue to grow as a free source of information for your students. If you have concerns about the quality of the project, meet those concerns by improving it. If you support Wikipedia financially and/or with your own editorial contributions, you will find that this redounds to the benefit of learning minds.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:08 pm
When an individual feels compelled to donate funds of any amount , the underlying message in many cases may well be that they were moved on a deeper than intellectual level by an Instructor and for this reason feel compelled to donate. Why then is their not a field in the donation procedure by which the donating individual can site the the Instructor that had inspired them in their education? Thus leaving them with the intellectual or otherwise capacity to donate in the first place?
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
we are the first and only monthly magazine in the history of Pakistan since last 60 years. We publish our magazine to give voice to solve the problems of the teaching community of Pakistan from Primary to University stages.
If you want to publish any matter in our magazine about the teaching community of the world, we offer free pages for this purpose.
Best Regards,
Zubair Ahmed Khan
Chief Editor
Monthly Magazine “TEACHER”
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Teachers hmmm… They couldnt exist without learners now could they? Lets all live and learn and if wikiwhateva contributes then cool, but let’s not miss the wood from the trees here in net zone, which includes a very limited demographic in a global context. Teachers like all civil servants soon outgrow their ability to contribute beyond their own needs and pretty soon we rely on them too much. Learners are born every day and find it increasingly difficult to fulfill their natural ambition. Yes contribute … to learning, open source technology and the fundamental right to learning rather than education.
Christmas came for me on the solstice, no myth or legend required.
Ivan.
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Gone are the good old days, when teachers are teachers, Not todays Money hungry teachers we have todays in the colleges and Universities, Where students are awarded good grades bases on how much a student can pay in bribe or what gifted is presented to a prof. on his or her birthday.
Good teachers a long gone, What we have today are half baked and very materialistic TECAHERS.
December 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
How is this anything related to irony? There isn’t a tangible link if the groups being addressed by Jimbo aren’t the same people. Jimbo addressed “bad teachers” who disallowed it, but this is a testament to those who do use it and encourage their students to do so, and may also be something to evoke other teachers to give us a chance.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I find, as Matt and Brian above, that Wiki is an excellent way to quickly gather initial information on just about any topic. Left here, it equates to overhearing a conversation somewhere and basing your life’s decisions on it. The point is to question what you read and either refute it on the basis of better information or confirm it. Follow the footnotes! If there are not any, be careful!! Caveat emptor, except in this case it is usually free.
Certainly printed matter will not be able to keep up with new topics as well as this kind of media. The issue is how to best do this electronically to ease input, solicit contribution, ensure accuracy and facilitate and encourage distribution. Wiki seems to do all of these to some extent, but there is room for improvement.
I do find that the complaints about the validity of contribution and editing - a quality control - should be heard; it needs work. There are knowledge systems that address these issues, and this is surely an area of work, which requires FUNDING. Get it?
A teacher that accepts Wiki as a self-standing source is allowing their students to walk in danger of accepting a lie. A teacher who forbids the use of Wiki is putting their head in the sand and denying the potential.
A good first project would be to cite examples of good and bad information from Wiki and teach students how to use it.
December 24th, 2007 at 1:51 am
[...] ho iniziato a dubitare della filosofia di Wikipedia quando ho seguito il thread “Contribute in honor of teachers“. Molti interventi sottolineano che i contenuti Wikipedia si allineano al sentire comune e [...]
December 24th, 2007 at 4:31 am
I am a teacher. I work 10-12 hours a day and sleep the rest of the time to recover from being with second graders for 7 hours a day. I give all of me that I can give to my profession. There’s little left for my family. I am too tired for other activities besides work. I’m not complaining, but I do want people to know that there are very dedicated people who give their whole lives to their job. I feel fortunate to have a job that I am passionate about. My greatest desire to pass on my love for learning and reading.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:22 am
All these people bashing wikipedia like they know everything, well, y’know, Wikipedia might not be useful for them, but is useful for me! I might not be a scholar or have a Ph.D or whatever, but I find it useful, at the event of little curiosity, checking it, ending each day knowing something I didn’t know, it feels rewarding. It might not be handy on the case of a School paper, but then again how would I know, there was no Wikipedia for me back in the day of schooling. So,I say, give these guys (the managers) a break. If I am here now, communicating in what I expect (and hope) to be fully understandable English is, if not entirely thanks to sites like Wikipedia, yes to a good extend because of it.
This whole debacle Love/hate has, in my opinion, got seriously out of hand, what is there to critizice about Wikipedia? Lots of things, I might assume, judging from the attitude some of
these people have taken, but then again, is anything out there perfect? “A world where each person in the planet is given free access to information” Too much good wishing maybe, but what is there to hate so ferociously about a site focused on making this true?
As an inhabitant of the third world I have to appreciate Wikipedia for making me smarter. Go ahead and make fun of such statement, you rich people of North America, that happens to be truly how I feel. So yes, Mock me for turning over to Wikipedia when you guys surely have access to libraries and Encyclopedias and proper teachers that are fully reliable and whatever. Donate, or donate not, do as you wish, but cut out all the madness and pretentiousness for the good of us all. Please.
December 24th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I absolutely LOVE Wikipedia. Too bad the site is blocked on our school computers. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Is there a workable way around blocking the site and still protecting students?
December 24th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I am a teacher and I think the teacher who said that no respectable teacher would support wikipedia is crazy or just not highly educated. I love wikipedia. Haven’t you ever used a book/journal article for its references to find out where to read for further information? Wikipedia is a starting point. I have learned so much from Wikipedia! Is all of life’s learning about citations????? Natural learners appreciate all information not just the information you can cite.
December 24th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
the only way to improve quality is to make authors responsible for what they write. and now a report that his organization is so irresponsible it entrusted over a million dollars to a COO who was a convicted felon and was subjected to NO background check at any time of her employ. This is not a project that would currently receive my donation, and I pity those who have already contributed money to such an irresponsible operation. any one is able to edit the informaaton entred previously, it may creat the wrong impression of certain things.
December 24th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
i love my teachers and thank you very much i think they help us alot nd thank you for you all support i respect that and again thanks and have a merry christmas and a popin new years.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Great words Brian
Indeed people should check multiple sources for learning
Also to know how to learn(fast) is an art
Happy New Year everybody
December 24th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
On,December 19th, 2007 at 1:50 pm, K. Morrow wrote: I have for many years contibuted to teachers thousands of dollars each year to pay their salaries and retirements. What I have recieved in return is a dumbed down America with an education system that produces a mass of people that cannot fill out an employment application nor balance a checkbook and that have no idea what the United States Constitution is all about. I think I have a refund due me.
As a retired teacher of secondary school, I can attest to the fact that only when a population is uneducated can a government do what the current Bush administration is doing. Ms/mr Morrow, please look to what the laws and departments of education are doing. The teachers can only do so much.
December 24th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Hi,
Merry Christmas and happy new year. thanks for all your contribution. It is good to write and share ideas, knowledge.
December 25th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Despite many people insisting that Wikipedia is “garbage” and completely unreliable, I would have to disagree. Any time that I have come to Wikipedia for information, it has been there and been reliable. Whether I am looking up a type of plant, a disease, or anything else the information is always helpful. I have never seen a Wikipedia page vandalized unless it was specifically pointed out to me and I was given a link. When they do get changed to non-factual information, it is normally so grossly incorrect that you have no problem telling that something has happened, and the problem is normally corrected within minutes.
I agree Wikipedia shouldn’t be used as a source on essays and papers, but it is nowhere near being a complete writeoff.
December 25th, 2007 at 4:04 am
Hey, all you wiki haters out there! you may go on about how wiki is bad and is not crditable, but to you I say, find me one, just one, page of incorrect information. I dare you. my Email address is mindeater511@hotmail.com. until I see proof that wiki has the ablity to produce false information, Ill quit using it, but untill then ill just use the best encyclopida on the net.
Sam King
December 25th, 2007 at 8:42 am
I had such a teacher my freshman year of highschool. The class was biology, and I was a steady C student. She took me aside and asked me: “for one grading period will you just do your homework, for me?” I did. I got a 99.6 GPA that year in biology with no extra credit. Mrs. McQueen gave me the confidence in myself to be capable of whatever I want to do.
I recently got out of the Marine Corps as an air traffic controller. I would have never known the abilities I have if I had never met this woman. I thank her for this. Being that I’m a marine and it’s christmas time, I have a little something for the soldiers in Iraq, which I would have never been comfortable without Mrs. McQueen.
I hope you enjoy!!!
’twas the night before christmas (in iraq)
’twas the night before christmas as I button up my blouse
Not a creature was stirring because we traped the last mouse.
My black socks were hung on my boots with care
In hopes St. Nicholas would not be scared
The marines were nestled all snug in their cots
While visions of beer were chased by a shot.
Me with my rifle, Gunny with a pistol
Had just settled down, until awoke by a missile.
When out in the sand arose such a clatter.
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Threw on my kevlar to protect from the flak.
Strapped on my rifle, snug to my back.
The moon was full and hovering high over-head.
I thought to myself… I hope Santa’s not dead.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear.
But a miniature sleigh, and eight wounded reindeer.
With a little old driver, still alive and quick.
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than moartars his courses they came.
He whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
“Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now PRANCER! and VIXEN! On, COMET! on, CUPID! on, DONNER! and BLITZEN!
I was nearly shot, there’s no time to stall!
Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!
A sandstorm erupted as he flew away fast
as he shouted down “No presents today, screw you Iraq”
So up, out of range, the courses they flew.
With a sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I hear in the sky
the twisting and turning of a sleigh’s last flight
as I drew up my rifle, and was turning around
down came the sled, with a horrific sound
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot
and his clothes were all tarnished with sand and soot
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back
How was I to know what he had in his pack
His eyes, how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
If he takes another step, I’ll have to shoot this fairy
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
from afar he looked like Saddam in Santa’s clothes
a stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth
tonight is the night you and your maker will meet
he had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook, when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf
and I laughed when I shot him, in spite of myself
a wink of his eye, and twist of his head
I knew for certain, Santa would soon be dead
He spoke not a word, he went down with haste
poor old bastard filled his stockings with waste
Laying his finger aside of his nose
and giving a nod, to heaven he rose
we sprang to his sleigh, and looted it right
I would feel bad, but we have presents tonight
I heard him mutter, before he passed
“Merry Christmas bitches, kiss my ass”
December 25th, 2007 at 10:26 am
i agree with Yarcofin, Any time that I have come to Wikipedia for information, it has been there and been reliable. Whether I am looking up a type of plant, a disease, or anything else the information is always helpful. I have never seen a Wikipedia page vandalized unless it was specifically pointed out to me and I was given a link.
really, WIKIPEDIA is my best homepage, and i never search any Information on the Net, except Wikipedia.
December 25th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I’m a literature teacher of honors classes. While I find the site very entertaining and a good “overview” place to start when researching, my kids are forbidden to use anything on this site because the standards of validating documentation are almost non-existant. I teach my kids that primary sources are best, secondary sources are okay, and “Wiki” is like the Cliffsnotes to a novel. It’s okay to look, but don’t think it replaces the “real thing.” Wiki is forbidden fruit by most reputable teachers and professors I know.
December 26th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Who is really afraid of Wikipedia?
Such a laudable initiative should not be discouraged just because some teachers see it as a way of expanding the frontier of knowledge which they are unwittingly shrinking. Up wikipedia. Now to the issue of honouring teachers. There are many teachers I know who are worthy of honouring. One of them is my own teacher in the college, Dr Adejare Adeboye who taught me fluid mechanics. He is now a revered evangelist preaching the gospel but still remains a good teacher todate.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Ten years down the line, India can be a different if not a happy or sad story. We may take a cue from Das Kapital when we research more about the human capital which is grossly deficient in India at the expense of a few good trainers. Analyze this. The government of India still fails to recognize the education sector as an industry. Even the best managed private training institutions shy away from being called a corporate. The working in quite a few is almost similar, albeit with a difference in comparative paypackets. The corporate chauvinists also label these as pesudo-corporate and do not love to flex muscles with them because they are not on an even keel as per them.
So much for the attitude. The bottomline still remains that if we keep on ignoring quality education, ultimately the graduates, post-gradiates or the phd’s that we will churn out will not be employable. With all respect to the employed ones, then end up doing a shoddy job. Long term vision is forsaken at the altar of short-term profit.
Even insofar as prinamry education is concerned the situation is pathetic. The teachers are perpetually or habitually absent. There is a lot of brouhaha over the mid-day meal scheme but no emphasis on quality in primary education. Our roots are week and the stem seems to be prima facie strong at least as of now. The roots can hold sway and bring down the entire tree of our economy. if this happens we will not be able to branch out but will gradually phase out from the neo-cashrich sectors. Our cities are bursting at its seams. They are costlier and expatriates are finding it tougher to relocate to India. Almost all the metros and tier 2 cities have grown costlier as per a recent renowned agency survey. Cost apart, the infrastructure is creaking. Mr. Naik, CMD L&T, pointed out this issue by saying that IT is taking the sheen away from other sectors. His take was a good one and not biased. If you take away 8 out of 10 civil engineers, who will take care of the infrastructure? That same notion, I guess, applies to other sectors too. The flip side is that if you are not a part of a cashcow corpus, the ‘grapes are sour’ allegation bogs you down to critique on anything. Collectivism takes over and the individual gets damned. Ugly-goliath annihilates the real-life david with consummate ease.
However, the road less travelled can be a good one and it is optimism that is the prime mover in any perspective.
I wish that Indian economy looks up in the years to come and keeps on consistently clocking 10% approx GDP growth rate, below 3% inflation and what not. It should try to remove the greay areas as well so that nothing proves to be the nemesis.
By,
The Indian.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Just the other day, I came across an article that read the survey of Indian Labour Agency. (I guess this is it only:))It was about the plight of Indian industry grappling with the shortage of skilled manpower. It said that 90% of Indian graduates are unemployable and out of those that are, more than half earn a pittance. The problem is rather grave-lack of training. The roots of the problem have dug deeper into the malice of the parochial perception of the Indian society- the stigma associated with something that is sublime in deeds. The concept of training unfortunately still remains western. The traditional respectable ‘guru’ has finally become a jobless man devoid any good opportunity and forced to live the life of a teacher. That is the perception and the society cannot be blamed fully for it. That is the way practicality speaks. It is a rarity to find a technical or that matter even a graduate taking up the vocation of training for the love of it. Art for art’s sake funda does not apply here.
But the gap between skilled and unskilled workforce can be bridged with the help of training. We surely never expect the conventional University or school model to work properly in India. The are not to be blamed fully as they earn a pittance vis-a-vis their other equally cometent counterpart and live a life of anonymity or sometimes call it quits in frustratuion and try to seek greener pastures.
But the paradox is stark. It is a catch-22 situation. The industry will eventually lose out to the competition because of lack of trainers and the industry will never recognise the trainer. The government spends only 5.2% of its GDP to education. Despite all of this, we need a few good men who can rise beyond the hype and hoopla and become proactive to bring certain grassroot level changes. The training pedagogy demands a sea change. The primary education has to be targeted and any effort to improve it must be properly recognised, if not incentivised. There disappears the truant, serious, dull professor devoid of even the working knowledge of his subject. And here pitches in the new-age professional who knows how to corporatize the unorganized industry. The real trainer has to set the extra mile in his life’s marathon. He can inspire only by leading from the front and not just by feeling victimised and underperforming at the cost of the students. We need an army of trainers. Even training industry is undergoing metamorphosis. The signs of changes have started showing themselves and the trainer has started realising that his bootcamp has begun. Only thereafter can he can initiate a bootcamp for the protege.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:21 am
This blog alone has provided me an hour’s worth of entertainment. Regardless if you are anti- or pro-wiki, the fact of the matter is that YOU’RE HERE BECAUSE an article/blog has caught your interest. Isn’t a part of the quest for knowledge supposed to be staying objective and learning different interpretations? A few of my favorites:
“Those who love teaching help others love learning.” - deering
“As an inhabitant of the third world I have to appreciate Wikipedia for making me smarter. Go ahead and make fun of such statement, you rich people of North America, that happens to be truly how I feel. So yes, Mock me for turning over to Wikipedia when you guys surely have access to libraries and Encyclopedias and proper teachers that are fully reliable and whatever. Donate, or donate not, do as you wish, but cut out all the madness and pretentiousness for the good of us all. Please.” - Anon
“I do find that the complaints about the validity of contribution and editing - a quality control - should be heard; it needs work. There are knowledge systems that address these issues, and this is surely an area of work, which requires FUNDING. Get it?” - Mitch
“[uk]Hello - I don’t mean to criticise, but you might have got the internationalisation slightly wrong on this page. Much of the world will spell the centre word in the title as ‘honour’. fixing the internationalisation might help generate more donations for everyone’s favourite charity.
[us]Hello - I don’t mean to criticize, but you might have got the internationalization slightly wrong on this page. Much of the world will spell the center word in the title as ‘honour’. fixing the internationalization might help generate more donations for everyone’s favorite charity.” - Sean
Thank you everyone, I can now say I know more (not everything) of how people feel about dontating to Wikipedia - and that’s what this site is all about, isn’t it…
December 28th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Thanks for this great enlightment.I now have better understanding of the Wiki concept.I run to Wiki every moment for Information.Thanks a Million Wiki!Long Live!
January 4th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
[...] of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board since its founding. Ward’s previous request, Contribute in honor of teachers. This post is a personal opinion, and does not represent an official statement from the Wikimedia [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Contribute in Honor of Teachers, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Learn facts about the life insurance industry…
Information on the life insurance industry…