I argued a little while ago that Wikipedia, even if flawed, presents a great educational opportunity. At the very least professors could assign students entries and have them search for any possible errors. This assignment, though, may not be as easy, or as fruitful, as I originally thought.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Wired Campus: Right on, Wikipedia" (December 8, 2006) Thomas Chesney at the University of Nottingham has done studies that "suggests that the accuracy of Wikipedia is high."
If this is true, then it both corraborates, and follows from, the thesis of James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds, ( Anchor Books: New York, 2004, 306 pp.)
As Surowiecki tells us, there is a "simple, but powerful, truth that is at the heart of this book: under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them" (p. xiii).
Just a thought.
BK
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