Comments on: Wikipedia, Ogyu Sorai, and Academia http://www.openparenthesis.org/2007/09/10/wikipedia-ogyu-sorai Because these are the early days of a long revolution . . . Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:07:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John http://www.openparenthesis.org/2007/09/10/wikipedia-ogyu-sorai#comment-207195 John Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:38:49 +0000 http://www.openparenthesis.org/2007/09/10/wikipedia-ogyu-sorai/#comment-207195 I'm certainly a big fan of critical thinking over rote memorization - bit in the context of the article as a whole, I didn't get the sense Waters is any less interested in critical thinking than either of us. That's the same reason they also don't allow citing encyclopedias in general - tertiary sources with typically surface "general knowledge" approaches. Anytime you try to translate that into a rule for undergrads - the point it which it becomes "you can't cite wikipedia" rather than "unverified references will have a negative effect on your grade" - you loose some of the detail. I used to run into this problem in the classroom as well - even in the dark ages before Wikipedia students had a difficult time understanding the value of different kinds of references. Policies like this always came with classroom discussion about the rationale behind them, etc. I would imagine Waters did the same. I’m certainly a big fan of critical thinking over rote memorization – bit in the context of the article as a whole, I didn’t get the sense Waters is any less interested in critical thinking than either of us.

That’s the same reason they also don’t allow citing encyclopedias in general – tertiary sources with typically surface “general knowledge” approaches.

Anytime you try to translate that into a rule for undergrads – the point it which it becomes “you can’t cite wikipedia” rather than “unverified references will have a negative effect on your grade” – you loose some of the detail.

I used to run into this problem in the classroom as well – even in the dark ages before Wikipedia students had a difficult time understanding the value of different kinds of references. Policies like this always came with classroom discussion about the rationale behind them, etc. I would imagine Waters did the same.

]]> By: Tom Clancy http://www.openparenthesis.org/2007/09/10/wikipedia-ogyu-sorai#comment-206109 Tom Clancy Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:26:07 +0000 http://www.openparenthesis.org/2007/09/10/wikipedia-ogyu-sorai/#comment-206109 While I appreciate the problem with treating Wikipedia as an authoritative source in a college, Waters' stance suggests the point of classes is to memorize facts about the Shimabara Rebellion rather than to learn critical thinking. Another approach would be to make it clear any citation that proves incorrect would have a negative effect on a paper's grade. While I appreciate the problem with treating Wikipedia as an authoritative source in a college, Waters’ stance suggests the point of classes is to memorize facts about the Shimabara Rebellion rather than to learn critical thinking. Another approach would be to make it clear any citation that proves incorrect would have a negative effect on a paper’s grade.

]]>