Lee and Sachi Lefever have once again created a great video that educators should watch. Wikipedia Explained by Common Craft uses Common Craft’s In Plain English style to explain how Wikipedia works. The video explains how Wikipedia entries are written, updated, verified, and maintained. Watch the video on Common Craft.

Applications for Education
Wikipedia, somewhat unfairly, too often gets bad-mouthed by educators that don’t understand how the content on it is updated and edited by a community of users. Because of that lack of understanding some educators don’t allow students to access Wikipedia at all and are therefore depriving students of a general reference. I’m not advocating for students to cite Wikipedia in research papers, but I do think that it can be a good place for students to start digging for information.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Textbooks, Wikipedia, and Primary Source Research
Mashpedia – The Real-time Encyclopedia
VisWiki – Visual Wikipedia