Alvin's Educational Technology Blog

Today Netvibes announced a new feature of their “start” page. Starting in about six weeks users can create pages and “share” them with the public. This isn’t anything new for “start pages” in general. Protopage and Pageflakes will already let you do this.

The second (and I think more important) new feature is the addition of support for custom CSS and HTML. This could put Netvibes up there with Protopage when it comes to making a completely customizable start page. I’ll have to wait and see if the three column “lock” is still a part of the new features.

Yesterday this post was in Slashdot. Should schools block access to Wikipedia?

I have blogged about wikis before. I only mentioned Wikipedia as an example of a wiki and didn’t elaborate on the content found there. It turns out I use Wikipedia often. Just last night after we watched a movie about Pocahontas, we went to Wikipedia to find out more information about the main character of the movie.

If you gain anything from the Nature article, it should be that Britannica had 123 factual errors. No one is talking about blocking Britannica because of this.

Wikipedia does suffer from “politically” motivated smearing. If someone is running for office, an opponent can easily add incorrect “historical” information to a biographical entry. You don’t have to be in politics to have something like this happen to your entry in Wikipedia. Adam Curry was accused of changing the Wikipedia entry about podcasting to give himself most of the credit for creating the phenomenon.

A Wikipedia article concerning Pocahontas, a person that lived 400 years ago, is probably safe from personal or politically motivated modifications. If you are concerned about accuracy in content, Wikipedia gives authors the ability to site resources of factual information.

I normally use Wikipedia for technical information. When I wanted a good resource explaining TCP/IP, Wikipedia was perfect. The external links found at the bottom of each article are often as valuable as the article itself. The Wikipedia article about YouTube has a link that compares more than twenty video services. I haven’t found a video comparison resource like the Wikipedia article any where else.

The best known comparison of Wikipedia content to a published encyclopedia is the Nature (paid subscription required) article published in December, 2005. This article said that Wikipedia was almost as good (BBC News, MSNBC) as Britannica when comparing articles about science.

Experts were given 42 articles of unknown publication. Eight “serious errors” were found – four from Britannica and four from Wikipedia. Overall, there were 123 factual errors in Britannica and 162 in Wikipedia.

Britannica immediately claimed the article was flawed and demanded the article be retracted. Nature stood behind the article and the research used to create it and never retracted the articled.

If you gain anything from the Nature article, it should be that Britannica had 123 factual errors. No one is talking about blocking Britannica because of this.

Blocking a site like Wikipedia undermines one of the most important lessons our students need to learn about information; with the almost unlimited volume of information we have, there is value in distinguishing accurate from inaccurate. This is a critical proficiency of the lifelong learner.

The days of reading something and automatically validating it as authentic are gone. If Britannica has 123 factual errors, can we count on any one resource? That should be the point teachers are emphasizing to students.

Since my post about Start Pages, I have been looking at different features of an assortment of web two-point-oh start page sites. Pageflakes has added a “student” version of a start page.

The Pageflakes people have taken many of the widgets that are applicable to an educational environment and consolidated them into a nice template. From the template a student can add a class schedule, enter grades from different courses and search for a job. The Google search has been adjusted to target books and scholarly searches. The rest of the page has standard items like a calendar and to-do-list. These would benefit a student as much as anyone else.

I still haven’t decided to switch from Protopage as my main start page. I have accounts on all the major sites. I’ve trimmed the number of feeds from my Protopage and it seems to be loading quicker. The testing continues…

Would you give a first grader $2000 to spend on decorating a bedroom? Neither would I. But I did spend $9 for a Webkinz that came with its own room and a pile of KinzCash. The Webkinz is a stuffed animal that comes with a personalized web site. Using the code on the Webkinz tag, an online account was activated and “Fuzzy” has a place to live online. The KinzCash can be used to buy things like decorations, furniture and even a swimming pool. With enough money, you can add extra rooms to the house. Don’t forget to buy food. If you don’t feed your Webkinz properly, she will end up at Dr. Quack’s office.

My daughter is now spending time on the web site doing odd jobs that earn her more imaginary money. Some of things she is learning aren’t so imaginary. First she has to manage a bank account that has already gone over $10,000. At first she was spending every penny on little things. Once she figured out that she didn’t have to spend every dollar as it came in, she started saving for the big ticket items. Today she added a kitchen with all the appliances. Now she can keep food in the refrigerator.

The “jobs” are really quizzes in math, science, social studies and language arts. She gets money for answering questions correctly. The harder the question, the more money the question is worth. She is up to $5 questions. Even at that rate, it takes some dedication to earn enough for a $2000 addition to the home.

There is also a safe “chat” feature. If you have friends with Webkinz, you can send them gifts and even have a Webkinz over to your house. The chat is safe because all the text is pre-scripted. The initiator of the conversation is given a list of things to say. The recipient is given a list of possible responses. It is all accomplished using only the mouse. This eliminates the possibility of someone asking for personal information or other objectionable questions. There is literally no typing that is possible.

For less than ten bucks, I don’t think I have seen something as entertaining or educational as this fuzzy little guy.