Wikipedia? Devilpedia!!

I hate wikis. Wiki books, wiki pedia, whatever. The very term alone equates laziness and inaccuracy, and it is not a little disconcerting that teachers are relying so much on wikis in their classrooms.

People go to college to learn--they get their Master's and PhD's and become experts in their discipline. THEY should be the ones who are putting the information out into cyberspace--not someone with limited knowledge. Furthermore, teachers are so reliant on wikis that they are neglecting critical skills along the way: research, disseminating information, finding credible sources. This is such a disservice to their students, and creates a cycle of laziness. When the teacher relies heavily on wiki-whatevers as the source of information, they are being lazy in their job. The students in turn are lazy because they don't know how to properly research or find information.

Finally, the idea that students should type instead of writing because it's easier for the teachers--what a slippery slope. Why teach writing at all? and with that, why teach spelling, since a computer will "catch" it for us? Computers are not the be-all and know-all; they know what the user knows. Spell check will not catch the difference between "Its a cold day" and "It's a cold day" because both spelling of its/it's is correct. The USAGE is what is wrong. Computers breed laziness.

Maybe I am more of a Luddite than I realize.