America’s future leaders, ladies and gentlemen.

Disable javascript, or press the stop button on the browser before it loads the blackout page. 

Early Western pioneers, like Robert Stephenson, can only imagine what it would have been like to have the Internet ( or ball point pens or storebought paper ) when doing schoolwork.

The schoolmarms would have been mighty proud of the young’uns homework for sure.

Go to the library you jokers!

Guess they should have listened to the founder of Wikipedia and done it the day before 

They’re call books. Remember? Probably not.

First world problems.  

if you use wikipedia for school, you deserve to fail. 

There is a place called a library, it contains Encycolpedias, it has helpful matrons who can show you where in the stacks these wonderful tomes are.  Sarcasm has its place in helping kids learn. I also remember a CD disc from 10 years ago that had an entire encycolpedia on it, but this dell won’t read it. Have to reboot the old Compac /windows 95.

My experience with wiki is limited but I looked at it in reference to an old movie Mrs. Miniver. The synopsis offered was unlike the movie I’d just viewed not one hour before checking wiki

Scary thought that. They’re not taught critical thinking skills.  A bastardized form of education.
These are our future leaders?  God help us all. 
What I found interesting,  people who tweet frequently? Socially, in a one on one venue, they’re awkward, stilted in speech . 
Realizing the magnitude the Internet has played, I still wonder if it in a way it has replaced what we in a social setting would naturally pick up as cues…guiding our future interactions in social situations.
 A give and take, an exchange of ideas, instead of what we witness here…a sound bite, broken down to it’s most common denomination.

From the tweets above it appears that “f**ked” is the adjective of choice for students – funny- that’s how I feel knowing that the youth of today are relying on a website where the information and “facts” are user generated. I have used the site many times, I like it – but have found not all the info reliable. It has become the “cliff notes” of the 21st century.

 Right – except who has anywhere near the number of books on hand that Wikipedia’s articles provide in information.  Do you?

If I had wikipedia when I went to college, I could have spent about 10% of the time I had to spend researching information for assignments,,,

are they not aware of Encyclopedia Britannica?  Here’s a help for those flipping out of the blackout: 
http://www.britannica.com/

It’s actually more accurate than Wikipedia.

Just can’t trust Wiki. I prefer the Library of Congress online

I walked into our school a couple of years back, I was appalled. All these kids, computers, no paper in sight. Very quiet, they all had the strangest vacant look on their faces.
Do you realize they are also given the answers? Of course, it’s on the honor system.
Instead of mentally figuring out an equation, the answers are provided.
Computers are the next best thing to sliced bread, but in this area, I cannot agree. I would contend even the teachers are not challenged, which leads to laziness.

And incompetence, coupled with tenure, is where we find ourselves today.

No kidding. Louis CK once commented that if the Armageddon happened, everyone born post-1990 would be fucked; we wouldn’t know how to light a damn fire.

The DOE is not educating young minds, they are using carefully selected and designed software to program them.

Wikipedia’s mobile site is not blacked out. Just access from your cell phone or replace “en.wikipedia.org” with “en.m.wikipedia.org” in the URL.

I agree!!

And who had a hand in that? Soros. Also what Texas was in an uproar about, Dood.

What school would allow you to use Wiki as a source? Why would you want to use Wiki as a source anyway? Wiki is like CliffNotes!

As you type online.

Interesting thought. I wondered why unnatural lefty discourse has degenerated into one sentence attacks and name calling. My old Poli-Sci teacher could argue both sides of a political question with passion and civil discourse. I sat in his class for 2 semesters, had coffee with him, and to this day 40 years later, do not really know if he was liberal, conservative or libertarian. What he really taught was critical thinking.

After the blackout page appears, hit Backspace, then when it reloads the page you wanted, hit the Esc key.
Dayum… I’m an old fart and it took me about 3 seconds to figure out… maybe those kids NEED to stay in school a while longer.

Um… I’m not doing homework… no need to be at a library looking up material!!

God forbid they have to crack a book! The horror. The horror.

Apparently these kids never heard of a Library or a Paper Book or an Actual Encyclopedia.

Disturbing.

You’re absolutely right.  Some colleges will not allow students to source Wiki on their papers as some of the information is incorrect.  And schools just don’t want their students to go to  cheap sources for content they teach in classrooms. 

So sorry kids.  For one day you might have to learn how to read a b-o-o-k at a l-i-b-r-a-r-y.  

Are you prepared to drive 5 million pissed off teenagers to the library so they can learn the card catalog?

Me neither.

The worst generation (s).  With the …wrong stuff.

Sure, if they chip in for gas and buy me lunch!!

Not by much. I believe Consumer Reports did a study on Wikipedia’s accuracy and compared it to the printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. They found that Britannica was about 95% accurate on the kinds of subjects that would be required for high school and college papers. Wikipedia wasn’t accurate, but it was still at least 90% accurate.

Also, the opinion of Wikiedia’s accuracy is mostly limited to the English version. In other languages, like German, Wikipedia is trusted much more as a valid source.

We knew this would happen, but it’s still kind of funny to see these kids flail around, not realizing there are other options available. Around here the semester ends tomorrow, so it’s kind of a big deal for kids who haven’t finished their reports yet.

But, man… the number of people here who are standing on their porches and shaking their fists at the punks complaining about the loss of Wikipedia is astounding. However, I think that anybody who doesn’t know how to properly capitalize or punctuate a sentence forfeits his or her right to complain about people who are using Wikipedia to learn instead of to win bar bets.

Without wikipedia how will teabaggers revise history?

If a kid is doing a history paper how will he find out that Paul Revere was actually warning the British?

Really? Without Wikipedia there isn’t any more information
on the internet. If you can’t find the information you want on the internet
then you should visit a library.

Propecia Attorney
http://www.propecialawyer.org/

^5

Just another example of the disdain the liberal websites have for liberals.
It must be a racial thing.

I am just ecstatic that you haven’t blamed it on Bush….YET!!

Please try to stay on topic or at least make sense with your comments.

Sorry if you can’t grasp my intellect and have to resort to inane comments.

WHY ,,,,,,,,,,,, WHY ………..WIKIPEDIA  ?

Soros. LOL! Talk about lack of critical thought. You have exactly NO proof to back up your claim. Do you even remember what proof is? Nah. Your brains were gone long before the DOE.

People who keep saying to read books are hypocrites. How far is it to your nearest library? An hour’s drive? How well-stocked is it? Does it have anything on Alexander Arsene Girault, an obscure American entomologist? How up-to-date? Does it have anything on the Costa Concordia disaster? Do you even have a library card?

Don’t get me wrong. I still read books. I still love libraries. And something people don’t realize is that a lot of the contributors of Wikipedia are librarians. As for those who keep saying Wikipedia is “inaccurate” and all that, learn to read critically. Wikipedia itself has warnings that it should never be used as a primary reference. Like paper encyclopedias, it’s a tertiary source. And you never use encyclopedias as references for papers or research ever.

At the bottom of each Wikipedia article is a list of references. THAT is what you should use.

Ah, as a fellow student who uses Wikipedia a lot, I have to ask people not to see the examples above as my generation’s representative. Most people, I am sure, can figure out how to get around the blackout if the have to, because IT TELLS YOU HOW TO WHEN YOU CLICK THE LINK THEY PROVIDE YOU. I just copy and pasted form Wikipedia:
“Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?
Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn’t to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it’s okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.”

are you kidding me? so… those kids haven’t heard of the library? my sister’s able to do her research work without wikipedia.. c’mon!

If you’re referring to the fact that they’re fucked, then I agree. 

Or penicillin or medical treatment that didn’t involve leeches or opiates. 

O crap. You mean they had to go to a (shudder) library?

Your first inclination is to denigrate? It was in all the news, you do your homework, it is not up to me to educate you.

He quotes Huffy Post as a source. That says it all Barb.

Once apon a time, this was true in more cases than not.

I think it’s tied in with the “instant gratification”, thing we have in culture now….I want it!  I want it now!
Don’t expend any energy to  acheive what ever is the objective, thus providing clarity of thought , a sense of accomplishment.

Wow!  There could be a case made for : “it’s a acquired idealology, for some members of Congress have served almost since it’s inception (Federalized Education). Not excluding my own Senator. 

Actually, it’s based on a study done by the Nature magazine.  The study actually found that there are a third more errors and omissions in Wikipedia than in Encyclopedia.  That particular study proved that Wikipedia is actually a third more erroneous than Encyclopedia Britannica.

I’ve noticed a lot of the posters quote sources, either lacking in credentials, or an immediate and obvious bias to the left. The truth never enters the equation, or is not their goal in the first place.

As for the “facts”, you may cut and paste, quote all you want, it is still subjective.