"Wikipedia rather tends to be a nuisance from the point of view of Estonian teachers. When students search the web for information, they first stumble upon Wikipedia, and teachers feel they rely on it too heavily," said Riina Reinsalu, lector of Estonian at the University of Tartu. While some teachers allow students to use Wikipedia as one source among many, students often rely solely on what the online encyclopedia has to offer.

An earlier study by Reinsalu, assistant professor of education sciences Marvi Remmik and their colleagues found that teachers in Estonia use Wikipedia both personally and professionally, including for preparing lessons, finding information during class and teaching students to make responsible use of the open source tool. In their recent work, they had students fill out a questionnaire online.

The paper, which relies on the answers of 381 Estonian 9th and 12th-graders, looks at students' habits when using and their general attitude toward Wikipedia. Students in both age groups have experience with research in the form of the creative paper required in grade 8 and the 11th-grade student research project. "We learned that a lot depends on the teacher. If teachers trust Wikipedia and tell students about its dangers and shortcomings, it reflects in the students' activities," Remmik pointed out.

A young person opens Wikipedia once a week

Among 11th-grade students, 85 percent said they've used Wikipedia for a school assignment. "Students also said they use Wikipedia to find information based on their personal interests. For example, they might want to know more about a band, singer or other celebrity," Marvi Remmik added. Sixty-one percent of students have turned to Wikipedia outside schoolwork.

While teachers' answers had previously suggested that students make use of Wikipedia regularly, according to the latter's answers, it is closer to once a week, Riina Reinsalu noted. Five percent of students said they use Wikipedia every day, 51 percent said they turn to it a few times a week, while 30 percent said it's a couple of times per month.

"Interestingly enough, female students are more likely to use Wikipedia and it is more popular among twelfth-graders than those in ninth grade. Even though there has been little research on the use of Wikipedia at school, earlier works have suggested it is more popular among boys and younger students.

Students believing that the English version of Wikipedia is more trustworthy than its Estonian counterpart Vikipeedia was another surprise. "While their use of the sites is largely half and half, the English version is slightly more popular," the lecturer pointed out. Forty percent of students said they prefer the English site, while 37 percent go for Vikipeedia. The rest are happy to use both.

Remmik said that students noticed more inconsistencies in Vikipeedia than its English counterpart. "They gave examples of history where some dates differed in Vikipeedia." While 98 percent of students said they have used English Wikipedia, only a few also reported having visited the Russian, German or Finnish variants.

Generally, students find Wikipedia easy to use and rather characterize the encyclopedia as timely, trustworthy, simple, and sporting correct language. "It seems they place quite a bit of trust in Wikipedia," Reinsalu noted.

Because students consider Wikipedia a trustworthy source, they tend to overuse it in their schoolwork. That is why teachers usually provide guidelines for how to make use of Wikipedia, the researcher said. "For example, it cannot be the only source used in a research paper."

Some students admitted to making factually incorrect changes to Wikipedia just to see what would happen. "But their feedback was positive in that it seems an eye is kept on Wikipedia. The students' piggery was corrected relatively quickly," the assistant professor remarked.

Wiring an article would spark critical thinking

The study revealed that students' use of Wikipedia largely depends on their teacher. Many said they've only learned of the negative sides of Wikipedia from their teacher. Riina Reinsalu suggested that even that is a step in the direction of raising awareness. "If there are discussions about the downsides, perhaps the conclusion will be drawn that Wikipedia is not the right tool for every assignment," the researcher said, adding that it may be realized that the online encyclopedia helps find information for less demanding tasks, while it is not suitable as a source for a research paper.

Being too fond of Wikipedia has caused various difficulties for students. "It was pointed out that if all students use the same source, teachers immediately know where the information came from," Reinsalu said. Other students said that while Wikipedia is a great source, copying text from there carries over links and other formatting, which points to students' modest digital skills. "In other words, if you ask students to look for information online, they will turn to Wikipedia first to get the assignment done quickly," the lector noted.

As demonstrated by the earlier teachers' study, the latter use Wikipedia mostly when preparing lessons on how to find information and be critical of sources. "We could take a step further and have students try their hand at writing an article [for Wikipedia]. They could write one together if doing it alone is too difficult," Reinsalu recommends.

Editing and writing an article would give students a better idea of how Wikipedia as an online environment functions. For example, problems encountered by previous authors might come up. Also, seeing a misattributed article might help young people understand that by simply copying text, one also copies the mistakes. "The more students know about the resource, the more aware they'll be of its weaknesses."

Marve Remmik says that efforts to raise awareness should start with teachers. "History, geography and literature teachers are the most likely to use Wikipedia. It came as a surprise to me that relatively few arts teachers directed their students toward Wikipedia," she explains.

On the one hand, teachers do not trust Wikipedia to offer credible information. However, a methodical toolbox for making use of the site also seems to be lacking. "NGO Wikimedia Estonia has put together various interesting trainings for teachers. Schools could make far more use of this opportunity," Remmik said.

Reinsalu referred to a series of articles in the Oma Keel magazine called "Vikipeedia koolitunnis" (Wikipedia in class) which also offers tips on how to use Wikipedia for lessons. "There is no way to ban Wikipedia, and teachers make use of it themselves, some more openly than others. Students should be introduced to the possibilities offered by Wikipedia through specific assignments," she says.

Marvi Remmik, Riina Reinsalu and colleagues published their work in the journal Education Sciences.

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