1

UNCG

Fifth Grader Use of Wikipedia

Pamela Chappell 11/24/2008

Fifth Grader Use of Wikipedia

As any 5th grader from the late 80s early 90s will remember the rare trip to the computer lab was a chance to play The Oregon Trail with the green and black computer screen, and we thought it was awesome! In my middle school typing class we used actual typewriters and it was not until 8th grade that we used a computer for anything other than a game. While in high school my family got our first computer. It was mostly used for typing papers and an occasional search on the internet, which would take hours to come up. In my first year at a community college I was finally introduced to Excel and PowerPoint. Now 5th graders use the computer lab on a weekly basis and have classes on how to use Excel spreadsheets (among other things). For example, Betty Pendley, the Computer Lab Specialist at Clemmons Elementary, had a lesson where 5th grade students searched for items online at Toys-R-Us and plugged the prices into an Excel spreadsheet that also calculated sales tax. Each student was given a certain amount to spend. They had to come as close as they could to the amount without going over. By plugging in the numbers the students learned about Excel formulas, searching online, and mathematics. My point here is that children are more computer literate than they were fifteen years ago. Not only are people becoming more computer literate at an earlier age, but the computer (or the internet) is becoming a more popular choice for information. Information is available more quickly and in greater quantity than ever before. An encyclopedia is almost non-existent in homes today. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is consulted by more than a third of American adult internet users.1 Many information professionals see Wikipedia as a problem. Others see it as a tool to teach information literacy. Diane Murley, Web Services Coordinator and Reference Librarian of the Ross-Blake Law Library at Arizona State University, is correct in stating that students are going to use Wikipedia no matter how many people tell them not to use it.2 This brings to mind two questions: 1. If more than a third of adults are using Wikipedia, how many children are using it? 2. If information professionals deem those who use Wikipedia in dire need of information literacy, and children are already using Wikipedia, why not teach information literacy at an earlier age? Our society has accepted that computer literacy is necessary as early as elementary school. My purpose here is to make a first step in determining the possible necessity of information literacy as early as elementary school. Clemmons Elementary is one of forty elementary schools in the Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County School System.3 If these results merit further research this project could be carried over to the other thirty-nine elementary schools for a solid conclusion on the issue.

Wikipedia and Information Literacy

At the time of this study, other research related to 5th grader use of Wikipedia and their need for information literacy was not accessible. Current literature focuses on the debate of vilifying the online
1

Lee Rainie, Wikipedia: When In Doubt, Multitudes Seek It Out, Pew Research Center Publications, April 24, 2007, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/460/wikipedia (accessed September 14, 2008). 2 Diane Murley, In Defense of Wikipedia, Law Library Journal 100, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 593-9, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047e841ab1e3a181 c233a760af937ca4043c2d72b9f9c0b683b&fmt=H (accessed September 14, 2008). 3 Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools, http://wsfcs.k12.nc/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=14830 (accessed October 13, 2008)

encyclopedia or using it as a tool to teach information literacy. Kathy Ishizuka quotes Robert Eiffert, a librarian at Pacific Middle School in Vancouver, WA as being critical of the content. I see holes in information, poorly written, incomplete, and inaccurate descriptions that seem to stay while other problems are fixed.4 Yet, two years later in his own article Eiffert concludes: Bottom line: Subject to ongoing critical review, Wikipedia articles are generally well-researched and substantiated by footnoting and linking to sources, allowing readers to judge the quality of information being used. Moreover, Wikipedia entries often have more, and more current information. That said, no resource can be considered infallible, including Wikipedia. Ultimately, reliance on any single reference will not help students develop the necessary understanding of a subject that's needed to success fully complete projects. It seems that as time passes, more and more information professionals view Wikipedia as a tool to teach students about information literacy. For example, Diane Murley appreciates Wikipedia as a good tool to use to teach researchers about the necessity of evaluating sources.5Adam Bennington feels that *i+nstead of demonizing Wikipedia as a poor research tool, academic and school librarians should use it as an occasion to teach information literacy skills.6 And Travis Hampton, a Media Specialist at Longfellow Middle School in Indianapolis, sees advantages to Wikipedia. He says, Many times the articles in Wikipedia spark new ideas and provide helpful links or references . . . Used in isolation, it is insufficient for research, but I would argue that any encyclopedia is.7 Yet it is clear that there will never be a consensus. To illustrate, Adam Bennington notes that the history department of Middlebury (Vt) College notified students in February 2007 that Wikipedia could not be cited in papers or exams, and at least one system, the Warren County Regional School District in Warren County, New Jersey, has blocked access to the site on its computers.8 Jacquie Henry, a library media specialist at Ruben A. Cirillo High School in Walworth, NY, has concerns about her high school students using Wikipedia so much. *Experienced researchers+ know enough to compare what they see on Wikipedia with other sources, she explains. I am helping high school students to develop their critical skillsbut they are not there yet.9 One may question why they are not there yet. Perhaps by the time the student reaches high school the bad habits have had years to set in. Perhaps information literacy should be taught at an earlier age, before the student is in high school. Granted, it would not be on the same level as a college student, but it seems better to teach the student correctly instead of saying this is okay for now and then try and change what they have learned when they get older. For some, the problem is bigger than Wikipedia. Jacqueline Hicks Grazette expresses her concern over Wikipedia on high school and college campuses as part of a broader concern over students dependency
4

K. Ishizuka, The Wikipedia Wars, School Library Journal 50, no. 11 (November 2004): 24-5, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047078950860e6c6 4875649c144ada92b704c55dc60dfe6a0c4&fmt=H (accessed September 14, 2008). 5 Murley. 6 Adam Bennington, Dissecting the Web through Wikipedia, American Libraries 39, no. 7 (August 2008): 46-9, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047e841ab1e3a181 c2377ef7c25c144bf5be8de4eaf16211713&fmt=H (accessed September 12, 2008). 7 Ishizuka. 8 Adam Bennington. 9 Ishizuka.

on the internet.10 Doug Achterman quotes Stanley Wilder as saying, The typical freshman . . . assumes that she is already an expert user of the internet, and her daily experience leads her to believe that she can get what she wants online without having to undergo a training program.11 Achterman also references a 2003 Wellesley College study by Panagiotis Metaxas and Leah Graham. It found that 63 percent of students asked to list Microsofts top innovations used only the companys web site as a source. On a straightforward reference question, 78 percent failed to verify their answers with a second source.12 The study concluded that students in this survey placed greater emphasis on the process of finding an answer than on analyzing the actual information.13 Yet whether they are yay or nay for Wikipedia, or one of those that see a problem with the online culture of the up-coming generation, not much is said about children. Lauren Barack quotes Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, as saying Wikipedia is really not aimed at children.14 At the end of her article she also quotes Wales as saying, We do not strongly encourage teachers to suggest their students to post to the site. Its meant more for advanced high school students and higher.15 It seems possible that Wales is cautioning against young children editing on Wikipedia but not necessarily against using Wikipedia, as Barack suggest in her article. Regardless of the creators intent there is no ban on children using Wikipedia. So the questions remain. How many children are using Wikipedia? And if information professionals deem those who use Wikipedia in dire need of information literacy, and children are already using Wikipedia, why not teach information literacy at an earlier age? I hope to make a step in that direction.

Methodology
This report is based on the findings of a questionnaire taken by ninety-four fifth graders at Clemmons Elementary. The questionnaire was answered in a classroom setting of the Clemmons Elementary Computer Lab under the supervision of Betty Pendley, the Computer Lab Specialist. The questionnaire process took place between October 16, 2008 and October 31, 2008. The approximate ages of the students studied are ten to eleven years old.16 The questionnaire can be divided into two parts. Part one asks three questions to determine how many students have a computer at home, how many have internet access at home, and how many use the internet on a regular basis. These questions were asked with the assumption that they may have some bearing on the students answers.

10

Jacqueline Hicks Grazette, Wikiality In My Classroom, The Washington Post, March 25, 2007, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed November 13, 2008). 11 Doug Achterman, Information Literacy: Surviving Wikipedia: Improving Students Search Habits through Information Literacy and Teacher Collaboration, Knowledge Quest 33, no. 5 (May/June): 38-40 http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047fdd2b280b32ac4 64e5c73521a42278ea5d76f60b7f87925e&fmt=H (accessed September 20, 2008). 12 Achterman. 13 Achterman. 14 Lauren Barack, Wary of Wikipedia, School Library Journal 51, no. 10 (October 30, 3005): 30, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047fdd2b280b32ac4 64f31ab65552bbb5b6c5370798fc463a2c&fmt=H (accessed November 13, 2008). 15 Barack. 16 Please see Appendix A for a copy of the questionnaire.

Part two consists of two questions with space to detail how the answers were obtained. For both questions the directions stated: Please answer the following questions using the internet. You will need to document how you found your answers (search engines, websites, etc.). On preliminary test subjects it was clear that there was an urge to answer the questions without using the internet. This concern was stressed to Betty Pendley when she was given the questionnaires. Both questions were chosen because they were related to a current event. A current event was important because of the page rank of a search result. Stacy Schiff notes, . . . Wikipedia pages contain so many links to other entries on the site, and are so frequently updated, they enjoy an enviably high page rank.17 That being the case, I knew that there would be an enormous amount of new information about the presidential election. To be fair, I felt this would give other sources a chance to beat Wikipedia on page rank, compared to the possibility if the topic was Christopher Columbus. Also the questions were integrated into a class where kids vote for the 2008 election.

Data Analysis
Only about 60% of students used online sources for their answers. For the purpose of analysis the responses have been placed into two groups, Not Online and Online. Percentages will be listed in parenthesis unless otherwise noted. For example: (50%, 50%) = (question 1, question 2). Part one of the questionnaire will be discussed after part two to see if computer or internet usage at home had any bearing on the results. Q1. What is the name of one person running for President of the United States in the 2008 election? Q2. What political party does the person above belong to?

Q1/ Answers

Not online 41% Online 59%

17

Stacy Schiff, Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?, The New Yorker, July 31, 2006, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060721fa_fact?printable=true (accessed September 17, 2008).

Q2/ Answers

Not online 40% Online 60%

Not Online
For both questions about 25% of the non-internet sources said they already knew the answer (known). These responses were like I all ready knew, in my brain, and my memory. For question one 12% did not answer the question. For question two 17% did not answer the question. A small percentage of students stated their sources as radio, school, or newspaper/magazine. For both questions the majority of students who did not use online sources received their information from the TV/News (approximately 40%). Parents was the second most popular source (17%, 10%). Please see the charts below for further comparison.

Q1/ Not online

Known 25%

No answer 12% Parents 17%

TV/ News 43%

Radio 3%

Q2/ Not online

Known 24% TV/ News 39% No answer 17% Parents 10%

School 5%

Newspaper/ Magazine 5%

Online
For both questions Google was listed as the number one online source (61%, 54%). Wikipedia came in second (12%, 11%). Specific online sources other than Wikipedia were listed (19%, 17%). Therefore, 69% of students only listed a search engine or an unspecified online source for question one and 72% for

question two. Search engines other than Google were Yahoo (3%, 5%) and Nettrecker (2%, 3%).18 Unspecified online sources (3%, 10%) included answers like I looked it up, search engine, and internet. Please see the charts below for further comparison.
Yahoo online aol.com 3% (unspecified) 2% ask.com 3% 7% nick.com/kpp 2% myfoxwghp.com Nettrecker 2% 3% kidsvotingnc.com 2%

Q1/ Online
cnn.com 3%

Wikipedia 12%

Google 61%

online (unspecified) 10% Yahoo 5%

ask.com 3% aol.com cnn.com 1% 5%

Q2/ Online

nick.com/kpp 2% newyorktimes.com 2% Nettrecker

Wikipedia 11%

3% kidsvotingnc.com myfoxwghp.com 2% 2%

Google 54%

18

Nettrecker is a search engine available via WS/FC schools. Students are encouraged to use this search engine. Betty Pendley was curious to see how many students took advantage of Nettrecker. Based on the results of the questionnaire it was only a small percentage.

Looking back to the question of how many children use Wikipedia we could say only 11-12%. Yet, due to the fact that approximately 70% of the online sources were search engines for both questions the results are inconclusive. A closer analysis will reveal the error of making a solid conclusion. The best way to demonstrate this is to look at the specific answers of five students.19 These five students listed Google as their search engine but they also listed what they searched for. For question one a search was processed on Google for presidents 2008, 2008 canidites,, and a president running. Wikipedia came up as the first web page listed for these three searches. Another student searched for people running for president. Ask.yahoo.com came up as the first in page rank and Wikipedia was not listed on the first page at all. For question two a search was processed for John McCain by two students. Wikipedia came up third in page rank after two listings of johnmccain.com. When a student searched for Obama Wikipedia was again third in page rank after two listings of barackobama.com. Another student searched for barak obama political party and Wikipedia was the first web page listed.20 A question remains of how many students who listed a search engine ultimately obtained an answer from Wikipedia. The Pew Research Center notes that . . . Wikipedia has become the #1 external site visited after Googles search page, receiving over half of its traffic from the search engine (please see graph below).21

19

One student answered only question one in this format, three students answered both questions in this format, and one student only answered question two in this format. This is how there are five students but only four answers for question one and four answers for question two for analysis. 20 Please see Appendix B for images of these search results. 21 Lee Rainie, Wikipedia: When In Doubt, Multitudes Seek It Out, Pew Research Center Publications, April 24, 2007, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/460/wikipedia (accessed September 14, 2008).

Based on the prior research of the Pew Research Center it seems at least possible that a portion of the students who listed a search engine as their online source could have received their information from Wikipedia. Part one of the questionnaire asked three questions to determine how many students use the internet on a regular basis. These questions were asked with the assumption that they may have some bearing on the students answers. 1. Do you have a computer at home? (Y/N) All students surveyed said they had a computer at home. 2. Do you have internet access at home? (Y/N) A total of six students did not have internet access at home. Of those six, three stated that they used the internet rarely while the other three did not answer the question. Five of the six students without internet access at home answered both questions correctly with the sixth student not answering the questions at all. The first question was answered once with Wikipedia, twice with Google, and twice with a non-internet source (parents, and "known"). The second question was answered once with Wikipedia, twice with Google, once with an unspecified internet source, and once with a non-internet source (news). Therefore, it would seem that internet access at home does not influence a student's results in any way. 3. If yes, how often do you use the internet? (Dailey, Weekly, Rarely) Given the fact that 97.9% of students answered the questions correctly, it would seem that internet usage had no bearing on the results in any way. Only two students answered a question incorrectly. The first student named Barack Obama as a 2008 presidential candidate and his political party as Republican. This student used Ask.com as the source for both questions. The second student named John McCain as a 2008 presidential candidate and his political party as President. The second student used Google, Nettrecker, and myfoxwghp.com for sources for both questions. Both students had internet access at home and used the computer on a daily basis.

5th Grader Familiarity With the Internet

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Number of Students

Do you have a computer at home? 94 0

Do you have internet access at home? 88 6

If yes, how oftern do you use the internet?

Yes No Daily Weekly Rarely No answer

37 32 22 3

Conclusion
The fact that 40% of the students did not answer their questionnaire with online sources was disappointing. When discussing this issue with Betty Pendley she said that although we had discussed the urge of the pre-test subjects to answer with non-internet sources that she was careful not to coach the students in any direction and I can respect that. The goal here was to see where 5th grade students would get their information online but other compelling outcomes were revealed. For example, it was interesting to see that such a large number of students relied on television for their information and that having the internet at home and regular internet usage had no bearing on the students answers. Another possible flaw in the research was the selection of the current event questions. The presidential candidates were such a hot topic that the students were well aware of who they were. Surprisingly a large number of students knew the candidates political parties without looking it up on the internet. A better question could have been, What is the name of one person running for Governor of North Carolina in the 2008 election? It could have just as easily been incorporated into the class where kids vote for the 2008 election and not have been such a popular issue. The results of this research project have brought more questions than answers. For one, while it is clear that 5th graders know how to search on the internet, it is uncertain that they really understand what they are doing. For example, do they understand what a search engine is? Do they understand that a search engine brings them to a list of other websites? Do they understand that when they click on the link that Google brings them to that they are on another website? This is a basic understanding of internet searching. The American Library Association defines an information literate person as one who must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. It seems clear that the majority of 5th graders studied are in the stage of learning to locate information. This research project seemed more aimed at the need for learning to evaluate sources, such as Wikipedia.

In conclusion, while it was found that only 11-12% of 5th grade students found their answers from Wikipedia, there remains the possibility that the percentage is in fact much higher. This is due to the fact that approximately 70% of students only listed a search engine. Further research with a better structured questionnaire would be necessary to determine how many 5th graders use Wikipedia. Yet learning that 5th graders need to learn more about locating information, it may be more beneficial for further research to focus on 5th grade students locating information and middle school students learning to evaluate information.

Bibliography
Achterman, Doug. Information Literacy: Surviving Wikipedia: Improving Students Search Habits through Information Literacy and Teacher Collaboration, Knowledge Quest 33, no. 5 (May/June): 38-40 http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047fdd2b 280b32ac464e5c73521a42278ea5d76f60b7f87925e&fmt=H (accessed September 20, 2008). Barack, Lauren. Wary of Wikipedia, School Library Journal 51, no. 10 (October 30, 3005): 30, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047fdd2b 280b32ac464f31ab65552bbb5b6c5370798fc463a2c&fmt=H (accessed November 13, 2008). Bennington, Adam. Dissecting the Web through Wikipedia, American Libraries 39, no. 7 (August 2008): 46-9, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047e841a b1e3a181c2377ef7c25c144bf5be8de4eaf16211713&fmt=H (accessed September 12, 2008). Grazette, Jacqueline Hicks. Wikiality In My Classroom, The Washington Post, March 25, 2007, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed November 13, 2008). Ishizuka, K. The Wikipedia Wars, School Library Journal 50, no. 11 (November 2004): 24-5, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c704707895 0860e6c64875649c144ada92b704c55dc60dfe6a0c4&fmt=H (accessed September 14, 2008). Murley, Diane. In Defense of Wikipedia, Law Library Journal 100, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 593-9, http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2072/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e376f00f68b9c7047e841a b1e3a181c233a760af937ca4043c2d72b9f9c0b683b&fmt=H (accessed September 14, 2008). Rainie, Lee. Wikipedia: When In Doubt, Multitudes Seek It Out, Pew Research Center Publications, April 24, 2007, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/460/wikipedia (accessed September 14, 2008). Schiff, Stacy. Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?, The New Yorker, July 31, 2006, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060721fa_fact?printable=true (accessed September 17, 2008). Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools, http://wsfcs.k12.nc/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=14830 (accessed October 13, 2008)

Appendix A

Please answer the following questions. 1. Do you have a computer at home? 2. Do you have internet access at home? ____ Yes ____ Yes ____ No ____ No ____ Weekly ____ Rarely

3. If yes, how often do you use the internet? ____ Daily

Please answer the following questions using the internet. You will need to document how you found your answers (search engines, websites, etc.) 1. What is the name of one person running for President of the United States in the 2008 election? _______________________________________________________________ How did you find your answer? _______________________________________________________________ 2. What political party does the person above belong to? _______________________________________________________________ How did you find your answer?
____________________________________________________________________ Thank you for your participation.

Appendix B
Appendix B