By Noman Sohail
Wikipedia is a great source of information and now a day’s people gets lots of information from this source. Wikipedia provide huge collection of any article that has been search by user. Wikipedia can help a person to find and discover many ideas about a topic that he needs to write about. In our education system we still focus on text books. No doubt the text books are very effective for us but there are some weaknesses in it like, the text book has lengthy publication and thus will certainly include outdated information as part of the final product. Books never use to update by anyone but on the information on the Wikipedia updates regularly. Today the students don’t like to read text book because if they need information on any topic they go through lots of material. Sometimes they found information about their topic but sometime not while Wikipedia provide exact information about our need. Now, the educators are moving towards supplement text book with other information from the internet.
I personally think that Wikipedia is a web site that has become one of the most useful and biggest websites on the Internet because there are many causes. The causes are that Wikipedia helps researchers to get information very easily, contributes to spreading the information and knowledge, and allows everyone to write and discuss his opinions and subjects. The other benefit is that everyone can participate in Wikipedia either by writing or discussing any information or article. But many teachers believe that Wikipedia is not a trusted source because anyone can write articles and edit information anytime.
However, these people are forgetting something important. Students can take out information from Wikipedia, and then they should verify if the information is true or not. My opinion about Wikipedia is that it is a modern encyclopedia that contains a lot of information. In reality, this site is a source that helps students, teachers, researchers, workers, to find a lot of information and many articles about their subjects that they need. Also, it contributes to spreading new information and knowledge around the world in different languages. And also it allows us to share our ideas, and many people can discuss them. Finally, I think that Wikipedia is one of the best sites on Internet where many people can get benefit from.
Think, Analyze & Share 
Sure enough the content on wikipedia is not authentic and the sources are questionable but as far as i am concerned it is as close to the truth as i care it to be. I dont care what the teachers say because half the time what they say is jib’ but i am lazy and i never in my right mind would spend hours flipping pages in a library when i can scroll through a few tabs in minutes to get what i am lookin for.
But lets be honest here. I have been using wiki for some time now and never have i come across an error to devious to spare. Its just the minute detail that gets mixed and last time i checked all the Newtonian laws are written correct.
plus its just research and not plagiarism. you take the idea then make a write up. But most importantly wiki is a hug place. its swarming with data, it deals with diverse subjects and based on the nature of assignments given its more than adequate to cover it up. Seriously i am not writing a doctoral thesis its just an essay on the importance of friction. On a side note regardless of the instructions i always go to wiki and if the teacher finds it too horrendous an act then i just dont quote it in the references. wiki is not globally popular because its inaccurate and teachers hate it its popular because it is efficient, resourceful, time saving, and is open to dialogue and sharing plus discussions.
Muhammad Wajeeh Ahsan
Yes! the above article just represents the reality that wediapedi is used nowdays by the students for thier assignments.However it can be not considered as an authentic source of information.Its always good to check the information from other sources as well.As far as my experience is concerned I use wikipedia for my assigments and projects.Whenever I compare the information with other sources the information the wikipeda is providing is correct,.The area which should be appreciated that they the type of language and words they are using can easily be understood by the people.One do not have to look up for the words in the dictionary.In comparion with other websites they are using the words that are difficult to understand.Moreover information provided by wikipedia is correct,precise and revelant to the topic.The main advantage from which I got benefit was that sometimes I do not get the information from other soucrces it is available on wikipedia.The fact cannnot be ignored at all anyone can edit the information we do not know whether the are giving us the right information or not? its always better to look the required informatom also from other sources.Teachers discourages thier students to use wikipedia.The main reason is because they do not want that their kids to rely on the single source rather they should search for the different websibets.As there are variety of webisites available according to the subject matter.Last but not the least it can be regarded as an effective source.Therefore wikipedia is popular among students however relying on one source is not prefect.
No doubt Wikipedia is a helpful thing to students. Easy to access, time savage, efficient, loads of helping material. But we cannot close our eyes on this fact that the material on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone. So, it is not reliable and authenticated. We cannot trust completely on this website. If we got some material on this, its authentication should be check on other websites in order to avoid errors. I personally never believe on Wikipedia. I always search for other links.
I agree with the article , this discussion is almost the same as we have done for e-books/printed books. Using wikipedia is really very helpful as we can take out information about our every queries and even if we don’t get the exact information about something g wikipedia by using Internet atleast provide us with some sort of views or information of it. But if we go for reading books it will take more time and we won’t even get something out of it in more time as printed books are of limited pages so it contains a limited amount of information while wikipedia is more useful because of its vast account of information. I didn’t find this article much intresting as almost the similar article we have already done for dicussion. And wikipedia also gives the option of related sites so that we can checkout for as many info as we want.
i disagree with Noman with the statement that Wikipedia is used by scholars, researchers and teachers to pass knowledge to students to enhance their learning outcomes.its my own experience that researchers never rely on Wikipedia information. they always go for the registered websites or registered servers. Although i agree with the point that to get an over view of any topic it is a very helpful website. it help students in classrooms to search out brief information on any topic within few seconds in the class which save time and provides information on any topic.
There’s nothing more convenient than Wikipedia if you’re looking for some quick information, and we may get what we need from Wikipedia. The fact that Wikipedia is not a reliable source for academic research doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to use basic reference materials when you’re trying to familiarize yourself with a topic.Wikipedia is a general encyclopaedia. At college or university level, the professors are looking for more than general rudimentary material. General encyclopaedias usually give baseline information, the type of common knowledge that isn’t usually cited. Academic subject specific encyclopaedias will often provide more scholarly and citable information. There is no way to know who is editing the entries in Wikipedia or what his or her level of expertise is. You cannot be sure that the content is permanent. We cannot be sure that the content meets standards of academic accuracy.
Ammar Husnain Khan
Well I would say that yes wikipedia is useful in some ways like time saving, easy access and as Ammar said that if we want quick answer of something, wikipedia is the first thing to go for. I personally use wikipedia when I want quick answers or definitions of some concepts. But yes, its’ authenticity is a big concern for everybody, especially when we are writing any academic paper. we can’t just rely on what wikipedia says about something, we have to verify the information taken form some other source as well. Also I would like to comment on the point that you can find anything on wikipedia, to me thats not true, because it has happened to me two three times that I went to wikipedia to search something and I couldn’t find that answer for that. I think peer reviewed articles are the best for researchers specially.