social learning

Cathy Davidson's op ed for the Chronicle of Higher Education on the "banning Wikipedia" controversy at Middlebury College

Middlebury College has used the History Department's decision against citations to Wikipedia to hold a forum on the role of this resource in learning. I hope other educators will follow suit. We need to understand. Be informed. And fight for the internet we have now. We could lose it through legislation and increasing corporatizing. If universities don't take the lead in protecting what we have, they have failed us all.

Middlebury did not "ban Wikipedia," as the media suggested. It's more subtle than that. But I want to go one step further. We should be celebrating communal efforts like Wikipedia . . . and doing all we can to ensure that the internet is not policied and regulated out of existence. More regulation could lead to "banning" Wikipedia, and all of the resources we currently enjoy. I'd like a movement to "protect Wikipedia"!