Home Schooled, Will it be Wikipedia or Britannica?
Okay, you've got your hearts set on home schooling, and I whole-heartedly agree with that! The idea is no longer so daunting because of the resources easily available on the internet these days. The prices range anywhere from free to cheap.
Free: Wikipedia
Cheap: Encyclopedia Britannica - online version
I was scouring around the geekwire (web) looking for interesting stuff and stumbled across this dust-up between the editors of Britannica and Wikipedia, interviewed in the Wall Street Journal:
They both make some valid points about the pros and cons of each others article editorial methods.
And actually, when scientific articles from each encyclopedia are reviewed by unbiased experts both are about equal for numbers of mistakes per article.
Article from NATURE:
When I began perusing Britannica in my elementary school days,it seemed SOOOO DEEP. In later years my perception of Britannica changed. And today the idea of using Britannicas for serious research is a sophomoric delusion.
Wikipedia has it beat, hands-down. Wiki has over 1.4 million articles, over ten times that of Britanica's. And you'll get a lot more info from Wiki. Wikipedia is showing up higher and higher in my routine web searches. While I shyed away from it in its infancy, I now regularly use it.
My most recent comparison of the two encyclopedias was to choose a random word in the index of each and look at the articles. I chose "Abacus," purely out of the blue. I was astonished by the results.
Abacus, Britannica: (To read the complete article you'll need to have your credit card ready, $70, refundable, if you don't want the one year subscription.)
Abacus, Wikipedia:
Looks like Wikipedia is the obvious winner. In fact, Wiki is the 37th most visited website in all the web. Did I mention that it's free? And it's a terrific resource.
God Bless,
Denny
NOTE: We are still working on the directory of highly educational sites and resources for home schoolers. We should have a beginning post ready in a week or two. Thanks for being patient with us in these early days of our blog.
Our web-person, Denny, is filling in for David Goad who is travelling and doing mission work this month.
Free: Wikipedia
Cheap: Encyclopedia Britannica - online version
I was scouring around the geekwire (web) looking for interesting stuff and stumbled across this dust-up between the editors of Britannica and Wikipedia, interviewed in the Wall Street Journal:
They both make some valid points about the pros and cons of each others article editorial methods.
And actually, when scientific articles from each encyclopedia are reviewed by unbiased experts both are about equal for numbers of mistakes per article.
Article from NATURE:
When I began perusing Britannica in my elementary school days,it seemed SOOOO DEEP. In later years my perception of Britannica changed. And today the idea of using Britannicas for serious research is a sophomoric delusion.
Wikipedia has it beat, hands-down. Wiki has over 1.4 million articles, over ten times that of Britanica's. And you'll get a lot more info from Wiki. Wikipedia is showing up higher and higher in my routine web searches. While I shyed away from it in its infancy, I now regularly use it.
My most recent comparison of the two encyclopedias was to choose a random word in the index of each and look at the articles. I chose "Abacus," purely out of the blue. I was astonished by the results.
Abacus, Britannica: (To read the complete article you'll need to have your credit card ready, $70, refundable, if you don't want the one year subscription.)
Abacus, Wikipedia:
Looks like Wikipedia is the obvious winner. In fact, Wiki is the 37th most visited website in all the web. Did I mention that it's free? And it's a terrific resource.
God Bless,
Denny
NOTE: We are still working on the directory of highly educational sites and resources for home schoolers. We should have a beginning post ready in a week or two. Thanks for being patient with us in these early days of our blog.
Our web-person, Denny, is filling in for David Goad who is travelling and doing mission work this month.
Labels: abacus, britannica, home school, research, wikipedia
posted by David Goad at 10:32 PM
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