With or without Wikipedia? Integrating Wikipedia into the Teaching Process in Estonian General Education Schools

Abstract

Today’s education has been shaped by the rapid development of digital technologies and easy accessibility to a large number of electronic sources. This has instigated a genuine need to change current teaching attitudes and practices. Wikipedia, as a multilingual online platform open to all, is a source of information that is used on a daily basis and therefore cannot be ignored in the teaching process. The aim of this study is to explore the possibilities of using the Estonian Wikipedia for teaching purposes in general education schools. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 49 teachers from 11 general education schools in Estonia. The results of the qualitative content analysis of the interviews indicate that teachers consider the use of Wikipedia to be a suitable for teaching, alongside other information sources and environments. However, teachers acknowledge some uncertainty and caution towards Wikipedia, as they do not consider it a very reliable teaching tool: an attitude largely inherited from the early days of Wikipedia. While teachers themselves are active and frequent Wikipedia users, and allow students to search for information, they do not assign Wikipedia-based text-creation tasks to students. The results of this study provide a basis for discussion about integrating Wikipedia into teaching in a way that is accessible, engaging, and inclusive for students.