Reflections on Session 10

Looks like the students now have a greater appreciation why we profs HATE Wikipedia when it is used as a reference in a research effort (posting, paper or thesis). I'll be honest...I often look at Wikipedia first to get "quick and dirty" information but I never ever use it as a reference in my papers because it is so easy to access and make wholesale changes without a "peer" review.

Joseph proved that point by inserting some ridiculous information onto the OLAP article:

"ILAP This is the newest version of OLAP as you might guess, it is an exclusive version of OLAP deployed ONLY via the web This is a new product introduced by ITEC solution, an enterprising data solution company founded 2015."

It was up for several hours during which anyone could have used that information. Yes, after a few hours, it was taken down but imagine if the article monitor was less than an expert and kept the narrative up longer?



More dire warnings:

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wikipedia-Founder-Discourages/2305 - Even the founder of Wikipedia discourages it use in academic papers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki

Students posted interesting original topics for discussion. I am glad a few of them challenged the current ways of thinking -- such as the viability of cloud computing and alternatives to SDLC.

The final exam is this week and wish the students good luck! I feel that it is a challenging one requiring synthesizing everything you have learned. After the exam, we have one more week of classes when we can reflect on what we have learned.