Are blogs and wikis reliable sources for students?

I wish I could give you a simple answer, but there simply isn't one for a question like this. Blogs and wikis CAN be reliable. They provide a great opportunity to teach students how to determine whether a source is reliable.Any source that has a research able author or an author who provides credentials, citations, or information that is supported by multiple sources or research studies can be a reliable source. This includes blogs and wikis.Unfortunately, just because they have these things (blog, wiki, or not) doesn't mean the source is necessarily reliable.

The most important thing is to teach our students how to analyze sources. Once they can analyze a source and prove it's credibility, they can analyze a blog or wiki and determine whether it is a reliable source.

"No Wikis!"

In my opinion, the hesitation for teachers to allow the use of blogs or wikis as reliable sources is because anyone can write or edit one. For example, if I wanted to, I could change all of the dates on the Wikipedia page about the United States History. This potential to give students incorrect information is enough to declare no wikis! I also believe the popularity of blogs and wikis come from the ability for anyone to participate. Unfortunately, the popularity has caused fear from teachers for misleading students.

Blogs and Wikis: to be, or not to be!

I believe blogs and wikis should be allowed as sources depending on the activity. The most important thing teachers can do is educate students on how to tell if a source is reliable or not. Once students can do that, they can determine whether a source is reliable enough for the project or activity they are working on. A student working on an argumentation essay about abortion will definitely need to be able to detect bias in a blog before deeming it reliable. Any source containing an agenda is unreliable because information is often displayed in a way that makes their opinion favorable. The information might be true, but the presentation is not. In my own blog presentation, I used a blog that could be called questionable. The blog had no specific author; meaning there was no way to determine the credibility of the authors. The authors did however use 9 citations, including our textbook: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classroom by Will Richardson. The fact that the authors connected their ideas to facts and the ideas of experts made the blog more reliable. 

Conclusion in a sentence

Blogs are appropriate for student's research as long as students are taught how to properly analyze sources for credibility.