Reliability of wikipedia use as a source of school research

Abstract

Internet and its medias have been stimulating new means of producing and sharing intelectual means, working on the process of production of human knowledge. The revolution over production and diffusion of knowledge, universally solidified, opposes and defies conventional means. Such affirmation justifies the need to verify its possibilities, limitations, efficiency and applicability on academic environment. The purpose of this research is to analyze the use and acceptance of Wikipédia as a trustful reference resource to scholar papers on higher education. For such, the inquiry applied data collection by using questionnaires, with the participation of students and teachers of a university in Santa Catarina. The results obtained indicated that, beyond other aspects, most students use Wikipédia as a source of research and most teachers accept this reference, however not normally indicating it, revealing a process of development of significant credibility of this source.