Wikipedia. So...how accurate is it?

When I had one-on-one conferences with my writing students, and I saw that they had drawn heavily on the Wikipedia, I would open up my laptop and show them a page, and then alter the information on that page in real time, adding misinformation in a way that was unlikely to be immidiately noticed.

I changed it back, of course, but it was a powerful example to them of just how easily someone with half a brain could alter an entry in a convincing and wholly misleading way.

I also showed them the Penny Arcade comic of Skeletor altering He-Man's Wikipedia entry. They didn't get it--the damn kids had never heard of Skeletor or He-Man!

Jam it back in, in the dark.