Opposing Side- John Perrow

Wikipedia is a widely used online encyclopedia that contains a large amount of data and information concerning almost anything that has been a part of the world’s current or past history. While it is frowned upon by many professors and teachers as a credible source or reference, I have decided to do my research for this written assignment on the credibility and reliability of Wikipedia. After doing some research for this assignment, I decided to make an argument as to why Wikipedia should be considered a credible source. After stating my reasoning that Wikipedia should in fact be a credible source, I was challenged with looking at it from the perspective of those who see it as a non-credible source.  While looking at this topic from an opposing side, I can see why most professors and teachers do not allow their students to use Wikipedia as a source of information. Wikipedia is an Internet website that allows anyone to add or edit information about a topic within its database. Due to the fact that it can be edited by anyone who uses the World Wide Web, this allows false or misleading information to be added to the database, causing it to be inaccurate.  I can see now where professors can state an argument as to the credibility of the sources provided in the Wikipedia links.  While I am not brining the dedication of these editors into question, the sites that they pull their information from may not be correct either.  Anyone can post a website with information and present it in a professional fashion leading its reader to believe it is correct.  Unless the website is a government or educational resource, I can see where the reliability of the facts can be viewed as unreliable.  There are two sides to this argument.  You can either be for Wikipedia or against its use in papers.  I personally believe it should be allowed for a source of information.  However, I can also see where the professors are coming from.  If I am a college student looking for a college degree, how will I ever learn anything if all I do is type in a topic to the Wikipedia search bar and find what someone tells me is “correct and true”?  I will have learned nothing along the way, nor would I have performed any actual research to support my theories and thesis.  Looking at the topic through the professors viewpoint, I can entirely understand their argument and can potentially be swayed to even take their side.