As the digital age takes root, more and more students use the internet to acquire information for their studies. Common sources in Sweden are online encyclopedias like Wikipedia, SO-rummet and Nationalencyklopedin (NE). Seeing as these online encyclopedias can fill the role of teaching aids it is prudent to examine their contents to evaluate if they hold up to the standards established by the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket). Focusing on the subject “religion” and the topic “Judaism”, this study evaluates the contents and framing used in the main articles about Judaism from both Swedish and English versions of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia as well as the Swedish sources NE which is state sponsored and the commercial actor SO-rummet. Additionally this paper discusses how these sources compare with the central contents of the course Religionsvetenskap 1 (Religious Studies 1) for Swedish upper secondary school. The results show that the articles from NE and Swedish Wikipedia mostly state facts without elaborating and are more likely to give the reader a homogeneous picture of Judaism. SO-rummet is the most beginner friendly source while English Wikipedia is the most nuanced but perhaps most difficult source for students to comprehend. Generally, the sources fail to portray diversity within the tradition, with the exception being English Wikipedia. The sources that compare the best with the central contents for Religionsvetenskap 1 were in the following in descending order: English Wikipedia, SO-rummet, Swedish Wikipedia and lastly NE. This is problematic because previous studies show that students have greater faith in NE than they do in Wikipedia. It is worth keeping in mind however, that students are likely to use more than one source, especially if it is a group assignment. It is up to the teacher to recommend good sources, fill in the blanks and to guide the students with their own teaching.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-494255 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Mårtensson, Christoffer |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Religionshistoria och global kristendom |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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