In my experience, the key for student research projects is not the source of the article (Wikipedia or Google, etc...), it's the quality of the sources referenced in the article. If the Knol has references that are credible, students should be checking those out. Personally, I'd need to see what the overall quality of the articles were on Knol before I'd allow it in a research paper. For instance, information on King Arthur at Wikipedia is very good, whereas info on George Bush or some other current public figure, is more likely to be vandalized.
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In my experience, the key for student research projects is not the source of the article (Wikipedia or Google, etc...), it's the quality of the sources referenced in the article. If the Knol has references that are credible, students should be checking those out. Personally, I'd need to see what the overall quality of the articles were on Knol before I'd allow it in a research paper. For instance, information on King Arthur at Wikipedia is very good, whereas info on George Bush or some other current public figure, is more likely to be vandalized.