I selected the above named Edublogger to read because this blogger is a High School Math Teacher. I read a posting of his titled, ""60 000 times faster than text" . . . Really?" The post was VERY interesting. He received a request from someone asking for the citation of this supposed "fact." The requestor mentioned that the statement is used so often but the source to the statement could not be found. Daren did some sleuthing himself which lead to some circular references. Eight days later from the request and he still has not found the source of this overly used statement. I got a couple of takeaways from this incident. First, with the increase use of the world wide web over these past 20+ years, more and more individuals have access to the internet and resultantly can publish virtually anything that she/he wants whether or not the information is true. While this provides another means of communicating and exercising freedom of speech, it also results in the promotion of false information. And for some odd reason, there is a portion of the population that assumes that whatever is posted to the internet is true, and that is not always the case! That is why teachers, initially (back in the day when I was growing up) did not allow us to cite references from the internet. Now, using references from the internet is more widely accepted with the understanding that careful consideration has been taken by the student to ensure the validity of the information source. Which leads me to my next takeaway. Teachers who utilize methods of inquiry to promote the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills in their students, are helping to equip students with the skills necessary to be able to make such determinations because they will not take everything at face value.
LOVE your last sentence. This is, in great part, what fuels our teaching of information literacy skills and strategies over at the School of Information!
ReplyDeleteLakeza,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your thinking here. And I so remember when teachers would not allow any research citations from the internet. Nowadays, my fiance who is in law school has a full section in his citation manual about internet sources! When I do my own research it is very easy to become buried in the amount of junk out there on the internet. I agree with you that the critical thinking and analysis skills that we should teach our students will be sharpened by having them critically utilize the wealth of information available on the internet. If they can use their thinking skills and find the gem they are looking for on the internet, they will also be better prepared for learning in general.