Crap Detection...Digital Native Skill Sets

In Howard Rheingold’s voice-thread he speaks a lot about the inter-relationship between skills (or illiteracies), personal trust networks and web tools to seek credibility on-line. He quotes a line by Hemmingway that, "Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him." What he claims is most important in today’s on-line world of mass information is the ability for people to detect whether a site or piece of information is credible. He uses the Martin Luther site example as one that aims to deceive its audience. I have seen teachers use this site as a teaching tool before. I am always amazed at how easily students believe what is written on-line; as if it were start from the Encyclopedia Britannica. How quickly did we move from a generation of students use to only searching for information in our public library, to one that sees that process as a waste of time? In a flash!

I agree with Rheingold that there is an urgency to teach young students the importance of crap detection. As much as the web has tried to assist with search and credibility; it is still in the rudimentary stages. I hope, like what Rheingold had alluded to, that one day there will be more plug-ins and web tools to assist on-line users with detecting crap on-line. I know that for myself I am guilty, like the children, of going on-line and for the most part not being the best detective that I know I can be. In terms of my teaching practice, this voice-thread was a good reminder of what I need to be aware of, and that it is important to pass this skill set onto a generation born into a wireless internet world.

I appreciated the Howard Rheingold’s on-line article. While I was watching the voice-thread I kept thinking how informative it would be to teach us how to be good detectives instead of just relaying the importance of being one. The article had more in-depth information to that extent. For example, I didn’t even think that my delicious account could be used as one layer of credibility detection. For my own professional research I was interested in how to detect crap on-line, and therefore the article was most informative.

Personal Network

Personal Network: The Who and How's of My Personal Network

http://alekstaylor.wikispaces.com/Personal_Network

Connectivism...Socialism Repackaged?

As I watched the voice-threads posted on networking and connectivism by George Siemens and Stephen Downes I somehow couldn’t help but to be reminded of the Na’vi people’s attachment to their Hometree in the movie “Avatar”. For the few people who haven’t seen James Cameron’s huge blockbuster, the blue Na’vi creatures living on Pandoran share a collective consciousness through their bio-botanical neural network embodied within the Hometree. The movie Avatar does a good job of making this network seem as magical and spiritual as the idea of connectivism by Siemens. Connecting with others, because as humans we have the need to express our thoughts and connect with other people, now on our own technological-neural network the web 2.0, appears like a beautiful idea. I believe many socialists had similar ideas.
On the web, long gone is the dictator filling our minds with what is doctrine disguised as knowledge. Rather the collective minds of the masses hold the key to true enlightenment. Sarcism detected? The idea that connectivism is the key to learning in the future, to staying current in our professions, to serving organizations better, etc. does not hold true in practice in the real world. (Pandoran world’s excluded).

For instance, in Stephen Downes’ second voice-thread on “Connectivism and Organizations” he gives an example of how an apartment building is built now and how it will be built with connectivism in the future. In the future, instead of having one all powerful project manager there will be equal partners, or sub-contractors as he refers to them, organizing, hiring and coming into existence for the sole purpose to accomplishing the goal. The idea of one powerful leader is enough to turn most off but, who is there to ensure continuity across the project? To guarantee standardization? Who has the final say on the vision? Who is to be held accountable when things don’t go as planned? Who should have the answers? If you have built a home or have had sub-contractors work for you, you know the importance of a project manager. There are no real ramifications without any higher power to be accountable to. A central managing body is not to be discredited.

How does this fit into educational theory? Duckworth spoke of the benefits of constructivism –in that learning is a human construction. Connectivism seems to follow a similar line of thinking. However, it attempts to show how its benefits business, education etc. Connectivism is Constructivism’s ugly twin sister.

In the classroom students do learn from each other. They do construct learning from shared experiences. However, the teacher needs to facilitate these experiences and parents etc. want concrete evidence to support that learning is happening. Therefore, they will seek out the project manager…teacher to find answers to the questions they have about their child’s learning, to give them evidence of a plan or vision, to be accountable when things don’t go as planned etc.
How do I think connectivism relates to my own learning on-line? “Language gives birth to our thoughts”, according to Vygotsky. So as humans we have a desire to express and create ourselves in social spaces. However, what happens when the principals of connectivism are applied to the web? It is open to anyone to participate; they can contribute whatever they please to whomever. How does one find the nugget of enlightenment one seeks in a sea of over-information, trifle, and invalidity? Google and other search engines have become our project manager’s on-line; filtering and prioritizing information for us. If what we know is so fleeting, then it becomes important to stay in touch with most credible people in their respective fields. Is Google nescesarily making the best choice for us? Yet, there it is, because we need it in this sea of over-information. We need the project manager.