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.
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.
I appreciate your informed summary of Rheingold's article. I agree with you that it would have been nice to hear a bit more about how to be a good online detective. I need to be more careful about the articles I choose and the sites I direct my students to. If I can teach this to them, that would be wonderful. This is sort of the idea I've been mulling over for my field study.
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