I first began the assignment by reading the introduction to the book. It discusses a new technology that was found many years ago - paper. Adults didn’t know how to use it, but kids did. Soon enough, kids were abusing their uses of paper, so it was banned. Many years later, they considered removing the ban. This scenario is the perfect analogy that I have had to deal with over the past few years, being an Internet user, and more importantly, teaching computer classes. I have wrestled with both sides of the equation: it is easy for the students to abuse technology, yet they also need to be taught what is right and what is wrong, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate when using the Internet. November offers encouragement for us teachers, making us role models:
“What this shift of control means is that the role of the teacher is more important than ever. Now it is essential that we teach our children the discipline of making meaning from a very complex and constantly shifting global warehouse of information and communication.” (Web Literacy for Educators 2008)
I found three things that caught my interest in how I use and teach the Internet in my classrooms: Truncating URLs, reliable web sites, and reliable search engines.
I have to admit that these are skills that have been ingrained into me for so long that I just assume that my students already know these skills. Of course, some students are aware of which sites are invalid, while others just don’t know the difference. Still, it’s important that all of them are on the same boat. Being reminded of these three basic principles will greatly help my Internet research units for the future.
Truncating is an extremely important tool for checking the source of pages within a web site. Just check out History of Robots in the Victorian Era and see for yourself. The site looks fairly valid - professionally looking, the images look realistic, so the undiscerning eye - or the adolescent eye - won’t realize it’s fake. If we truncate the website, it then takes us to “Big Red Hair,” and if you scroll down to the bottom, the first giveaway is the trademark for “Boilerplate” - to Paul Guinan, the webmaster.
But how do the students know which sites or search engines are valid? Quite simply, a checklist and procedure for evaluating valid web sites can be used. Teaching them the key places to look (I always start at the bottom or “About Us”) is that first step. November mentioned the sale of search engine results, and it quickly reminded me of this Fresh Air conversation that aired on November 2, 2009. Ken Auletta discusses his new book about Google and in the interview brings up the method in which search engine results are engineered for the highest bidder (he uses “sneakers” as the example). This is done quite often on News Web Sites with the “most read articles” (and are often the gossip/celebrity/trivial “news” items). See the entire transcript here with my annotations.
Why is it important for us to teach them? For one thing, I cannot control what they do outside of my classroom when they use the Internet. In addition, their parent/guardian might not be able to discern reliable sites and search engines. More importantly, we as teachers are always developing their learning skills; that is, we are trying to give them the necessary tools to teach and learn on their own in the future and when they get older.
With the required freshman computer class that I teach in re-development for next year, I think this course could not have come at a better time! We are in the process of shifting from a focus mainly on MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to divide it up between Internet Usage/Safety, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This will be an important portion of our class as every student that graduates from the high school must take it - including those that move in after their freshman year. With this topic discussed in the class, it will make our digital natives more competent and successful in using the Internet as an important tool for school and work.
Nice use of Diigo highlighter to share an article. Did you know that you can create "Groups" in Diigo and share specific sites with those in your groups. That would be great for your students. If they're doing research in groups, each group could have their own "Group" in Diigo to share sites with. Additionally, you can make notes within a page so you can all see what each person is thinking as they read the article. Diigo has an education focus within their site. (We will go into more depth with Diigo on Tuesday!)
ReplyDeleteMy use of Diigo has been quite bland - I actually picked up on the highlighting last week in class and wanted to give it a try. I have used Diigo for bookmark collections divided by class, but I'm looking forward to what you share w/us tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteInternet safety is certainly a big concern for teachers, parents, administrators and students. As are issues around fair use, copyright laws, intellectual property, etc. Just as we do with print materials, we teachers must teach our students how to identify appropriate internet-based information (After all, there is a big difference between The Philadelphia Inquirer and The National Enquirer!).
ReplyDeleteThe Fresh Air conversation was very interesting! The sneaker bidding fascinated me on how much thought and strategy goes into the search engines and other news websites.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I must say that I'm glad that you're upcoming freshman course will touch base on the Internet protocol. After reading November's first chapter, I was talking to someone about how I can't recall being taught the "right" way to search the World Wide Web until I was maybe in college? or perhaps even one of my first graduate courses? It was overlooked and now I find it hard to break my bad habits (of not searching correctly).