Sites for Sore Eyes

“It is time for us all to stand and cheer the doer, the achiever-the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.” When I see a shift in power over something, and for the better, I often think of this famous quote by Vince Lombardi. Additionally, when I look at the information super highway that is known as the World Wide Web, I cannot help but think of the television show Hoarders. We often find ourselves staring at our computer screens like it is a collection of unreliable items piled high in a hoarders living space. Yes, we struggle with the social and academic evils of the internet. We struggle with internet indecency. We struggle with plagiarism. We struggle with the academic assets of articles found on certain websites. Let’s face it; we struggle with and have to manage pop-ups, perhaps the most routine inconvenience of our web-venture. Today, I cheer for the doer, the achiever. Today, I applaud my NTI colleagues and the wealth of website information that was stacked up expertly like so many crisp 100 dollar bills. The fact remains; the web is a great learning and instruction tool. I spent a better part of the class tonight scribbling website addresses in my notepad. I underscored many, often putting notes in the margins of my paper with comments like “must use,” “cool,” “set inductions!” As educators, we recognize the challenges, and we are doing something about it by creating awareness about information literacy. Stand and cheer. The web has sites for your sore eyes!