My
personal belief as to the media, newspapers, magazines, radio and the World
Wide Web being equal is simply NO.
Throughout the opportunities given to us to learn one becomes aware that
quite often a writer’s personal opinions are interwoven within the text being
reported. Within personal experience of learning, I believe online learning is
a key to learn with a more open mind on most subjects. This opportunity is due to there being ready
access to digital literacy, thus having access to information literacy. To be successful with this style of learning,
one must develop new skills. It certainly
is necessary to see, read, find, and these are just a few abilities one must
develop to be successful with online learning. Information literacy must be
evaluated by the user, which many times can only be done by extensive or
sometimes a little research. This is
definitely some of the skills along with the ability to decide what is current
and what material is not up-to-date.
When my students do research for a project, report, essay I require
their websites (sources) to be listed.
Then if there is a question to what is being reported, we can go back to
the referenced website.
I agree with your commet that "Information literacy must be evaluated by the user, which many times can only be done by extensive or sometimes a little research". The issues with the internet is that there are so many sites that are opinionated and can be left up to the researcher to find what's relevant info. I think that student need to be able to look for information up the old fashion way BOOKS!!!. This would give them a frame work of good/relevent information. They also need to be able to learn the difference of opinion/fact.
ReplyDeletePoint well made Michelle. Yes, the opinion of every writer is infused in the information they write. It's challenging to teach students how to navigate through opinion to find facts.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your observation Michelle. When information comes from people that not only share our beliefs, but also are closer to who we are, we tend to find them more credible.... is this always the case? No, but we will take a more discretionary look at this information and it's source to debunk or acknowledge it as being pertinent and accurate. I think this is a common beginning to our quest for information accuracy. The challenge comes when we find discrepancies that don't line up with information we already have or our own experience. Books can even be questionable. We just have to really take time to look at all the pieces and out them together for clarity and understanding.
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