“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” -BUDDHA
Chapter five was a very intriguing read that definitely made me think about how difficult it may be in the future to distinguish a credible source from one that is not credible since there is so much information on the internet. Much of what is on the internet is opinion based and it is important for the students to do extensive research on whatever topic they choose to develop their own opinion and not simply copy and paste one's opinion off of a website. It ultimately will rely on the individual to distinguish what they choose to believe or not to believe. It is still healthy to question the teacher or a book as much as the internet so I am not using websites as a scapegoat.I remember in high school my teacher telling the class that Malcolm X's famous phrase was "whatever it takes" and manipulated a lot of what he said to be consistent with his own opinion on the man. I told him the phrase was actually "by any means neccessary" and he told me I was wrong. It made me very irritable when a group in class did a presentation on him and used the phrase "whatever it takes" and cited things in his life that did not even happen without reading his autobiography or doing proper research. Therein lies the problem, not only must the student be aware that not everything they read or hear may be correct, but the educator must also properly distinguish what to say or not to say.
I enjoyed the list of credible websites used that was shown in chapter five but I really enjoyed reading about wikipedia. When I was in middle school, I would go to the library and use the encyclopedias to do basic research on whatever subject I was assigned. The information was usually presented in an unbiased manner and was legitimate for the most part. Wikipedia can be useful to get a basic overview of a subject but it is not entirely credible and a student should not cite it as a resource. There will be many websites in the future that will be used as a similiar medium that we must monitor. A student must form an individual voice for their opinion and it is bad if they use these mediums as a crutch.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
1. Before preparing a lesson, will you give the class a list of places to get credible resources from or simply tell them what NOT to use?
2.How do we combat plagarism going forward? Do you believe it will be more prevelant or less prevelant since it may be easier to monitor when papers or submitted through turnitin.com and other mediums?
3.What is your opinion on censorship on the internet?
I feel that I would give a students a list of places that they should use before lessons. I think that if you tell students not to go somewhere, there is a good chance they will go there because it now seems taboo. I also feel that by teaching them the different URLs, we as teachers can give them the ability to figure out the credibility of different websites.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that plagerism is probobly never going to be eradicated. Places like turnitin.com are great resources for a teacher to use. I also think that a good teacher should be able to figure out if a students work is inconsistent with their previous work. That being said, I feel that a major way to combat plagerism is to encourage students to be reative and to be proud of what they write. When a students turns is a plagerized report they are saying that they could not have done anything better. We as teachers shouls explain to students that they are really cheating themselves and that doing something and failing is better than not trying.
I feel that all computers in school settings should be censored. There is no reason that students should be able to access inappropriate sites in their classroom. I also feel that parents should try to block websites which are harful to their kids. It is the responsibility of parents to make sure that their children do not put themselves in dangerous situations while they are at home. As for adults, I do not feel that there should be censorship on the internet. Although there are many things I find discusting on the internet, it is not one person or groups job to tell the rest of us what can or cannot be seen.
I feel that providing students with a list of suggested websites for research is a better idea then telling them where not to go because that is just asking for trouble. We all know that once we tell students not to do something they are more than likely going to try and find out why they are being told not to. I do believe we shouldn't limit our students though because we want them to get used to not only doing the research, but be able to check if the sources are accurate. I think by giving a list of suggested websites but then also having students explore for themselves will help them grow in researching online while still giving them a foundation of where to begin.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the notion of giving kids a list of suggested websites. It is kind of like when I used to lifeguard, one of the things they taught us was to never tell someone to "stop running" but rather ask them to "please walk" because even mentioning the word "run" in a negative manner would plant the idea in their minds. Same thing with this issue. If we can properly teach the difference between a scholarly article and a geocities website, we can allow them to explore and find out for themselves
ReplyDeleteEvery one of the comments above mentions the idea of giving students a list of suggest websites; add me to that list! I once had a biology professor who was getting her notes from the internet, and some of the details were different than the textbook she assigned. One day we argued over something so dumb, I think it was the angle of a water molecule. It kept so stubborn in that class because I started catching more things that she was wrong about. It aggravated me so much that I decided to switch my major from biology to chemistry. Meanwhile, she probably still thinks she right because she's become victim to what a lot of others have fallen victim to, false information on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI think one way to tackle plagiarism is having students think on a higher cognitive level. Instead asking students to categorize or repeat facts on a sheet, have them evaluate/analyze the information since they can just look it up anyways. Try to form an original question and also talk about it in class so students can get used to thinking in this way.
My opinion on censorship on the internet is that I'm AGAINST anything that demands more control or legislation. Granted, I understand the government wants to shutdown many piracy websites because record companies and artists are losing a lot of money, but I don't think record lobbyists should be dictacting our freedom on the internet. Also, as much as I hate facebook and twitter, I think its peoples rights to govern themselves and their right to take the illegal risk of downloading music/movies on the internet, which already has its consequences.