"In Google we trust." That may very well be the motto of today's young online users, a demographic group often dubbed the "digital natives" due their apparent tech-savvy. Having been born into a world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances, there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others.
via nytimes.com
the findings showed that students are not always turning to the most relevant clues to determine the credibility of online content...
As I continue to work with my own children 10, 8, and almost 4 I find that technology IS like oxygen to them...don't know something? Just look it up...and yet the nature of the world online allows them to take the first thing they find as positive fact.
In a day and age of high stakes standardized testing though, where are we teaching kids to "read digital text"? Where are they learning reading and comprehension strategies to deal with hyperlinked text? How are they learning to "read around" the page, tuning out ads and focusing on content? Why is computer class an extra or add on? How do we share the results of studies like this with our curriculum teams and administrators to make this an important subject in schools? #amitheonlyone?
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Kristin, I found your blog while researching ways to help my kids weed through the information they collect via online research. It came at a good time as I am also taking an Ed Tech class. I love having information at my (and my kids') fingertips but have also learned there is a lot of bad information out there, too. When I was a kid, "look it up" meant a trip to the library - Encyclopedias, non-fiction books - and now "look it up" could be changed to "google it". But as teachers and parents, we have to teach kids how to weed through the good and the bad information. I have found checking the URL is a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteI had not thought much about reading and comprehension strategies in relation to online info gathering but it certainly makes sense! Kids need strategies as much or more when dealing with online sources as when using a book because the source can be an unknown.
I also liked your point about teaching them to read around a page to get to the content. This is not easy, especially for younger students (as evidenced by Saturday morning ads). At least with an Encyclopedia, the info is not "competing" with a flashy ad for the newest toy/gadget. Technology is only going to get more pervasive (is that an oxymoron?) which means we have to be even more diligent in our responsibility to teach kids how to use the technology wisely. I just hope I can keep up!