6:55 AM
Will Richardson brought up two incredibly important issues yesterday in The Challenge of Wikipedia.
I’m on a wiki and Wikipedia bender of late, trying to get my brain around all of the implications for educators in terms of how to teach research and the use of sources. I think that this is actually a bigger challenge for elementary school teachers who are in that pre-exposition gray area. For instance, if my daughter gets assigned a “report” on Argentina, why wouldn’t she go first to the Wikipedia entry? The bigger question is why would she go anywhere else? The entry has 4,100 words and about 125 links to more information. It’s got maps and charts and pictures. It’s been edited like a gajillion times, most recently today with updated GDP figures. Ok, I know, I know. It might be all wrong. But you and I know…it’s not.
Many of you have had the experience of demonstrating Wikipedia to a group of teachers, and they become so excited — until you click the “Edit This Page” button. It is no exaggeration to say that they are shocked. If it’s librarians, we wheel in defibrillators.
Richness and extent of accuracy aside, it is understandable that educators feel like their feet have been knocked out from under them by the Wikipedia. We have been taught to assume the authority of the information that we encounter. But today, our information environment is changing into something that is…
less worthy of this assumption
but at the same time
more valuable.
I would make the assignment like this. Look up Argentina on the Wikipedia, and collect the facts and concepts that are appropriate to the assignment. Then prove that those facts and concepts are true, by researching elsewhere for evidence of their accuracy and appropriateness.
We have to stop teaching students to assume authority and teach them to prove it. A big shift in the nature of how we teach!
Will takes us to the next level when he says…
The bigger, bigger question is why should she do that report at all? I know she has to learn how to write, to organize ideas, to use different sources of information etc. And believe me, I want her to do all of those things. But do I want her doing what I did as a kid? (I did Argentina, you know.)
I did a report about Argentina too. I remember nothing about that report, but I do clearly remember the Bola that I made, and demonstrating it’s use to the class. Took us almost 30 minutes to get Skitter Jones free from those things. 😉
Part of learning is expressing what we have learned, and more than that, expressing it in a way that accomplishes something. I do not write reports any more. I haven’t written a report since I was in school. But I do write, and I draw, and manipulate images, and edit sound and video. I produce information products that are designed to affect people in some desired way. Rather than giving students an assignment to write a report, they should write a travel log of Argentina, or make a travel brochure, or a news cast of some even happening in the country. Assignments should reflect the new information environment.
I don’t think we teach ‘..to assume the authority of the information that we encounter…’ but almost the opposite; to consciously look for the most reliable resource by reviewing some basic evaluation criteria ( Accuracy, Authority, Bias, Currency, Coverage), questioning whether we are looking at the best possible information.
Often just a part of a time-constrained research orientation by the librarian. So, while part of the issue is the type of assignment ( my bola went through a window), the ability, willingness, and capacity to collaborate with the librarian before making the assignment and scheduling research time is also important.
Granted, many educators, especially librarians, do teach students to evaluate the information that they encounter. My point applies not so much in what we teach as in how we teach. How many teachers, when asked off hand, could tell us the name of the author of their text book. We assume the authority of the text book and other materials purchased by the school, and we teach from that authority.
I think that the best way for us to teach students to prove the authority of information, is for us, as educators, to integrate the practice as we set out to teach our curriculum, providing evidence of its truth as a part of presenting it.
I hope that this makes sense!
Reading from Zinn in history class would certainly make it interesting!
Resource evaluation (esp. about authority) of resources has traditionally been given short shrift, partly because of somewhat inherent controls based on traditional publishing, partly because bias and currency are easier. Now, with internet, e-books, and cabability of small presses, it has become far more important.
I posted about the PewInternet and UK child online studies earlier. The Pew study, subtitled “Internet searchers are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve” notes that “68% of users say that search engines are a fair and unbiased source of information;†( p. 2)