Teach, Not Block Wikipedia March 6, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
Will Richardson makes a great point about making use of the largest collection of information on the Internet, also known as Wikipedia. To say this as a positive expression, he calls us as teachers to:
(seize) an opportunity to model for them the power of participation, to help them understand the importance of editing, and to give them a real sense of how the collaborative world works by involving them in the negotiation of the “truth” that those articles represent
Education seems to have a love/hate relationship with Wikipedia. On one hand, we decry the lack of access to information available in our classrooms and could easily benefit from a free encyclopedia with topics not found in traditional print resources. On the other hand we are suspicious of a resource that functions best with collaboration and participation on the part of visitors while bemoaning the lack of a critical approach our students bring to the resources we do have.
http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/yet-another-reason-we-should-be-teaching-not-blocking-wikipedia/
Trust and the Web March 6, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.2 comments
Dennis O’Reilly on CNET Blogs has posted an article about authenticity on the web. The article is a nice update to the (what should be) familiar tasks of deconstructing the URL, checking sites that link to the page in question, and adds searching trusted directories for more information. The article makes the case for how to read web pages with the eye of a skeptic in an easy to understand and concise manner.
