Everyone today is bombarded with information. What information is real?
This is hard to know. I don’t believe it really matters if you know for sure; you need to have thought about it critically and made a choice for yourself. I know what I believe. I know what I measure new information against. When I come in contact with information that doesn’t fit my belief system, what do I do?
I need to Think Critically. I remember growing up knowing that the Encyclopedia at our school and in our basement was the Gospel truth. While the Gospel hasn’t changed, many of the truths in those books have.
I grew up believing that what was written in books was right, and what teachers said was also right.
Times have changed. Just because something is in print in physical or electronic form does not make it right. Just because a teacher says it, does not make it right. (I remember teaching that Pluto was a planet. Now I know that I was wrong and some students should get extra marks.)
To be Information and Media Literate in today’s society one has to be able to take in (read, see, or hear) information and be a critical thinker. There is too much information and too much BAD information to just accept it.
We can teach students to think critically. They need to evaluate information for bias, and for errors. They need to be able to validate information through multiple primary and secondary sources. They need to be self-directed in building understanding from the resources available (both correct and incorrect).
How are students going to get these skills?
They won’t if we block websites; they will if we teach them to think critically about any kind of information or media.
This is hard to know. I don’t believe it really matters if you know for sure; you need to have thought about it critically and made a choice for yourself. I know what I believe. I know what I measure new information against. When I come in contact with information that doesn’t fit my belief system, what do I do?
I need to Think Critically. I remember growing up knowing that the Encyclopedia at our school and in our basement was the Gospel truth. While the Gospel hasn’t changed, many of the truths in those books have.
I grew up believing that what was written in books was right, and what teachers said was also right.
Times have changed. Just because something is in print in physical or electronic form does not make it right. Just because a teacher says it, does not make it right. (I remember teaching that Pluto was a planet. Now I know that I was wrong and some students should get extra marks.)
To be Information and Media Literate in today’s society one has to be able to take in (read, see, or hear) information and be a critical thinker. There is too much information and too much BAD information to just accept it.
We can teach students to think critically. They need to evaluate information for bias, and for errors. They need to be able to validate information through multiple primary and secondary sources. They need to be self-directed in building understanding from the resources available (both correct and incorrect).
How are students going to get these skills?
They won’t if we block websites; they will if we teach them to think critically about any kind of information or media.
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