Information Overload!

I have been looking at digital tools to help students locate information and present information. This got me thinking about the information overload that I see many of my students experience. There is so much available that often the student just takes the first thing they can find as being fact, rather than sift through all the info to verify the facts. I remember in high school and in college (just on the cusp of the Internet generation), we had to have several sources for a paper. I never thought, until now, that the teachers did that so that we would be forced to cross-reference our material. Although it was never spelled out that cross-referencing was required, that is what happened when I had to have 5 -6 sources for a 3 page paper. In the internet-age cross-referencing is even more important. Anyone with a slight bit of knowledge can create a website that looks very professional. These websites may not contain factual info, or may have some sort of bias presented. Students must be taught, not only to cross-reference, but also to look for hidden bias and half-truths in websites and in all media.

When students ask me if they can use wikipedia.com as a source, I tell them "no" (as is the school's policy), but I also explain that wikipedia is a good place to start, when you haven't a clue where to begin. You get some (usually) factual information in the text and a wealth of sources that you can check out for yourself. I remind them of why wikipedia is so successful...because anyone can add to the knowledge bank...and because of this, they need to become savvy consumers of the information. There was an episode of 30 Rock that dipicted an actress who needed to research Janis Joplin for a role. One of the writers (to play a joke on her) updated the wikipedia site with bogus information which the actress took as fact. (Summary of the episode here: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30_rock/retreat_to_move_f...) While this makes for funny TV, in reality, wikipedia.com has a wealth of safeguards to protect against this sort of thing happening (warnings at the top of the page when a page is lacking authority, or when bias may be presented, not to mention all the contributors who aim for factual reliable info).

I found this site: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/navigatingthenet/tp/how_to_rese... and I think it's a great crash course on internet research and a great source for teachers to use when designing lessons about internet research.