Doubt Even This

(Concerning class #3)

Dropping the Box

            Today, we presented different potential tools for use in and out of the classroom.  I personally would recommend DropBox as a way to sync your computers together and minimize the time spent loading flashdrives with particular files every morning.  It’s a handy way to make sure that you have access to the important files you use on a daily basis even if you have to borrow a friends laptop.  If you’re working at school, you could sync your account with the computer at work and have access to your lesson plans, notes, and printable handouts at a convenient requirement of internet access.  The downside is that if you’re out of internet access at work or home, you’re pretty much up a fecal crick in a rudderless toboggan.  Overall though, I’ve got to give it props.

Don’t Believe Half of What You Read But I’m Not Saying Which Half

            One of our major discussions was about how we can encourage critical thought when it comes to sources.  How can students know to trust an article in Nature over The Daily Mail?  Is that even a good example?  Because kids are told that they can trust their text books unless the teacher has to correct answers in the back or go on a diatribe about how George Washington and a cherry tree was apocryphal, students tend to start with complete trust of their written media.  This seems good until we need them to use outside sources for projects which results in the credulity that make stories like the tree octopus or the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest a riot.

            It seems like learning to look at something critically requires a phase of frustration.  You could look at it like moving from global credulity to global cynicism to a more skeptical approach.  That’s a little to simplified, but you get the point.  Students need to learn to evaluate evidence and determine how independently replicated the information is.  If everyone is releasing the same verbatim press release, they should recognize that something sounds fishy.  Part of that feeling comes from learning about how media works and what to expect.  This comes from exposure and guidance during or after that exposure.  As teachers, we can facilitate these kinds of mentalities by requiring multiple, independent sources for project information.  This could be begun by having everyone find sources for a topic and comparing and contrasting the information.  This would give student experience gathering info on their own, but also practice in analyzing the sources in an open environment without much to lose.

            With so much information to wade through, we have to be critical since much of it is necessarily contradictory.  We can’t all become experts in every field; so we have to make concessions.  The key move is which concessions are ok.