I posted a little late on this. I got really confused on where I was supposed to post. I was looking all over the discussion area on blackboard before Ashley so kindly told me it was a blog post. I felt a little foolish after that.
Credibility of a website had always been a hot button for me, for sure. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s really easy to take information at face value from a website, but you can’t always trust the publisher. I don’t know anything about playing the trumpet, but that can’t stop me from writing an article about it. Then some poor fool comes along and believes every word I say because if I wrote about it, I must know about it. Searching for cited and credentials can be tiring and time consuming, but we have to learn to do it.
I wouldn’t necessarily say the internet is becoming more sophisticated, either. Much like television, I think a lot of it is turning into mindless garbage. Any bob schmo can write, post, or create anything he wants on the internet and it’s not always that great. Sure wikis, blogs, and bookmarking sites are creating more organization, but to me… They’re just making the garbage easier to sift through.
I am one of those people who spends the better part of their day on the computer. Everything I need is on the internet. It’s so easy! But I am saddened by the idea that traditional media might become extinct because of this. I hate to think that students may one day not have the chance to hold a real book in their hands. Maybe I’m just weird, but I love running my thumb over the pages and listening to them flip together. I love smelling the pages of an old book and feeling how soft the paper has become after years of use. I love thumping a brand new sturdy spine against my knuckles and knowing this book will serve me well for years to come. If literature comes to only exist on the internet, future students will only know the plastic clicking of keys, the grey scroll bar, and the 32 bits of color burning their retinas.
Sure the internet lets people and companies reach more people is less amounts of time, but all the personal is taken out of it. I think it is important to teach students not to be manipulated by these flashy tech-age advertisements, and to keep their heads in the real world.
Posted by dc on September 29, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Your ambivalence about digital media and online information is understandable. An unquestioning embrace of technology has its dangers, no doubt. We are living in a time of great change in how we access and communicate meaning…I suspect our educational systems will be adapting to this for a long time to come.