This week I interviewed a high school student on his Internet use. I think college teachers are making a lot of assumptions about what kids know.
1. This student only looks at the "first page" of the website and is pretty sure that everything he needs is there. He does not go to links.
2. This student almost exclusively uses Wikipedia because it comes first in a Google search; in his mind, first is best.
3. High schools block almost everything, but Wikipedia is not blocked. Thus, they have fewer choices to make.
Knowing these points, and interviewing other students, will help me with incoming college freshman. The Leu et al article on the following website, argues for the idea of framing the Internet as a literacy issue.
http://www.aera.net/publications/Default.aspx?menu_id=38&id=7886
One of my roles as a High School Liaison is to understand the differences between English educators at the high school, community college, and university and to try to help bridge those differences. This is important for high school teachers so they will better understand what their students might face; for university teachers, so they know what students are bringing with them to college and to better prepare future teachers; and for community college teachers who are in the middle. As an interviewer of prospective community college faculty, I think this article does an excellent job of explaining what community college faculty face, which is not always understood by university faculty. http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/05/2009052901c.htm
What differences have you noticed?
P.S. As I was finishing up this post, a recent GVSU graduate and former student of mine excitedly called me from Houston to tell me that she just got a teaching job at a diverse elementary school. Congratulations, Ali!
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It seems nearly a daily battle to explain to students that they can't simply take Internet sources as "factual" nor "credible" simply because they are published. To prove this point, I once created a bogus account (this was about two years ago now) and went into the Wikipedia page for the movie "The Departed" and changed all the names to names of my students. We then watched the page to find out how long it would take to be revised. While Wikipedia claims prompt security, it took 17 days (and my students couldn't believe it)! Also, the bogus account was supposed to be banned for trolling, and it wasn't. This is simply one point I tried to help show students to question what they see from sources that can't carry the weight of credibility easily.
ReplyDelete-Bud Kanyo
Did you do this with your high school students or your community college students, Bud?
ReplyDeleteI have a new theory that a student has a particular frame of reference about being critical and this affects whether they can be critical when they search on the Internet. I wonder if teachers say "be critical" of sources and if their frame of reference is to "receive" information (as supported by other school activities, family and cultural disciplinary practices) then how could a student shift to being critical as they approach Internet research.
I would love to see what you and others think about this. I am planning on trying a "cultural heritage" activity (which we learned from Jodi at the Chippewa River Writing Project) before searching to help students to identify their frame of reference about being critical.