A general reflection on our downers grove south emerging technologies workshop

With the emergence of the technologies we've been discussing and describing over the past two days I have come to a general conclusion. The way I do my job as a teacher had better change. We've entered into the era of Web 2.0. That is, an age of the internet used not so much for searching for and obtaining information but for producing, sharing and getting the internet to push information toward us. I need to work to establish wikis, RSS feeds, flickr, blogs, and podcasting as tools for my teaching. I also need to do my darndest to teach my students how to find information and using these tools.

Our students will be less receivers of information and knowledge but more so producers and constructors of their own knowledge. If we use these technologies correctly and appropriately our students will be producing their own wikis and generating their own aggregators of RSS feeds that are pertinent and relevant to the content we want them to learn.

The skill set that is most likely the most important and authentic for my students is that of what has been termed "information literacy". Students need to know how to find what they want to know. They also need to be able to distinguish the bullshit from the truth. How the hell do I teach them that? In more appropriate language, I ask, "How do I teach my students to be good discriminators misinformation and information"?

The short (8 minutes) and downloadable movie EPIC 2014 presents us with a frightfully possible future of the distribution of information. Does the Museum of Media History exist? No. But after watching EPIC 2014 some people might be convinced. False journalism is nothing new, yet as the amount of information that is being thrown at us in an astoundingly increasing rate, so too must be the amount of misinformation.

Lots of thought and work to do. Any suggestions are welcome.




DGSACT3