"Are schools burning books"

[Freyja]

A couple of weeks ago I attended and spoke at an amazing conference in NYC. It was called 140edu, referring to the 140 characters one can write at a time on Twitter. The conference focused on the use of new and social media in today´s education and I gave a talk called "Are schools burning books?".

If any of you are interested in seeing it, there´s a video of it here:

http://blip.tv/140confevents/140edu-8-2-11-inga-r%C3%B3s-5474278

 

[Ceila]

Thank you for sharing that! I am just beginning a position as a Media Specialist (school librarian) this year. As a teacher of information literacy, I believe that one of the most important things we should be teaching students is how to evaluate the information that is so readily available to them. At no time in history have people had access to such quantities of information. Learning how to determine if a source is reliable, learning how to detect bias, and learning how to research on the internet are valuable and necessary tools, yet it is difficult if not impossible to teach those skills when students can't access those sites. There are many, many professional blogs out there, but the last school district I worked in blocked all blogs universally. I understand, of course, the need to restrict children's access to the seedy sides of the internet, but there needs to be a common ground somewhere in the middle.

 

[DebIreland]

Wow! I listened to a few minutes and will listen to the rest later as my son took back his headphones, lol! Very interesting Freyja. Looking forward to hearing/viewing the rest later. It's a topic I've been thinking about lately myself.

 

[Freyja]

Thanks! As you say "Ceila", it is so important that students of all ages learn to evaluate the quality of information that is available to them. All kinds of people call themselves experts on all kinds of subjects, and can so easily claim their fame on pages like Twitter, Facebook and various blogs. BUT there are a lot of GREAT professional blogs out there and I think it´s such a shame that schools aren´t using them more, when they are usually the most up-to-date information you can get on some subjetcs.

 

[DebIreland]

I believe that one of the most important things we should be teaching students is how to evaluate the information that is so readily available to them.

Very well said and succinctly put.

When I was about 10 years old I had to do a project on Iceland (this is a freaky co-incidence as the OP is from Iceland!!). Anyway, I wrote to the Icelandic embassies in Dublin and London and they sent me some fantastic information. I combined that with information from library books and made a comprehensive project. A few months ago my 14yo had to do a project on Kenya. He simply went to Wikipedia, re-wrote some pieces of info from it, printed a flag and stuck it all together. It was a homework assignment so not a huge big deal but it got me thinking. I now encourage him to avoid Wikipedia because it's wonderful in some ways but not at all trustworthy but I learned that for him, even having to go a site beyond Wikipedia seemed like too much effort. I wonder has technology, in some ways, made us really lazy but, worse, has it taken the joy and pride out of learning and researching? I remember the thrill of getting those packages in the post from the embassies and the buzz of finding the right library books (which necessitated a trip to town). It was all very exciting. As opposed to crossing the living room and looking up a few sites. I dunno. Has the thrill of learning gone?

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of Frejya's talk.

 

[Freyja]

Very well said and succinctly put.

When I was about 10 years old I had to do a project on Iceland (this is a freaky co-incidence as the OP is from Iceland!!). Anyway, I wrote to the Icelandic embassies in Dublin and London and they sent me some fantastic information. I combined that with information from library books and made a comprehensive project. A few months ago my 14yo had to do a project on Kenya. He simply went to Wikipedia, re-wrote some pieces of info from it, printed a flag and stuck it all together. It was a homework assignment so not a huge big deal but it got me thinking. I now encourage him to avoid Wikipedia because it's wonderful in some ways but not at all trustworthy but I learned that for him, even having to go a site beyond Wikipedia seemed like too much effort. I wonder has technology, in some ways, made us really lazy but, worse, has it taken the joy and pride out of learning and researching? I remember the thrill of getting those packages in the post from the embassies and the buzz of finding the right library books (which necessitated a trip to town). It was all very exciting. As opposed to crossing the living room and looking up a few sites. I dunno. Has the thrill of learning gone?

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of Frejya's talk.

I tell my students that they can´t quote Wikipedia. They have to follow the links or find where the info on Wiki comes from and evaluate how trustworthy they find it to be.
I think it´s great you had so much fun doing your own assignment about Iceland