Tag: quality

Educators commonly express concern that students rely too heavily on web resources that have not been submitted to a formal editorial process. Even those who see the Internet as the library of the future recognize the uneven quality of web resources and suggest that students acquire a more critical eye as they select their sources.

My personal senstitivity to this educational issue provided a context for a story aired this evening on CNN. Scientists conducting research on climate change feel that editors have required modifications in their scientific papers regarding climate change that addressed global warming or climate change in way the scientists felt modified their intended conclusions (Union of Concerned Scientists Survey). One problematic finding indicated a differential rate of concerns editorial meddling between scientists working directly for the government and those funded by grants but working for independent organizations.

The mix of politics, science, and education can be problematic. One wonders if the “concern” generated regarding the showing of Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” would have surfaced had Gore not be recognizable as a politician.

“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does
Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher.”

I would think the documentary would be a great way to initiate a unit on the topic – make it part of a webquest and offer links to contrasting positions, have students search for commentary on the film and summarize contrasting views, etc. Perhaps in this case a little controversy could be a good thing.

Blogged with Flock

The topic of whether or not wikipedia content should be referenced in papers will come up more and more. Alan Liu provides some thoughtful comments on the topic.

The topic of evaluating blog entries has surfaced. If you are an educator and intend to involve your students in “blogging to learn”, the suggestions that have emerged in this strand are interesting.

However, I would probably not hold myself to these standards. Some expectations, for example, involve cross-checking multiple sources to create a well reasoned post. This is great expectation if one is blogging to learn or if one wants to position his/her blog as a source of perspective for others. What if one “blogs to remember” (a personal goal) or “blogs to stimulate” (a social goal)? Perhaps we need to tag our entries by purpose rather than by topic.

I like reading blogs, but I am reaching the conclusion that blogs provide an incomplete and possibly distorted view of the world. To make well reasoned personal decisions, one has to gather and consider multiple perspectives and my concern is that in some areas blogs may not provide such opportunities.

I am personally very interested in student multimedia authoring. Part of what I know about this topic I have learned over the years by reading academic research (e.g., David Jonassen, Richard Mayer, Richard Lehrer). Part of what I know more recently, I have learned by following several blogs. Because I also read critics of this area, I still struggle with what I am willing to claim with certainty about this topic. When it comes to accepting a role in which one advocates, I think some healthy uncertainty is a good thing.

Here is what I have noticed about educational blogs. Influential researchers appear not to blog (try searching for the names I mention above) and influential bloggers tend not to publish research (try using Google Scholar to search for the name of someone you consider an influential blogger).

You may disagree with this statement and there are probably some exceptions, but I do think this statement generally holds and wonder why this is the case. Perhaps it is a matter of how people spend their time. There is not a great deal of recognition accorded university scholars for time spent blogging. Popular bloggers may not work in circumstances in which research is expected or possible. However, I am also concerned that research and blogging require different “styles”. When I began writing textbooks, the editors spent a great deal of time moving me away from a careful, conservative writing style. Simple and positive was good. Careful and nuanced was bad.

This is not a comment in which I am seeking to blame anyone for anything with the possible exception of those who think they have adequately informed themselves because they read the comments of popular bloggers.

A concluding contradictory example: I do think it is possible to completely ignore a commonly accessed information source. I “know” this because my wife is a fan of conservative talk radio. When I ride in “her car” this is the channel she has on the radio. Cindy has far from conservative views on most issues. I have tried to reconcile Cindy’s attitudes with what I have observed about her listening habits. Here is my conclusion. Some people who spend a great deal of time by themselves in a car sing along with the radio. I think Cindy likes to spend her time alone yelling at the talk show hosts she thinks are idiots.