Yeah, I’ve written about it before, but I’m going do it again. So deal with it. There’s nothing you can do about it; this is my blog and I can put any type of information I want out there. And you know what? No matter what I write there will be people who read it, believe it, and support it. I think that swimmers are supreme beings because they have to spend so much time alone with their brains swimming back and forth. This heightened self-awareness puts them on a whole level. Now, there are people out there who will be mesmerized by the apparent logic of my logic-less prose. There are others of you who will go; “man, I’ve partied with swimmers. Those are some weird mother ……’s.” But my point endures, I can put out whatever information I want on the web, and there will be people who believe me.
This idea gets more interesting though when you realize that some of the flawed information available to people on the web isn’t as easily identifiable. Wikipedia is full of false information and you seldom notice it. However, there are other Medias that also are taken as fact too easily. Objectivity is impossible in language. Television news has been shown to report with clear bias, journalism can never escape it’s given frames. Too often we receive information that we take as knowledge. In a world of infinitely growing information, we must have to begin to consider the realities of knowledge.
The call is for media literacy, and I’m happy to report that there are some who realize its importance: http://www.medialit.org. However, I offer a simpler solution. Put the study of communications into the high school curriculum. Put it in as a unit in English classes. Honestly, what is more important for today’s students? What good is knowing how to identify alliteration in Beowolf if they think that Swimmers represent a greater realm of man?
5 comments:
Jon,
Interesting perspective.
I have been thinking since the summer that for the sciences and mathematics, teachers have to make the students aware that the things they are being taught are accessible and questionable. In the social sciences and literature, students are taught to question what has been said or written or postulated. Yet, in the natural sciences we are too often presenting the content knowledge as given by the hand of God. Furthermore, the teacher-student relationship is a decidedly hierarchical one, so how do we create a sense of questioning without losing control and being constantly questioned. My mentor teacher says, "My classroom is not a democracy." But, we are training kids to become members of one.
How do we create a sense of positive cynicism without losing control of our classroom?
Mark
Hey Jon--
I love this idea-- we seem to be focused on making sure our students are able to FIND all the garbage that's out there. We don't want our students to be left behind and be the only ones in the country who DON'T know how amazing swimmers are. Perhaps as consolation, and "piggybacking" off what Mark says, I view my role as a science teacher as being the person who teaches them to question. They should know about Beowolf, they should know about Wikipedia. But in my classroom I hope they'll learn how to take in knowledge and evaluate it's qualities for soundness. The scientific method can be applied to all kinds of hypotheses, and most (all?) knowledge presented should be treated at first as a hypothesis. Make sense?
Cheers--Kristen
Swimmers have water on the brain. You read it here, but it will probably find its way onto Wikipedia--- with or without confirmation.
Hi Jon
I am just getting back to the blogs after a few weeks off (amazing how many posts the MACers can rack up in a few weeks!).
You are "right on" with the research in literacy. Many prominent literacy researchers (including Elizabeth Moje at the SOE) have been calling for a "broadening" of what constitutes literacy in education to include student's everyday literacies such as graffiti art, zines, and digital literacies. Teaching students how to appropriately navigate and participate in a blog compared to a wiki compared to a podcast..etc. is one way to help them in the future 21st Century professional world. Yet, the hardest part may not be getting the students to "buy in" to digital literacies in their professional future, but trying to convince some of today's teachers that digital literacies are worth their valuable class time.
Hi Jon,
I think the idea of a communication class is a great idea. I was sitting in my placement the other day, and the kids were doing presentations on bones and tissues. They got to go to the computer lab to do research, and all of the students (seniors) were using Wikipedia as a resource. They are going to have a rude awakening when they get to college and find out they can't use that source. But isn't it up to us as educators to teach them about stuff like that?
As for Mark's comments about science, I agree that critical thinking is crucial and very important to encourage in students. Students should be taught to question what they learn, and we should handle this skepticism gracefully as educators.
Post a Comment