What a Read!!!!!

The amount of reading regarding safety for this portion of our assignment today was overwhelming. I found the story about Zachery fascinating. It made me think those plain clothed predators that roam the playgrounds and online chat sites - looking for blood, fresh meat, youthful minds............ It is disgusting!!!!!

Arthur Butz, may well have been attempting to share information he had been collecting since he was in college on what he believes to be true - Now since he did not live during that time he really can not step into the shoes of either the Germans or the Jews to live a life in the day - so his beliefs are based on findings and not actual personal experiences.

In America, Freedom of Speach is defined. It is a person's right to speak freely without censorship or limitation but the simple fact is that Mr. Butz connected his "Truth" to the world-wide-web covertly, behind closed doors, hidden within text jargon, and linked it to sites that shout out far more then what his simple account of what really went down states.

And THAT, is just one of the issues I have against him. Sure I see how important it is to teach students how to critically think about what they read - but at the same time we must also give time to educating them about honesty and morals and integrity and character and teach them that those too are worth weight and validation.

If a man is going to shout from the interior of a cave, 100 feet down, under spider webs, burried by links, upon links that connect his rants and raves to the topsoill so the average 14, 25, 65, 85 year old can't hear him but not see him see then THAT is a man I say should not be trusted no matter what his words clarify, uncover, shed-light-on.

did any of that make any sense?

The first strategy I would use in teching my students to be web-literate is by using the lesson by Alan November. It's already laid out and right there to follow- easy:peasy! After that I'd assess thier leaning and design scavenger hunts every so often to keep skills sharp and moving toward the long-term memory files in thier brains.

The discussion on how information on the web vs. what you get from books is different would be ongoing. Continuing to analyze what ever they read, hear, watch is always up for examination today anyway so teaching studetns to question is the KEY. Take FOX news for example, need I say more.

The Teacher's Guide to evaluating web pages could be used as an investigation activity in table groups. They could answer the question about a specif webpage of information and by doing all the bullet points they would be interacting with the technology and leaning how to navigate around too.