Magnifico: Science, literacy, and the internet?
3.5.07 | In the recent session on games and learning, Jonathan Fanton reported that one goal of the Macarthur digital media and learning initiative is to better understand how young people evaluate information that they find on the internet. In our work on Science.net, an epistemic game in which middle schoolers spend several weeks role-playing as science journalists and writing several stories for an online newsmagazine, we have found that our reporters begin the game feeling comfortable with the internet. They tell us about using web sources for school reports, for chatting, for playing games with their friends. They even report knowing that anyone with a webpage can publish opinions for the world to see.
The majority of them, however, don?t have a strategy for assessing the reliability of the information that they find. Here?s one typical pre-game interview response: ?You never know, it?s the internet. If it?s like the first thing that pops up and then it looks pretty professional, then I?d use it…?
I wonder how much of this finding comes from the simple fact that young people don?t often need to check or even understand their sources: textbooks and teachers are the authorities, and they must be believed (even memorized!) in order to get good grades. A teenager questioning commonly-held information would likely be perceived as antagonistic in many classrooms, although the same behavior would be rewarded for a researcher developing a new theory or a doctor treating a pernicious ailment. These divisions between school and working-world occupations have led several education theorists to label most classrooms as ?inauthentic? - composed of facts to memorize and ?test questions? to which teachers have set answers - rather than ?authentic? explorations of complex issues that may not have absolute solutions.
In short, the tight strictures of state-mandated, achievement-tested knowledge don?t allow time for most teachers to delve into multiple answers (much less current controversial issues) in classrooms, even when those issues are under lively debate in other settings.
Science.net players, on the other hand, role-play as reporters and thus take on clearly authentic tasks: (1) to learn about a scientific issue that is current and important, in order to (2) write a well-researched, balanced story that will help news readers form their own opinions about the issue. Along the way, they learn to do research on the internet and find credible sites that capture several different perspectives on their issue. They interview scientists for expert opinions on (for instance) stem cell research, nanotechnology, or avian flu. They learn journalism techniques - like writing in the neutral voice and sourcing all opinions - from journalists, and they come to understand why those techniques are important in writing news for public consumption.
More importantly from a media literacy standpoint, however, is that Science.net reporters become more critical consumers of the information that they encounter. In the post-game interviews, 83% of them told us that it?s important to check a source?s reliability or verify the information before using it somewhere else: ?[I?d use information] from a reputable website? You have to think about why they?re giving you the information. You can?t [trust it] if it?s to sell a product or something.? This compares with only 33% who recognized the importance of verifying information before playing the game.
In this age of constant information and advertising, ideas like that are central for everyone - not just middle school students ? and creative, innovative gaming is one way to learn how these complex perspectives work in the real world.
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DJ Chandler (Chimera)
3/6/07
4:29am
I agree that a young person’s ability to determine what is useful or valid on the internet needs specific attention. What I have found with younger students, ages 10 to 14, is that they do not have a foundation of research skills, especially the inquiry method of searching for information. Younger students become bored and inpatient while older students, ages 15 to 18, can not only find suitable web sites, but they can create a presentation based on that information. I had a 15 year old write in one day create a wonderful presentation with images and text on the cheetah with very little guidance. When the topic is something more complex, such as alternative energies or global warming, all students need more facilitation in what web sites to trust and acknowledge. The actual writing of a research paper with citations remains a problem for all. I applaud your efforts and hope that more authentic learning can be integrated into the lived curriculum of all learners in wake of high stakes testing.
Dan Bassill (Tutor/Mentor Connection)
3/8/07
6:11pm
I feel that we need to think of this as a three part issue, not one of youth and the internet only. The third part is the facilitation provided by trusted advisers, parents, teachers, mentors or friends.
I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which host more than 1000 links to web sites where youth can learn, can connect with tutors/mentors, and where they and others can learn to become leaders in making more and better learning activities available to kids of all ages.
In the Cabrini Connections program I connect inner city teens with adults who work in various jobs throughout the Chicago region. We have more than 20 computer stations where youth and volunteers can access internet information, or create work projects or research homework.
In this type of structure the volunteers and peers can be trusted advisers in recommended places for learning and collaboration.
I organize a conference each May and November in Chicago (http://www.tutormentorconference.org ) and am building a tutor/mentor blog exchange, that can connect people with each other and these ideas.
I hope some of you on this blog will take a look at http://tutormentor.blogspot and blog with us in May and June.
Alecia Magnifico (UW-Madison)
3/13/07
3:10am
I agree that facilitation of internet use is very important (and sometimes also problematic - there’s plenty of topics out there that most adults don’t know anything about!). I think that you both raise good points in terms of letting kids explore and create, but also trying to make sure that there’s someone around to help clarify information and talk to kids about what they are doing while they are working.
Like both of you, I am also constantly surprised by what kids can do with some guidance and some freedom. In the early versions of the Science.net game, even sixth graders wrote successful news stories! Or when I taught fifth grade a few years back, my whole class did amazing things with their open-topic research reports (different kids worked on everything from how fast food is made to Komodo dragons). Rather than teaching kids how to type for years on end - which, in my experience, is the main content of many elementary school tech classes - it is so much more powerful to begin showing them basic search techniques, basic cross-referencing, information literacy skills. Hopefully we will soon see what kind of a difference those things make…
DJ Chandler, Ph.D. (Chimera)
3/16/07
2:16am
Great point about teaching elementary kids how to type! I agree that is a rather cursory exercise compared to the depth and potential of the internet. I am a techie at heart. I used a Commodore 64 as my first computer back in the early 1980s and from then on I have been hooked. I build and repair my own computers. We have over 14 workstations with 64 bit OS. I am an anthropologist by training. My goals include virtual organizations of learning where learners connect with facilitators through live web streams and enjoy a healthy, locally produced farm to table experience as well. I am interested in addressing world hunger issues through the internet and creating virtual organizations that replace, when appropriate, traditional schools. My observations over the last 18 months include the following: 1) most kids will not engage in a one-dimensional experience on their own, such as Florida Virtual School. (It requires a full-time facilitator in order for most kids to even be marginally successful); 2) learners enjoy the small face-to-face group discussions and activities more than any research experience on the internet; 3) the internet serves as a backdrop, similar to a library, for most lessons; and 4) the potential to create researchers at a younger age appears to be one of the most exciting aspects of computer based learning. My students and I used Macromedia Breeze last semester through my position as an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, University College. UMUC is a leader in distance learning. Breeze was useful, but not yet cutting edge enough. Kids like tools that are cutting edge. I do, too. Thanks so much for your postings. You write in a way that is very readable and welcoming.