Researchers wanted to see whether kids could tell whether or not a website was legit or total crap. Unfortunately, it was total crap and they thought it was legit.
Researchers asked students to find out information about the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. Students had no problem locating a Web site dedicated to the cause, zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ “but insisted on the existence of the made-up story, even after researchers explained the information on the website was completely fabricated,” according to a press release.
via mySA.com blog.
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This is a failure of our education system. We simply don’t teach critical thinking skill or philosophy any more.
‘any more’? oh how I pine for greener pastures too, but this isn’t exactly a new problem, it’s old as time.
When I said “any more” I was referring to Ancient Greece
Drives me nuts. My kids were/are all over the spectrum. The youngest taught me to trust absolutely no “facts” or pictures from these intertubalwebz. The middle makes me go through hoops just to get online through his wifi (that doesn’t show when looking for connections). The eldest doesn’t care about any of it at all.
Research using the internet is deceptively easy. It seems like your getting info, but I end up following links back and back and back a few more times to get to the original only to find that it’s the opposite of what it appeared to be. Context and multiple sources, these concepts need to be taught.