Screencast

I spent the last week exploring hoax web sites online. I am amazed at the numerous fake web sites out there! Many of these web sites come up right away in a Google search. Try this: Google Martin Luther King. The third resource is a startlingly biased web site created by a white pride organization called Stormfront. The site, at martinlutherking.com, looks valid but contains biased information. These are the kind of sites our students are clicking to all of the time as they research. Without training for recognizing scams and hoaxes online, our students are vulnerable.
It is startling to think about how easy it would be for our students to click on false information online. For instance, I read Rodman Philbrick's "Freak, the Mighty" with my sixth graders. In the story, Kevin suffers from a crippling disease. He tells his friend Max that his doctor is designing a bionic body for him. As we read the book, my students believe that bionics is possible. If a student wanted to conduct further research on this topic, they very well may find the web site for RYT Hospital. The site has beautiful graphics and is professionally kept. This hospital supposedly uses bionics along with genetic engineering for embryos. How are our young students to know when a web site is invalid?
Alan November's "Web Literacy for Educators" offers a variety of methods for uncovering invalid web sites. He calls the Internet "the most powerful, convenient, and potentially manipulative medium ever invented" (2008, p. vii). He encourages direct instruction in critical thinking techniques as we explore the Internet.
My Walden Masters program assigned a screencast this week. I put together a video to show my students, giving them tips for uncovering the truth. I think the screecast will be eye-opening for my students as well as for many adults.Clicking on the "Screencast" link will take you to my video. Check it out!

November, Alan. 2008. "Web Literacy for Educators". Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.