God Bless Snopes.com!

Maybe I'm just critical by nature. Maybe something from my no-nonsense upbringing and eight years of journalism training in school actually sunk in. But long ago I grew weary of all of the spam coming into my email in-box, making wild promises or threatening imminent danger for not buying into (and forwarding, of course) the message. Even more frustrating were the email forwards from friends and acquaintances, full of unverified information and hoaxes.

I focus on email, because that is really what I used the most when I was online. Until the end of my college years, I didn't spend a lot of time gathering information or reading news online; I did, however, connect a lot via email. And in return, I got a lot of junk.

It really was amazing what would come my way. I worked for an insurance company after college. When Hurricane Katrina hit, I had to ask my supervisor to have a discussion with another supervisor who was forwarding emails to the entire department projecting the storm to hit our North Texas area at still-hurricane force, and of gigantic snakes swimming through the streets of New Orleans. The office, already anxious about the impending damage and necessary response from our teams, was becoming more and more chaotic with each new "report." Ugh. It irritates me, still.

This is exactly what happens when people don't evaluate what they are consuming. I believe teaching students to be critical thinkers is critically important. I believe our kids now are living in an information age, and they will be encountering a greater quantity of information than we ever did. I also think it's not particularly more important a skill than it was, but maybe just more necessary in this world than it used to be. Consider that traditional informational sources such as newspapers and encyclopedias - sources with which digital immigrants are more familiar - have a built-in system of checks and balances, such as editors, publishers, and the like. On the flip side, anyone can post just about anything on the Internet.

That said, I think we might be getting a little too anxious over our roles in making sure kids can digest all of the information coming their way. Don't shoot. I don't mean that we shouldn't be vigilant about protecting our kids, or shouldn't shift our classroom priorities to make sure kids are coming out of school prepared to be successful in today's world. What I am saying is that I believe these digital natives will surprise us with their "natural" ability to assimilate information. Additionally, I believe that the evolution of the Web to a more collaborative environment will foster critical thinking in this new generation, as they see information being added, deleted, and corrected - an online world with constant motion of thought.

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Other Week Two Reflections:

I've been strictly working from home, but now that I'm taking on a teaching position in the fall, I can see that Delicious will be a great tool for being able to access my favorites on-the-go. I especially like Google Reader, something I hadn't looked into before this class. I like things to be streamlined, and this fits the bill. After this class is over, I plan on using it to follow some other preschool teachers for ideas.

I'm most excited about my wiki, which I will use as a tool mostly for communicating with my student's parents. This is one thing that the directors were concerned about during my interview, and I'm proud to be starting off with a possible solution to this problem. I've begun my wiki, and I'm just working on trying to figure out PBWorks.com and the options available.