DJE #7

Quote: "Choosing appropriate search engines, following relevant links, and judging the validity of information are difficult challenges, not only for students of all ages, but also for most adults, including many teachers. More than half the adults surveyed in Great Britain were not able to use search engines or databases at a basic level (Buckingham, 2007). In the United States, almost two-thirds of a national sample of adults doing online searches were not aware of the difference between paid and unpaid search results and believed that search engines provide fair and unbiased results for any given search (Fallows, 2005)."

Response: This quote really struck me. I knew that there were many adults with limitied profiency in computer skills, but I had no idea just how many. I think it is extremely important that adults, and certainly teachers, learn these skills and learn more about how the online world really works. There is just no way that a teacher can be expected to incorporate media literacy skills into the classroom if he or she does not possess those skills. It is scary to think that many students have no clue about how to decide whether or not a source is reliable and how to recognize online marketing schemes that they encounter everyday. These skills are extremely important if we want our students to be able to take advantage of, interpret, and learn from the mass amounts of information that is literally right at their finger tips. Education needs to go beyond just telling students to stay away from Wikipedia. Students need to be critical thinkers when it comes to the internet.

Resource: David, Jane L.. "Educational Leadership." ASCD. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx.


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