The Web has changed people's relationship with information. Search engines have made it possible for us to pursue areas of inquiry both broadly and deeply, all within the privacy of our own workspace and as fast as we can shape a query to find the information. This is wonderful yet it leads to problems. Most people do not frame their inquiry in the form of hypotheses for proof and disproof, actively looking for information across the whole frame of the inquiry. They look for information that will confirm their opinion. The very nature of how queries are formed means that the information they produce will typically confirm rather than broaden the inquiry. A skilled researcher can rapidly confirm beliefs by shaping queries that will yield hundreds of documents agreeing with the point of view sought. A truly skilled researcher can equally quickly find information with a opposing point of view.
The ready availability of data calls for even greater acuity of thought than was ever required in less information-rich environments. Nowhere is this more evident than in the relationship children and teens have with Web information. Today, a young teen can readily find recipes for dangerous chemical compounds and strongly worded polemics. They do not yet have the maturity or experience to understand how to filter the information for either appropriateness or for accuracy. The problem is not with the availability of the information, but rather with the critical thinking skills of the user. We teach very young children not to touch a hot stove, but we do not teach them how to know and understand hot "dangerous" information, instead we apply filters that attack a symptom not the problem. Students need to learn information evaluation skills as soon as they learn search skills.
posted by amanda at 8:37 PM
