What I’m Reading
Mar
12
I’ve been working my way through the sixth grade class over the last week, trying to coach them into not using Google or Wikipedia for their research projects. It’s an uphill battle when the teachers who can’t immediately find a book resource say to the kids, “Whatever, you can just Google it.” NO! No, you can’t just Google it. Do you know how many search results come up if you Google Christopher Columbus? Do your kids have time to sift through all the information that comes up on the TWELVE MILLION SEARCH RESULTS? I didn’t think so.
I tell the kids, if you’re looking up the phone number to the pizza place down the road, use Google. It will be helpful to you. If you’re looking up biographical information on Frederick Douglass to be used in a research paper, DO NOT USE GOOGLE. They whine about it, we talk about it, I show them some alternatives, then they go back to using Google. But I am planting the seed, at least.
Another uphill battle is that the Technology Department recently blocked Wikipedia from the school computers. You might think that this is a good thing, right? No more random information cut and pasted into a Word document! But hello, aren’t we trying to teach the kids how to evaluate information they find on the internet? What good does it do to block a website when they can just go home and do whatever they want? Apparently the Tech Department’s reason for blocking the website was that they had a complaint from one of the teachers that they had found something offensive written in one of the articles. REALLY, TEACHER? How about you use that as the starting point of a lesson on how to discern information rather than demanding the school block an entire website! What will we block next? Google? There might be some offensive material on there, quick, get rid of it! MAYBE THEY’LL FORGET IT EVEN EXISTS!
So anyway I’ve been using a website about explorers that includes a few basic articles on different people, but half of the information is true and half of it is totally ridiculous. I ask them to read the articles and write down a few facts that they think are interesting that they’d like to share with the rest of the group. I have kids furiously scribbling down notes like, Ponce de Leon was on Larry King Live! Sir Francis Drake was trained as a pig handler! And did you know that Christopher Columbus called up his cousin Pizarro on his cell phone when he reached the New World? AMAZING, CHILDREN.
Almost every group has eventually, after hearing their classmates recount such idiotic facts, realized that I was tricking them. That “ah ha!” moment has been slow coming to some of them but once they do they think it’s kind of a riot. Except the group I had today. They just kept reading off facts like “Jacques Cartier lived on the streets of New York selling watches,” and everyone else in the class would nod dumbly. The “ah ha!” moment never came to them so finally I had to ask, “Does any of this information seem strange to you? Like maybe it is not all factually correct?”
One kid stared at me. Then he said, “Well I know my article was correct. It says Henry Hudson was abducted by aliens and I know I read that somewhere else.”
LESSON FAIL.
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21 Responses to “This Should Confirm That Every School Needs A Librarian”
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That’s great that you are teaching them how to analyze the internet. I never even occurred to me that it would be something you should/would need to teach, but it makes total sense.
Are you absolutely sure Henry Hudson wasn’t abducted by aliens?
I live in the Hudson Valley. Does that mean that after the alien’s siezed him they named part of their planet after him and I am actually living on AOERHEKSNKGBJ-89?
Send a copy of your blog to the budget committe…you should be teaching classes on “how to really use the library”
See, these are the kids who grow up and ask their teachers questions that are answered by the handout in front of them or the preceding 20 minutes of lecture. Lord.
I bet it’s hard to break kids of using Google, when Google is the easy way out and it’s RIGHT THERE. You’re right; this is why librarians are necessary! TAKE HEED, MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL SYSTEM.
So many good points here.
But I have to get that last kid’s back- When I was abducted by aliens a few years ago, Henry Hudson was definitely there on the mothership during my stay. I distictly remember, through the fog of alien tranquilizers, him playing bridge with Marilyn Monroe and Genghis Khan.
You owe that kid an aplogy.
Apology, that is.
Do your Chinese friends feel like they’re back in their homeland with the filtering of informational websites? Come ON.
Grrr.
I was going to say pretty much what R said, minus the part about the aliens, but I’ll just go ahead and agree with that too.
your middle schoolers are my high schoolers. but you are a better librarian because i don’t even have the energy to show them anything anymore. too busy trying to get out from under the avalanche of dusty reference books. yeah, reference books, as if anyone knows what those are anymore.
It just occured to me that I hadn’t seen a post from you in a while, so I stopped by. I’ve missed a few! Why aren’t these showing up in bloglines?!?
My supervising librarian just used that website a few weeks ago and it’s sort of amazing how long it takes them to catch on. Information gathering and critical thinking are NOT the same thing.
Sad times about that last class. Wow.
Not only does every school need a librarian, but they need a GOOD librarian. Like you. Seriously! They need someone who understands the internet to help THEM understand it too. Not someone who just blocks Wikipedia and calls it a day. You know?
hahahahahaaa!!
this story is awesome. Heart and double heart.
xox
Great to be back here…and how much I’ve missed!
I go GOOGLE a lot, but you’re right about not letting children get too dependent on it ’til they know how to filter information…
I so enjoyed this post…
Wow. I thought it was obvious that most explorers had been abducted by aliens (and then returned in the place they “discovered).
That’s great, NPW. One time Pat wrote a bunk book review of Catcher in the Rye on our site (http://www.patandfran.com/2004/06/30/book-review-catcher-rye-written-patrick-reed), and it is frightening to me when I look at our analytics and see someone who got to our site by entering “Holden Caufield character” into Google, because I KNOW it was someone aged 16 or younger and I am sure they’re writing a report that says something like, “I believe that this means [Holden] will lower his standards and focus more of his energy on fat chicks.”
PS – I’m sure you’re already doing this as well, but please, please, PLEASE stress the importance of not plagiarizing. I see way too much of it in my life from people who should know waaaaay better than to do that.
It kinda scares me that kids don’t realize that Wikipedia is not a relevant source…. that aside, I don’t need this story to prove that we need librarians in our school! I already know it!
apparently kids are really gullible about facts regarding explorers. Maybe you should tell them the word gullible isn’t in the dictionary and see if anyone bites.
Wikipedia, though convenient, is the death of civilization in some respects. Like this one.
I hate to laugh–because it’s really not funny–but I have to admit that this post made me snicker (and maybe snort) a time or two.
That aside, I think what you’re doing is great. I also think it’s important that people continue to use libraries, particularly for research purposes. Just perusing the stacks alone, you never know what you’ll come across. I like that.
Oh, dear. These kids are the ones who grow up and then send out emails to their entire company and say “Hey, here’s some really great information for all of you” in all caps and horrible spelling and then I have to say “Yeah, that’s already in our virtual library. Thanks for not using your resources.” Sigh. I wish these people would have had you as a librarian.