Discussion Question #4: Reliability of Web Resources
October 5, 2011
A lively discussion took place around the theme of the reliability of web resources during week 3, discussion question #2, of GMU’s Web 2.0 graduate course. The week’s question dealt with features common to blogs, microblogs, wikis, RSS and RSS readers. Amina’s contribution to the conversation brought up a serious concern with the material created in these forums, saying that it is inherently unreliable. She states, “I believe such malleable tools allows shared knowledge to be permeated with irrelevant, inaccurate and/or biased information. In my opinion this would lead to unreliable resources that students will come to rely on and frame their working knowledge upon.” Very strongly put! Discussion followed, countering the real and perceived reliability of traditional learning materials such as text books, versus Web 2.0 resources. Theresa entitled her response, “Are one-sided history books any better?” and questions, “Since it doesn’t look like we are going back, how can we teach this next generation to use the tools that will replace the old history books?” Clinton countered the supposition of wiki reliability by stating, “questioning the lack of reliability of wikis is a common misconception amongst the educational community”, and linked to an article about the reliability of Wikipedia. The conversation brought up some interesting points and ideas, such as Heather’s that maybe peer reviewed and approved wiki contributions are in our future.
The discussion brought up a topic that, in my opinion, will have to be dealt with in the future, with the explosion of the use of the web in education. How will we as educators make sure that the web resources we are using are reliable?
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Re: “With the explosion of the use of the web in education. How will we as educators make sure that the web resources we are using are reliable?”
Excellent question Debbie. It seems to me that educators will need to be very diligent with checking the sources of the information that they are using in their classrooms and take in consideration some of the following:
– researching the author and publisher of the information
– when was the information published (is it outdated)
– evaluation of the sources of information to see if they are credible
As with the thought of “one-sided history books” we will encounter the same issues with information on the web. I can imagine that this will be quite tricky and I see this as being an issue that also needs to be addressed.
Reliability is tough when it comes to the internet. Information is not seen to be as protected as a book or newspaper. I see that the web will have to fight for the acceptance of reliability for a while longer. However it is not an impossible feat. As more reliable content makes it to the web, it will in overcome the unreliable distractions in the end.
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