Defending The Truth In A Wikipedia World
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Transcript of Defending The Truth In A Wikipedia World
Defending the Truth in a Wikipedia World
Elisabeth E. TullyDirector, OWHLGrandparents Day, 2008
Alden Elisabeth, March 24, 2008
Defending the Truth “How many legs
does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”
Abraham Lincoln
For example:
Unfortunately, it’s not TRUE
Truth by Consensus
The Millennial generation is immersed in Web 2.0.
They CREATEThey COLLABORATEThey CONNECT
Cumul.us
A weather site where users collaborate to report on and predict the weather.
A new culture: belief over fact
“Collateral misinformation”
“Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions. Define your world”
Searching for History on the Web
Ten Typical History Terms
World History U.S. History
•Frederick the Great •Otto von Bismarck •Panama Canal •Konrad Adenauer •Taliban
•Fourteenth Amendment •Roosevelt Corollary •Dust Bowl •Taft-Hartley Act •War Powers Act
Is the information accurate?
Maybe
Stephen Colbert calls this “Wikiality”
The big question:
What is TRUTH in a world of user-generated information?
Truth: A History and Guide for the Perplexed
• Information has replaced knowledge
• The truth of information doesn’t seem to matter very much.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
Information vs. Knowledge
Do students know the difference?
(Do they care?)• They are impatient.• They lack critical thinking
skills and experience.
What do they really know?
"Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University's sociology department, has discovered that students aren't nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume."– Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2008
Horizon Report 2005
Students use technology for:
• Social networking• Entertainment• Task-related activities
PEW Internet & American Life
“Internet searchers are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve.”
– 92% of those who use search engines say they are confident about their searching
– 87% of searchers say they have successful search experiences
most of the time,
This is where librarians come in
Example: How to improve a search
Three strategies• Phrase searching with quotes• Site operators • Exclusions with the - sign
A search for information on: Seasonal Depression• Typical Student Search:
Depression• My search:depression –great seasonal
FAQ site:edu symptoms “seasonal affective disorder”
Example questions:
Who is the Prince of Pop, and what is the blotted line that he made famous?
Which of William Shakespeare’s plays is said to refer to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605?
Information Literacy