The Information Diet
This maybe my favorite read yet. I'm not sure if it was because of our current climate or it has been at the forefront of my thoughts lately with all of the current events in our country and how it is reported on social media and traditional media.
The Information Diet and how it parallels to the food industry or the american diet is a fascinating analogy. When we first developed as a nation we had lots of farmers and our food sources we consumed were organic and came from farm to table (the origin). As our society developed, so did our ability to manufacture foods that we could buy from many different sources. The same can be said about our information, originally came from a few credible sources but now we have to sort (or synthesize) through all the different labels and packaging ( both food and information) to find out if something is good for us or not. In my quest for better health I had to learn how to read food packaging labels to figure out if something is a healthy (valid) source or not, now with 24-7 all access to information I have use the same approach. Until this past year and after reading this book, I never realized how much mis-information is out there!
With all of the great ideas from the book, the one that resonates most with me is affirmation vs. information and how we moved beyond that and start effectively communicating with our students how to sort through it and make good decisions based upon those skills. If we don't, they might start start bungee jumping with a cord!
"To start effectively communicating with our students how to sort through it (the information), and make good decisions based upon those skills." So true. The book was scary in its implications. I know I need to begin with my own habits, making sure I don't spend/waste time so I turn into a zombie women. I also need to be more aware of the credibility of the information I'm letting into my mind. I appreciated that the author began with the idea that we are in control of ourselves. It makes it feel that this isn't an unsolvable problem. Education is key. As you suggest, effectively communicating with our students. I'm presently working on my checklist for class. I think that's a good starting point. Reading the other sites where they have already developed some checklists is great. I may begin using one of them for my students, until I get my own into a shareable state.
ReplyDeleteI have issues with affirmation vs. information with students in the past. Many of them are quick to deem something as “fake news” because it does not align with their beliefs. Teaching media literacy to middle school students is a tough balance. On one hand, you want the students to become critical media consumers; however, parents may become upset if the teacher contradicts something the student has heard at home. The best practice is to promote the skills and let the students decide for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities between food and information obesity are, indeed, striking. I believe that one of the most severe causes of our information obesity is our need for affirmation and how it produces a distorted, one-dimensional interpretation of reality. As educators I believe that we should work toward making our students more aware of our own tendencies as media consumers and help them be more conscious users of information. The responsibility is ours.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope we can prevent the bungee jumping with a cord, although, I see some cool math skills we could certainly find a way to tie in...authentic problem! :) But in all seriousness, you got it right on, there is so much misinformation out there. Creating the website evaluator was a powerful, having students implement it would be even better. As our world continues to change they are going to have to be good users of information, scaffolds such as the website evaluator, can help them learn things to look for.
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