Before we read "Is Your Memory Online?", the first reading in unit 3 of Skillful, there are a few questions to respond to.
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Discuss these questions in a comment below.
- What do you use the Internet for?
- Do you think that the Internet makes students today better (or less) informed than students 50 years ago? Why?
- How do you know the information you find on the Internet is accurate?
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Reference
I am constantly amazed at how much I use the internet. It didn't exist about 25 years ago, but today, I need it, really need it, for everything. I bank online. I read online. I Google. I keep my contacts online. I share my life online. I write and publish online. Everything is online; well, I can't actually eat online yet, but I do order food online.
ReplyDeleteA couple of weeks ago I had a minor embarrassment shopping at Tops for my daily groceries. I normally carry just one debit card that doesn't have much money on it, and the bank declined to pay for my shopping! Whipping out my mobile, I had transferred more money to the account almost before I had finished apologizing to the checkout cashier and when she tried again, there was no problem. That sort of easy convenience did not exist 20 years ago.
On my last visit to Australia, I realised how addicted I am. I thought I could get by on wi-fi, but after a couple of hours in Sydney, it just wasn't enough, so I bought I temporary SIM card to connect my phone via an Australian service provider for a couple of weeks. Relief! The messaging with friends in Thailand and contact with my banks would continue unhampered.
How do I judge the accuracy of information on the Internet? I think I do this pretty well. I've been pratising critical reading for decades, and the same criteria apply to online sources as to paper based stuff. I wish some of my family and friends would be a bit more critical. SOme of them are in the habit of sharing sweet stories that really are garbage - usually involving amazingly brave children or horrifying threats to be aware of, and they are almost all lies. Sometimes I offer gentle advice: if the details are missing, like names, dates, places names and so on, it's almost certainly fake. If it's too amazing and no solid statistics are cited from a reliable source, it's almost certainly a lie. But whatever its faults, the Internet is wonderful tool for modern human life, and I'm sure it will get even better.
Although I worry about what will be left for me to do when my devices can take over eating for me.
I usually use internet to kill my time by browsing on many websites or listening to the music; however, sometime I use internet for learning especially for something that make me confused in the class or somethings that I interested such as music.
ReplyDeleteI think that internet make some group of people's life worse than the past because they use internet in the wrong way. Someone use internet to play games which I considered that this action is wasting time and don't have any advantage any more. I think like this because most of my children in the school use internet in the wrong way. They use internet to kill their time NOT learn something new.
I know that information that I found on internet is accuracy by looking at the original source and the name of authors. However, most of the time information that I can found on internet is one side of the story that writers can make it up. That's why I'm not really trust information from the internet.
What do you use the Internet for?
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge effect of the internet to my life. I use the internet every single day unless i can access it. I use the internet for searching for information. My study, for instance, I use the internet for search information for my research. Not only for my study thing, but also when I want to buy something or when I want to find some cafe for my dinner, I always read or watch the product reviews from the internet. Another thing is learning. I learn coding from the internet. There are a lot of good website out there to teach me many thing. I also download and watch movie from the internet. And I access to my email and contact which my from through the internet. The internet is a big impact to me life.
Do you think that the Internet makes students today better (or less) informed than students 50 years ago? Why?
I think internet makes students better for their life if they use the internet in appropriate ways. My younger brother, for example, use the internet to learn about scientific lab by his own. I got the better understanding in science subject in his school than I was in the past. Compare to the people in the past 50 year, they only learn that think through the school which is limited of resources.
How do you know the information you find on the Internet is accurate?
If I want to check the accuracy of information, I will read many website and check the ideas which is the same or not and I tread to believe in reliable website which is popular.
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ReplyDeleteCurrently, I usually use the internet to find information, if I am interesting that. However, when I was a student, I usually found research journals, e-books and used dictionaries on the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think the internet helps students today better than half century ago because they can find anything on the internet if they interest that.
However, other experts argue that they think the internet affect students to don't try to remember.
In my view, I'm not sure but I suggest to find on reliable websites such as e-libraries, academic journals and information form reliable universities.
I grow up in Technology or digital period, my diary life always involves using internet on whole day. I sometimes use internet for find the time schedule of bus or some information of bus numbers. Normally, I use internet to search information for my works or playing mucis on youtube. When I'm stressed, I watch some animation or movie on google becuase I don't have television in my room. In my opinion, the internet make more convenience to us; on the contract, the internet is able to make us lose concentrate on our works or use in wrong ways.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the internet makes students today better informed than old generation of students. However, they should care the source of information becuase some information is flexible that depends on author's bias or not facts. They should find trusted source that from facts. Moreover, they can find more information on website.
It tents to my responds on second paragraph, anyhow, some information that we find are not accurate. I think I find same topic on several source or read general information on wikipedia. I am able to compare the information with each other. If information is in acadimic area, I will find journal or article on acadimic website such as sciencedircet and google scholar. For inforamation is in another area, I will look up on wikipedia and book to compare its information.
I use the internet for chatting with my family and friends, posted on Facebook, looking up for information and watching some movies. The internet, however, is not my recreation method. I would rather go outside without a phone. That might be the reason why I felt comfortable in China without connection with Facebook and Gmail. Sometimes it's better to be disconnected. The life without the internet from time to time can give the person a slow life and time to look at things closely.
ReplyDeleteI think that the students today are more informed than the students 50 years ago through the internet. Imagine the world 50 years ago where the access to the internet was impossible. People consult with encyclopedia for things. The community was small. Even to learn a certain language is almost impossible. At the present, every single person in the world who has an access to the internet can get his or her hands on millions of online lectures. Information is everywhere. If I want to learn a new language, say Spanish, I could just search on a youtube and learn it. Although I never have tried chatting with strangers on Skype in English, I heard that someone has done so and it is effective. I just feel a bit weird to talk to a stranger though. Anyway yes we are more informed now than in the past.
How could I know that the information on the internet is accurate? Perhaps if it's on wikipedia and a popular topic it should be accurate. What I said is that "it should" means that it might not be accurate. As it was mentioned in the blog post that I posted, people said that Trump got to be a president-elect due to the fact that Facebook facilitate the fake rumors. Notwithstanding, we never know what the truth is. The same as in the past way before the internet become viral. In the past, history was written by the conqueror, leaving the world becoming ignorant of the truth. Internet, however, offer the opportunity for the losers to write their own story which might be true or false. The most important element to know before we read any article is that who wrote the article. This will give us information of the author and the bias that the author might have. If the piece of work was written anonymously, it would be reasonable that we don't believe the story, except for that there is an evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the author must conceal his or her identity because of any threat to her life.