TECHNOS

January 6, 2009

Information Literacy and Student Debate: Hot Button Issues for Student Discussion, Part II—Topics for Discussion

By Dennis Adams, Ph.D.

Perfecting the art of filtering a few points that really matter from an overwhelming amount of information is an ability that has to be cultivated in the 21st century.

To be fully literate today requires some understanding of the dilemmas and the controversial issues surrounding information technology. Issues that can spark student debate are all around us. They might involve social norms, personal conscience, marketing, privacy, authority, civil liberties, truth, life, sex, punishment, property, truth, etc. If a teacher can get two or three such factors clustered around a particular issue, a good small-group or whole-class discussion is relatively easy. You build on what students already know about a topic. But it sometimes helps if individuals, pairs, or small groups of students start by doing a little research or homework on the subject that they are going to debate. Following are some suggested topics, the specific questions in italics.

Rapid Thinking and Writing

Learning how to gather useful bits of information from the vast sea of sludge on the Web is part of media literacy instruction. Too much information can crowd out reality. We are now subjected to so much data and media bombardment that lengthy deliberation can actually get in the way of decision-making. Less can be more. Limiting access to information can sometimes improve outcomes. Perfecting the art of filtering a few points that really matter from an overwhelming amount of information is an ability that has to be cultivated in the 21st century.

With all the subjects to be covered in the classroom, writing can get abbreviated treatment. E-mail changes things, in school and out of school. During class time, some teachers allow students to use e-mail for class assignments in the belief that it helps them develop a knack for writing and exchanging narratives with students around the world. This may lead to strong interpersonal reflections about the topic being studied. It may enhance the ability to cooperatively create narratives from students’ imaginations. But it can also result in some bad writing habits. A good topic to explore is, Does the motivation and self-expression outweigh the poor grammar and spelling? Sloppy writing is one thing; but Does e-mail stimulate the writer to express her personal feelings and connect to subject matter in new ways?

Stopping Junk E-Mail

The e-mail system of today is a little like the British General Post Office in 1839—there was too much junk mail clogging the system because everything went out for free. In 1840, they came up with an ingenious plan: the first postage stamp, known as the Penny Black. It only cost a penny, but it shifted the burden of cost from the recipient to the sender, who had to prepay. (Today’s Penny Black Project is working on an e-mail equivalent.)

Google, Yahoo, America Online, Comcast, Verizon, and others are working to stop the flow of junk e-mail (“spam”). Hotmail alone catches nearly four billion pieces of unsolicited e-mail every day. Filters on your computer may help some. But nothing seems to slow down the volume or make it child friendly. The time wasted dumping the stuff is enormous. The problem is so bad that a few schools and homes have gotten off the Internet altogether. It would be a shame if crass commercialism and other dangers cut down such a useful educational tool. Getting ad messages “stamped” might cut the volume dramatically. But would this keep some of us from commercial or other e-mail of interest?

Bulk mailers of regular (stamped) junk mail often limit themselves to target audiences because they have to pay the postage bill. How might such a system be made to work for e-mail without disrupting the messages you care about?

Some newspapers improve profits by arranging their online sites so that readers get steered to advertisements when they click on certain words or headlines in a news article. It’s often hard to tell if you’re reading a news report or a related advertisement. Do paid advertiser links create the impression that advertising shaped the reporting?

The Adware and Spyware Plague

Companies like Google and Yahoo make a lot of money by having the Internet subjects you look up generate related and strategically placed ads. Ads can come up on school computers that neither parents nor teachers want children to be exposed to. But ads on Web sites are one thing; those that sneak in and set up shop on your computer’s hard drive are quite another.

Schools are now struggling to get rid of the adware and spyware that has invaded school computers. These things can come across the Internet connection when you visit a Web site and quietly install themselves on your computer. Without anyone even knowing it, hundreds of these virus-like adware and spyware programs may be lurking in school computers. The result is that everything digital and human is slowed down. With these things in the computer, students have to click past three or four ads before being able to view the site that they want to go to.

The file-sharing programs (music, etc.) that are so popular with students often contain spyware that records all kinds of personal information. If you can find and install them, anti-spyware programs may be able to help free your computer from these ugly creatures. But the ads may be even harder to deal with. This is just one more thing for under-funded schools to worry about.

The U.S. House of Representatives has discussed banning adware and spyware. But serious action has not yet been taken. A good student activity would be to explore the subject and write a letter or e-mail to their Member of Congress explaining the problems related to this secret insertion of electronic junkmail. Students might write or e-mail the Federal Trade Commission or some of the companies who outsource this work to hackers.

Bloggers Going after Traditional Journalists

Does the growing power of Internet blogs threaten traditional journalists with embarrassment, distortions, or falsehoods? On the other hand: Does blogging help individual citizens at the keyboard hold the mainstream media accountable?

Whatever your opinion, it is sometimes hard to figure out whether the real goal is digging up the truth, or if it’s going for the heads of traditional journalists whom the bloggers don’t happen to agree with. Where there is no oversight and no accountability, people get hurt. For example: The head of the news division at CNN quit after bloggers swarmed all over him. Did he deserve it? What about the phony “journalist” who spent two years asking easy questions (cleared ahead of time) at White House news conferences? A blogger finally nailed him. Can you think of (or find) any well-known journalists who have been attacked by gangs of bloggers?

Podcasts: Creating Your Own Broadcasts

Enthusiasts of every age are creating their own broadcasts on computers and posting them on a Web site. A podcast is a simple recording that a child (or anyone else) can make on a computer and post on a Web site, where it can be downloaded to an iPod or any MP3 player. Just as bloggers have influenced journalism, podcasters may have the potential to transform radio. For students, it’s getting something they care about out there for a potential audience of millions. Some like to edit their work, others just put it out there, dead air time and all. The rawness is part of the appeal. When it comes to numbers, most podcasters are pleased if they are viewed by a few hundred people each week.

National Public Radio and AirAmerica are just two examples of networks that have put shows into a podcast format. More recently, politicians and ad companies have discovered the scene. But more often, it’s just a couple of people discussing dinner, wine, fishing, God, bicycling, poetry, technology, and much more. Sometimes too much more. Podcastbunker.com reviews and ranks podcasts and provides links if you want to go to them. Note to teachers: Just keep an eye on what your students are up to!

Do podcasts reflect people’s desire for a personalized experience and control? How might they change human behavior? How much of what’s out there is appropriate for children and young adults?

In the plugged-in world of the Internet, iPods, DVDs, CD players, cable, and cell phones, it’s not easy for teachers and parents to monitor everything a child sees or hears. Should anyone who thinks seriously about culture be concerned about the violence, coarseness, and vulgarity on the Web and in popular entertainment? Will the result of civic concern about the media lead us onto a slippery slope of censorship or self-censorship? Or will it lead us out on the path of responsible citizenship?

Databases and Privacy

You are in one or more consumer databases if you ever had a cell phone, received mail, taken a job, applied for a Social Security card, gone to court, or obtained a license for anything (bicycle, dog, car, etc.). This list could go on and on. Be advised that all of your personal information is for sale—it’s also open to data miners and theft by crooks. Current laws focus on things like medical records and credit reports, rather than protecting the privacy of individuals. Should you be notified every time somebody starts going after information about you? [Note: The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a digital rights group based in Washington, D.C., is a good place to find out more on this topic.]

Webcams and Surveillance Cameras

It may be interesting to view the sunset from an unattended camera on a distant mountain top, or view the fog going through the Golden Gate Bridge from the comfort of Miami, FL. But from the school locker room to the park bench, surveillance cameras are increasingly intruding into whatever private spaces we may have left. The majority of these cameras are unsecured and easily available to anyone on the Net. When passwords are required, it only slows up unwanted access. What do you value more: personal privacy or the security that may come from Web cams all over the place? Can you balance the two?

A quick Google search will yielded us more than 10,000 Web cameras that we could access, all of which allow the viewing of all kinds things going on around the world. And it usually isn’t illegal to view them. In fact, many experts consider what can be found with a commercial search engine is in the public domain and not covered by privacy laws. Traffic and weather cams are deliberately providing live video feeds for the public. But from the atomic energy laboratories, to railroad trains with hazardous contents, to military prisons in Iraq, there are Web sites that somebody should try harder to keep closed to the public. How do viewers get in? One easy way is to search for a specific video camera signature. This allows you to skip a secured Web site and go directly to the live video.

The new cell phones with Web-cam features and wireless Internet connections are particularly vulnerable. If you can get anywhere near a videophone, you can pick up the signal and capture the stored video, along with frequently called numbers, messages, and everything else stored in the unit. All it takes is a small notebook computer and a few accessories from Radio Shack. By the way, it’s legal to use the equipment to find vulnerable cell phones. Reporters have done it to point out potential problems. But they have stopped at that point, because it’s probably not legal to tap in and view or record what you find.

Why do so many people put so much classified and private video information out into the air or onto the Web? Security cameras are fed into the Net because it’s the cheapest and easiest way to get the video signal into the security office, the police station, or government agency. Some producers of such video are too busy with other things to pay much attention to public concerns. Others are relatively new to information technology and the potential problems. (Many field agents in the FBI, for example, only got online access at work in 2002.) Sometimes governmental officials simply hire low-level employees to handle security. At other times it’s outsourced to poorly supervised subcontractors all over the map. Should people out of the country be handling a whole range of confidential video and print information?

Artificial Intelligence Machines

In spite of all the science fiction, the cognitive gap between computers and humans remains wide. A lower form of artificial intelligence can now do things like suggest corrected spellings and evaluate loan applicants at a bank. But creating a computer that can read and learn at a sophisticated level remains more of a goal than a reality for artificial intelligence researchers. Science fiction movies like The Matrix are just that: fiction. But when we move out beyond today’s technological horizon, will we find machines that intelligently decide what to do based on their reservoir of human knowledge?

Does Information Technology Matter?

Research by the Standish Group, a software research and consulting firm, found that only 16 percent of big, well-thought-out, software initiatives in the business world were completed as promised. Quick decisions about information technology (using off-the-shelf components) fared better. Still, most IT projects did not get done on time or on budget. From the FBI to IBM, newly designed computer applications have rarely fulfilled the original specifications. Worse yet, nearly a third get canceled outright. Projects that are completed usually have overruns that amount to at least 50 percent of the original budget.

One of the most deeply held assumptions underlying today’s economy is that information technology is worth the enormous expenditures. But, is IT always critical to competitive advantage and strategic success?

A more philosophical topic for debate among older students: How does IT serve as a catalyst for globalization and link the fates of wildly different and distant societies?

Information Literacy and Collaborative Discussion

To one degree or another, information literacy is becoming part of the curriculum in many school districts. The topic has also been recognized in a national context. The Educational Testing Service, for example, has developed a test that measures a number of information literacy concepts, including a student’s ability to evaluate online information.

Traditional modes of face-to-face discussion and debate can amplify logical, rational, and linear habits of thought in ways superior to technology-mediated communication. But information technology offers additional possibilities and patterns for understanding. To succeed in the Information Age, students must be able to make the best of available technology—and the best of each other.

As the theory of Constructivism suggests, learning is amplified when students actively collaborate in the construction of knowledge. Connecting new information to what is already known is part of the process, and face-to-face communication is usually the best way to go about constructing knowledge and understanding. But when you can’t interact directly with others, e-mail and the Web can be vast help lines. Students can select people online to provide answers to their questions. (See, for instance, Wikipedia.) Of course, students’ level of information literacy has a lot to do with how effective they are in choosing whom to ask and checking on the validity of answers.

In the classroom, the quality of student discussion and interaction has a lot to do with how much students learn about any subject. It’s more than rearranging the chairs—success depends on students knowing how to work in groups, identifying the nature of the task, demonstrating familiarity with subject matter, and having interest in the topic. After the other factors are in place, we suggest having the small group assign a recorder who takes notes. The recorder-reporter talks and participates like everyone else; but after the group work is over, he or she reports back to the whole class.

At each stage of the discussion, the teacher’s enthusiasm and experience play a major role. It is the teacher who suggests many of the topics, sets the procedural guidelines, facilitates group work, and pulls the whole class together for a final wrap-up report from each group. Through such collaborative thought and discussion, students can go a long way toward one of the major goals of information literacy: making sense of their technology-intensive environment.

Structuring debates around technology-related issues can help teachers and students develop a sense of ownership over the how, what, and why of information literacy instruction. The digitization of so much that used to seem tangible, real, and personally manageable makes face-to-face communication more important than ever. Information can be stored in databases, but knowledge resides in people. Additionally, information and knowledge are of most value when they can be shared in a social context. Collaborative human interaction still opens many doors to learning. And just because students learn something as a group doesn’t mean that they can’t do something alone when they have to. As Vygotsky has suggested, what students can do together today they can do alone tomorrow. Education, at its best, will always involve discussing issues, collaborating, and learning together.

In Part I of this article, published in the August issue of Technos e-Zine, Dr. Adams provided some guidelines for organizing student debate.

References and Resources

Carr, N. (2004) Does it Matter: Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Gladwell, M. (2005) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Norton, P. and Wilburg, K. (2003) Teaching with Technology, second edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth Publishing.

O’Harrow, R. (2005) No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society. NY: Free Press.

Solove, D. (2004) The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age, NY: NYU Press.

Stross, R. (2005) E-mail: ddomain@nytimes.com.

Vygotsky, L. (1934/1986) Thought and Language, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.