First of all I would like to say that I was quite surprised to find among the comments that my peers left for me last week about YouTube an observation by Mr Eric Shackle, an Australian retired journalist. I didn’t expect that someone living on the other side of the world could read my blog, I mean, I’m not that naïve, I know that people from all around the world can read it (there is a reason if we call it World Wide Web!), but I didn’t expect it and it made me very happy. Moreover Mr Shackle’s comments are useful because our topic this week deals with the evaluation of sources of information, in particular Internet sources.
Last week I was surfing the Net looking for some information about Youtube and going through various Websites I read that the oldest user in Youtube is a 78 years old man named Peter, but Mr Shackle corrected me and claimed that there is an older user. I felt a little bit stupid because I realized that I trusted those information without doing some cross-checking. Well, we can always learn from our mistakes and in the future I will pay more attention. Anyway thanks to Eric’s intervention I started to think about the way I cope with Internet sources of information and I noticed that I have a little tendency to accept whatever comes from the Internet as true and that I don’t spend enough time checking if the Websites I explore and the information they offer are reliable or not. It is noteworthy that when I read articles, news or books I always do it with a critical eye and I do care about their authors, purposes and target whereas my behaviour is different when I deal with information I find on the Net. I will be quite frank, when I look for information on the Web this is the way I proceed: I open Google, I type the keywords and wait for the search engine to find the Websites, then I check them all and focus on the those which are in my opinion the most interesting. Usually I read all their contents, check their links and only in the end I take a look to the author and if there is a copyright and a bibliography. After having read the tips I found in the three Websites Mrs Guth suggested us, I realized that the way I proceed is quite bad. The main problem is that when I enter a Website I do not ask myself all those questions (but probably I should): I use the Net because it is fast and it helps me saving time, if I stop and I start thinking about the tips it is not saving time any longer. Theoretically I’m aware that this a very superficial way to deal with information and Web material in general but practically this is what I always do.
Finally, I found the tips in the Websites cited in Bloggingenglish very useful and I particularly appreciated the considerations about plagiarism and about the search engines. I use Google all the time but it is important to know that there are other ways to get the Websites with the information we need. I was also struck by the fact the University of Essex suggests not to use essay banks: I often came across these collections of essays and I always thought it was a good idea to read them also because some of them were really well written. Anyway from now on I will handle Internet sources of information more carefully and will use all the tips.
Let me what you think, I’m looking forward to reading your comments.
Last week I was surfing the Net looking for some information about Youtube and going through various Websites I read that the oldest user in Youtube is a 78 years old man named Peter, but Mr Shackle corrected me and claimed that there is an older user. I felt a little bit stupid because I realized that I trusted those information without doing some cross-checking. Well, we can always learn from our mistakes and in the future I will pay more attention. Anyway thanks to Eric’s intervention I started to think about the way I cope with Internet sources of information and I noticed that I have a little tendency to accept whatever comes from the Internet as true and that I don’t spend enough time checking if the Websites I explore and the information they offer are reliable or not. It is noteworthy that when I read articles, news or books I always do it with a critical eye and I do care about their authors, purposes and target whereas my behaviour is different when I deal with information I find on the Net. I will be quite frank, when I look for information on the Web this is the way I proceed: I open Google, I type the keywords and wait for the search engine to find the Websites, then I check them all and focus on the those which are in my opinion the most interesting. Usually I read all their contents, check their links and only in the end I take a look to the author and if there is a copyright and a bibliography. After having read the tips I found in the three Websites Mrs Guth suggested us, I realized that the way I proceed is quite bad. The main problem is that when I enter a Website I do not ask myself all those questions (but probably I should): I use the Net because it is fast and it helps me saving time, if I stop and I start thinking about the tips it is not saving time any longer. Theoretically I’m aware that this a very superficial way to deal with information and Web material in general but practically this is what I always do.
Finally, I found the tips in the Websites cited in Bloggingenglish very useful and I particularly appreciated the considerations about plagiarism and about the search engines. I use Google all the time but it is important to know that there are other ways to get the Websites with the information we need. I was also struck by the fact the University of Essex suggests not to use essay banks: I often came across these collections of essays and I always thought it was a good idea to read them also because some of them were really well written. Anyway from now on I will handle Internet sources of information more carefully and will use all the tips.
Let me what you think, I’m looking forward to reading your comments.
4 commenti:
Hi Giada!
After reading through the three websites Sarah suggested us, I realized that my approach towards internet sources was quite superficial as well..I mean, I didn’t spend time verifying the authenticity and the reliability of the information I came across. However, thanks to what I've learnt browsing through these websites, now I’ll try to follow all the criteria they suggested in order to find more selected and trustworthy information...I think this will be very useful when I have to write my master thesis as well!
bye!
Silvia
Hi Giada,
as you and Silvia, before reading the tips from the universities that Sarah suggested us, my approach to web sources of information were very superficial!
I didn't pay attention to the authenticity and reliability of the information I came across: this is not good, because it often happens, as you said, that what you read is not true!!!
I think the tips suggested from the university of San Diego are very useful and explanatory and from now on I'll look at them very carefully!!!
See you tomorrow!
Bye bye,
Letizia
Hi girls!
I completely agree with you. Our approach towards the Internet is quite superficial and naive. I mean, I think that we are fascinated by the Web first of all because it is the fastest way of retrieving information of any kind. If we think about evaluating criteria any time and spend time checking them, the task will turn to be very time-demanding. However, we have to think about the consequences of our approach especially if we're browsing the Web for something very important, like our master thesis.
See you tomorrow!
Elena
Hi Giada!
I want to thank you for you looked at the video I linked to on my last post. Did you believe it to be true? I did, and I must confess I realize it was fake only afterwards...this man likes kidding youtube viewers, and he does it perfectly! A perfect example of how appearance can fool us, I'd say!
However you don't have to feel stupid for Mr Shackle's comment at all. First you cannot know everything about a topic and e-soues are so numerous that cross-checkings cannot be complete. Second, what happened is wonderful: www worked for what was aimed, that is, exchange information among people who can live in two diff continents as well!! That's a positive aspects!
About what you wrote on your post I'd say I didn't notice that tip on essay banks. I guess they wrote it to avoide that some student go to essay banks and 'steal' ideas or texts not of their own. Actuallt I don't know...
Last thing: I used to do like you. I read everything and then look for authorship or references. I wasted a lot of time. Better to invert the processes, as you wrote.
Good job, Giada!
Bye, bye!
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