Assignment 3 Myths & One Liners There was one sentence that jumped out at me when I read this

very thought provoking article. Perhaps modern sciences most devastating effect is that it leads its believers to think it to be the only legitimate source of knowledge about the world. When I read this all I could think about is the number of students that I have encountered that seem to think that everything they read on the internet is true. I know the term modern science may be applied to any number of items, theories or concepts but in this instant I will apply it to the World Wide Web. The amount of students that seem to believe that the internet provides nothing but legitimate information is so disturbing. An article I read a short while ago from www.dailymail.co.uk entitled It Must Be True, I Read it on the Internet: Elusive Tree Octopus Proves How Gullible Web Generation Is fits well into the statement I quoted from Weizenbaum. The study was conducted by Donald Leu who directed students to a website that told of the plight of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus) the students not only believed all of the fabricated information, but also insisted on the existence of the octopus, even when researchers explained all the information had been made up. I agree with the Leus comments that students were unable to discern between fact and fiction as this seems to be a growing problem among the Facebook generation. I think educators need to make more of an effort to teach students to evaluate websites and locate tell-tale signs that would suggest unreliable information. Resources http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352929/Endangered-tree-octopus-proves-studentsbelieve-read-Internet.html Additional Resources: This is a handout that Donald Leu prepared, it looked interesting. http://www.newliteracies.uconn.edu/event_files/New_Literacies_for_New_Times_handout.pdf