NewsTrust - Digital Learning - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

How to Use the Internet Wisely, for Your Health and Your Country's

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Howard Rheingold - May. 13 (Opinion) - Use the following methods and tools to protect yourself from toxic bad info. Use them and then pass them along to others. Promote the notion that more info literacy is a practical answer to the growing info pollution. Be the change you want to see. Although the Web undermines authority (by enabling anybody to publish), authority is still useful as one clue to credibility in a detective hunt that accounts for many other clues. Claims to authority, however, need to be questioned. I might add credibility to my assessment if a source is a verified professor at a known institution of higher learning, an authentic MD or PhD, but I would not subtract it from people without credentials whose expertise seems authentic. If you are going to grant credibility to people whose expertise is based on being a professor of something, make sure that assertion is accurate. Don't stop at simply verifying that the claim to be a professor is valid if you are looking for scientific credibility. The next step is to use the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index that derives a score from the scholar's publications, citations by other scholars, grants, honors, and awards. If you want to get even more serious, download a free copy of Publish or Perish software, which analyzes scientific citations from Google Scholar according to multiple criteria. Or use the h-index to calculate how many times other scientists have cited a particular source. Again, don't trust just one source; triangulate.

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The Art of Getting Net Smart

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Shel Israel, Howard Rheingold - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - Howard Rheingold is a teacher, thinker, futurist and grower of the tallest sunflowers I have ever seen. He’s one the most profound thinkers of what happens online and how it changes the world. Just about every ten years, he checks in with a new book that seems to chart the course for the next decade or so. In 1993, he wrote The Virtual Community , which portended a world where people would share friendship and information with each other online, just as the first browser for the worldwide web was being popularized.

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Howard Rheingold: Knowing How to Collaborate Is Essential

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Roland Legrand - Mar. 17 (Interview) - I just read the Kindle edition of "Net Smart," written by writer and critic Howard Rheingold. The book provides a thoughtful analysis of some major theories and discourses about the "always on" era, while at the same time giving new insights and practical advice about the literacies we need to thrive in this environment. I've followed Rheingold's posts and videos for some time now, attended presentations, and participated in some of his courses. He's not only an expert in virtual communities (a term he coined himself) and social media, but also teaches digital journalism. I had the opportunity to interview him recently about the implications of his thinking on media, journalism and journalism education.

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Five Ways Amazon Could Improve Kindle

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PC World - By Melissa J. Perenson - Feb. 09 (Review) - Rumors abound as to the features we'll find in Kindle 2. Those rumors should be put to rest at a press conference on Monday morning, where Amazon is expected to officially unveil Kindle 2. From the looks of the leaked Kindle 2 photos and information, the new Kindle will be notably thinner and less angular--which means Amazon has addressed at least part of the first item on our list for Kindle improvements. So what else could Amazon offer in Kindle 2? The wish list below considers not only Amazon's need to stay competitive with other e-book readers, but also takes into account the competitive pressures Kindle could face from other mobile devices, like the Apple iPhone 3G and T-Mobile's G1 (I, for one, enjoy reading news and books on my mobile handset, and am thrilled by the prospect of a news that Amazon is working on a Kindle book reader for other platforms, too.

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Journalism Education's Broader, Deeper Mission

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - By Dan Gillmor - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - Accepting an award from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School for Journalism & Mass Communication several months ago, former PBS NewsHour host Robert McNeil called journalism education probably "the best general education that an American citizen can get" today. Perhaps he was playing to his audience, at least to a degree. Many other kinds of undergraduate degree programs could lay claim to a similar bragging rights; a strong liberal arts degree, no matter what the major, has great value. Still, there's no doubt that a journalism degree, done right, is an excellent foundation for a student's future. Even if McNeil overstated the case, however, his words should inspire journalism educators to ponder their role in a world where these programs' traditional reason for being is increasingly murky. Our raison d'etre is open to question largely because the employment pipeline of the past, a progression leading from school to jobs in media and related industries, is (at best) in jeopardy. Yet journalism education could and should have a long and even prosperous life ahead -- if its practitioners make some fundamental shifts.

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Technology not the panacea for education

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Todd Oppenheimer - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - Now that Arne Duncan, President Obama's new education secretary, has presented the administration's $150 billion plan for reviving our education system, it's time to start separating Obama's smart ideas for schools from his dumb ones. The first folly Duncan could dispense with - at an enormous cost saving - would be Obama's desire to outfit the nation's classrooms with new computers. His big push for this idea occurred in December, when he said, "Every child should have the chance to get online," Obama said, "and they'll get that chance when I'm president - because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

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Early Childhood iPhone App Says "I See Ewe"

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Daniel Donahoo - Feb. 03 (Review) - I think I See Ewe works because it is grounded in early childhood education. The voice over could be heard in any early childhood education setting and the images are bright and simple. The children are given direction and their successes are re-enforced. As anyone with a young child will know, their capacity to quickly understand the touchscreen interface is a testament to human adaptability.

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