I have nothing against the land down under, but I can't even fake a decent Australian accent. I bring this up because a recent posting on a blog called "Using Wiki in Education" gave me a nice write-up, but got that minor detail incorrect.
I'm sure the author, one Stewart Mader, wrote the inaccuracy as an honest mistake. This is unfortunately more than I can say for some others out there.
It seems that people wiping their feet on the truth are coming out of the woodwork. Wired News had to pull more than one story by a freelance reporter who faked his sources, Reuters got its own black eye thanks to some doctored photos, and don't get me started about fake MySpace accounts.You'd think that at least textbooks would remain pure, with all of the checking and rechecking before they go to print, but no. I've used both art and health books (Yes, I taught health. My training as a Boy Scout and the son of an RN worked out well.) where I had to say "The book says this, but in reality, this."
This all goes to show how much we need to verify our sources, and how much we, as teachers, need to teach our students that not everything they read is true just because someone managed to publish it.
Just think - if we could raise an entire generation of people that weren't gullible enough to fall for spam, junk email might actually cease to exist. A daydream, I know, but hope springs eternal.
Why don’t you send me an audio comment for my 100th podcast? Only a few more podcasts untill the big event!
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