Students and teachers are constantly exhorted to evaluate content for credibility. Here’s an interesting case:
Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
A Fake Expert Named Martin Eisenstadt and a Phony Think Tank Fool Bloggers and the Mainstream News Media – NYTimes.com.
I’ve known for months that Eisenstadt is a hoax. I’m a little shocked at the degree to which mainstream media was taken in.
One of the ongoing issues for everybody in these early days of the 21st Century is how to know what’s real, what’s true. It’s made more difficult by the ease with which deception can be promoted. It’s always been a problem, by the way. Micheal Eisenstadt is part of a long tradition that goes back at least to Martinus Scriblerus in the early 1700s.
As the field considers assessing 21st Century skills, it might be wise to keep this in mind.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:20 am
We are all aware that credibility is of a concern with the internet (and television for that matter). I think that this is one of the hardest things to teach children. They think that just because they see it online it has to be true. Just as we stress “plagiarism” we need to also stress “credibility”. However, I think I could have a hard time with certain things as well…especially when news media and others get behind issues. When you see it everywhere it is hard not to think it’s true.
This is definitely a hard issue.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Teaching social studies really requires students to be made aware of credibility and bias. Every account of histroy before television or radio was written or reported by a person who probably added their bit of spin on it. You must look at the perspective of the author of historical accounts. An Union soldier in the Civil War would give an account of a battle that a Confederate soldier would not. The stories may be similar but usually there given to maker their side come out if not victorious, with their morality in good shape. Research articles too, can be similar. The majority of the time a person can take a stand on a subject and find enough research to back their viewpoint, just as the person on the other side can find similar research. Video and Audio clips have given some more credibility to historical events because we can see them with our own eyes, although a cameraman or an audio engineer can certainly capture the images and sounds the want the public to hear.
As for as Mr. Eisendstadt it sort of reminds me a bit of an Al Pacino Film, Simone where he plays a director who creates an actress on a computer and put her in his films. The actress goes on to become very popular, but the world has been fooled because all along she doesn’t exist.
I can also not count the number of emails I received during the last few weeks of the Presidential Campaign with information about the candidates from reporters, experts in financial fields only to do some research and find out that most of the info was false and that most of the names used in the emails were fake.
November 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
To me, the issue is critical thinking. I am pleased to know that teaching students to look for bias is part of the agenda – people of all ages and educational levels are often led to believe what they want to believe already and become convinced that there is support for thier stance. The other issue is technological savvy – I really don’t know for sure that I can verify or identify the type of blogging hoax that the article was about. My policy is to be pessimestic, taking everything I see with a grain of salt until proven otherwise…..
November 16th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Some people take everything they see and hear at face value. I think that this is only getting worse because they can actually see videos online that really get them to buy in to what people are saying. Teachers need to teach their students to check credibility before they believe something.
I couldn’t help but laugh at a teachers meeting we had about a month ago. In the meeting the video of the boy giving the speech at the beginning of the year to the faculty and staff of the school system in I believe Texas was shown by a member of our board of education. (We watched the video in this class earlier this semester.) She went on and on about the speech and I had to break it to her and everyone else after the meeting that he practiced the speech and didn’t even write it himself. She didn’t check the credibility of the video before she showed it and I wonder how many teachers have seen that speech. When you hear something like that you want to believe it is real, but a watchful eye should tell you that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Students do believe just about everything they see or hear on the internet. “If it’s there, it has to be true.” I don’t know how many students have said this to me. They have to be told (numerous times) that they need to check the credibility of the material they are reading. Just because they can read about a topic and watch a video about it doesn’t make it correct. They need to know that they can’t believe everything they read, see, or hear. This issue needs to be nipped in the bud. I think there also needs to be some control on what is posted on the internet, especially where videos are concerned.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
It is very easy for students to believe everything they see online but I think it is our job, as teachers to show them examples such as these and teach them to research information and not just take it at face value. I always dreaded the questions that began with, “I saw on the internet that…” I think that encouraging students to think for themselves and be skeptical about what they ready, not just on the internet, is just one step forward toward the critical thinkers that we want them to be. We also need to set the example. Teachers need to strongly research any material that they use in their classes that originates from the internet. Look at the quality of the information before passing it on to students.