The Great Seduction
May 4, 2008
Another unintentional encounter with the work of Andrew Keen.
On Googling “Neil Postman+Web 2.0″ (intrigued by what the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death might have had to say on the current state of our “internet culture” if he had lived to see it), the first link I was given took me here: http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_great_seduction
/2006/06/where_have_you_.html.
“The Great Seduction” which Keen seems to be warning us against is not Web 2.0 tools themselves – he is not a Luddite – rather the widespread idea that the “the wisdom of the crowd”, disseminated via such tools, is as equally valid as the wisdom of rigorous scholarship and genuine expertise. “Media literacy is the key in this new age” he states in a keynote speech linked to the above page (http://www.oeb-docs.com/oeb-videos/speeches-07/oeb07_andrew-keen.mp3); in the face of ”the democratization of knowledge”, discrimination skills are going to be more important than ever.
May 6, 2008 at 8:23 am
Keen is interesting and sometimes provacative. I gave a presentation on Miscellaneous Amateurs a few months back at the Knowledge Lab. You can watch an interesting debate between Keen and Weinberger at Fora TV that gives a good overview of the two perspectives.
May 6, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I completely agree, this is a crucial skill. When I was workign as a boradcast journlist one of the points made by a member of the audience who happened to be an “expert” in teh field I was making a documentary about was that the qulity of the programme content depended on the documentary maker “being expert enough to know which experts to talk to”. And it’s the same with searching the web – you have to know enough as well as how to evaulate the information and opinion you find.
This of couse is a skill whcich history teachers have been trying to foster in their students for years when considering the value of primary and secondary sources, bias etc. Those taught science with any rigour should be able to spot weak data or arguments which lack sufficient evidene to support them. Evaluating sources is also something which is adressed as part of A level critical thinking courses in school, along with how to spot weak or false arguments. I’d say that with the advent of web 2.0 teachers need to be devloping skills in evaluating sources, critical autonomy and also the ability to make connections with the material available so that kids become creative and have new ideas rather than just recycling or regurgitating other people’s.