The Changing Shape of Information (Via 2 Cents Worth.) David Warlick: “Their were a large number of librarians in the audience, and I entertained several long and passionate pleas of preference for the dependable information that can be found in books.”
It’s funny.. I thought Warlick would go somewhere else entirely with his response to this. When this comes up in my workshops, I ask participants if they ever take issue with the information put forth in their text books. Every teacher I’ve ever known has shared “well the book says this, but” moments with their students. I suggest that we should consider out text books as suspect as the Wikipedia in terms of errors and agendas. Also, I ask what process is that we use to verify the quality of information in academia… and they are quick to come up with “peer review.” Wikipedia is the ultimate in peer review with nearly a million users. This is something of a simplification, but we discuss the differences, and most people seem to get it.
Warlick also mentions that he will be at the CUE conference in Palm Springs later this week, and though his stay will be short, I’m hoping I’ll get the chance to meet him. :)