Sunday, May 15, 2016

The High Cost of Trust

Trusting information turned tragic when Wei Zexi, from Shaanxi province in China, died on April 12 after undergoing experimental medical treatment promoted on Baidu, the Chinese search equivalent of Google.

The typical hasty grab for digital information is seldom so terminal, but the common denominator is a failure to investigate.  What's different in Wei's case is that Baidu is criticized for failing to investigate the claims made by the advertisers it promoted in search results.

So, who's to blame? A search engine for failing to vet its advertisements? A student for believing information provided by a search engine?

It's always a problem of what or whom to trust. It cannot be assumed a search engine can be trusted, even if the ads at the top of the page are paid by a hospital. It should be interesting how the case will be resolved in China. Breaking Baidu's search engine monopoly, which has been suggested, isn't necessarily an answer. Training searchers to investigate the information for themselves is a more responsible and trustworthy solution.

Start investigating here

Information Fluency Investigative Challenges

Friday, February 26, 2016

New Tutorial Challenges


Hone your Fluency Skills.

Yesterday I led a workshop at the ICE Conference in St. Charles, IL for teachers, administrators and librarians on the topic of Internet Search Challenges: Google and Beyond.

The themes included competencies on which fluency depends, challenges that require these competencies, search strategies and techniques, how to use challenges with individuals and groups. We never were able to try all the Challenges during the 2.5 hour workshop--even though we never took a break. I shouldn't be surprised: 47 tutorial challenges were created for the workshop.

The tutorials are grouped into three categories: Locate, Evaluate and Cite.  Locate is comprised of three sub-categories: Browsing, Querying and Pesky Search Challenges. All these categories are further divided into Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Challenges. Elementary is suitable for young and new searchers (no matter what grade), Intermediate builds on those skills and Advanced represents skills high schoolers should possess before entering college (and beyond).

So what I told the participants, I'm telling readers of this blog: try out the challenges for yourself. Use them with individuals and groups. Experiment with them. Think about what works and could work better. I'd love to get your feedback.

Here's where to go to get started: http://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/challenge-directory.html

An aside:  The Internet went down 10 minutes prior to the start of the workshop and didn't come back for a while. You might imagine it's hard to teach Internet skills without the Internet. We actually filled the first hour offline with a discussion about what skills are needed at what grade levels, when to introduce skills, and how to teach students pre-Internet skills without the Internet. When you think about the Digital Information Fluency model, the first two questions ("What am I searching for?" and "Where will I search?") happen before touching a computer. So being offline didn't slow us down and was still productive.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Declining Information Literacy

The following article captures what could be happening when it is assumed students who are savvy using digital devices are also able to "manage and process information."

Students smart on phones but going backwards in computer literacy



For example, the article claims:

"Year 6 students were asked to search a website to find appropriate material, format a document, crop an image and create a short slide show.  Students in Year 10 were asked to design an online survey, use software to add two new levels to an online game and create a short animated video.

"By Year 10, just 52 per cent of Australian students were assessed as able to reach or exceed the  proficient standard."

This represents a significant decline in this measure since 2011.

Better search engines aren't necessarily helping. Test your students' abilities. Here are some flash-based resources on the Information Fluency site for doing that:


Search Challenges
Evaluation Challenges
Ethical Use Challenges

See also:





Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Squishy Boolean


This is an interesting concept that affects every searcher who uses a highly developed search engine--and probably others as well.

As the original blog states, Squishy Boolean represents a loss of user control:
"what we now have in most search systems is squishy boolean imposed upon us whether we want it or not, and often there is no way of finding out what algorithms have been used."
Read the rest here: https://thelibrarycauldron.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/squishy-boolean/

I doubt if most users of Google, etc. would choose to return to a state where control is completely in the hands of the searcher. That would require a lot of work and thinking (and no time-saving). If one of Google's tacit objectives is to make searching as 'brainless' as possible, algorithms are the solution. Therefore, the search algorithm quickly does its work, although no one knows for sure (other than Google employees with a high level clearance) what's going on behind the SEARCH button.

It would be helpful to some, however, if there was a way to turn off the algorithm. But that would be like going back in time. Control or convenience? One has to dominate.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Tracking Down Missing Pages

This just came across my daily "information literacy" feed from Google:

Just how to Finish An Investigation Report
Modify Post How to Use AutoFilter in MS Excel For moderate-to- substantial levels of info, using Microsoft Excels AutoFilter can be a straightforward ...

I thought I'd check out this report, but when I did I got the 404 message: Page not found. Try the link yourself.

Can you find the report? It's still out there.

[Scroll down for an answer]











It's possible http://informationliteracysummit.org will fix the problem. But until they do, the report has been cached. If you've never used the cached feature on Google before, access it by clicking the tiny down arrow after "Uncategorized."


Friday, September 11, 2015

Satanize Me?

A report of a secret McDonald's menu is going around the Internet. I learned of it today thanks to this DIGG post:

McDonald's Has A Secret Menu And Other Facts link

Digg's source is Lucky Peach, where Lucas Peterson gives the details, along with photos, of secret menu items:
  • Sausage Egg Big MacMuffin
  • Mash Brown
  • Blankets in a Blankets
  • The McLuminati
  • “Derrida-Style”
  • General Ro’s Chicken
  • Mommie Dearest
  • The Burmese Python
  • The Captain Nemo
  • “Diorama-Style”
  • Satanize Me!         
Short of walking in to your local McDonald's and asking for one of these menu variations (under your breath), how could you really know for sure if a secret menu does or does not exist? Maybe you don't mind if the counter person gives you a blank stare. Or laughs--I'm sure someone has already tried this.

After all, other fast food places have secret menus, why not McDonalds? 

One place to start is with the author. Lucas Peterson (If you want to make sure you get the right Lucas Peterson, include "Lucky Peach" in the query.) Top results are his Twitter page: https://twitter.com/lucaspeterson, another piece he wrote in Lucky Peace entitled, An Official Complaint Against Oriental Ramen, his LinkedIn page, where he lists his occupation as eater, Lucky Peach, LA Weekly, Serious Eats, Flaunt Magazine, Film/TV.  So we gather he is a public figure with an interest in food topics that can sometimes be humorous.

Another place to go is Lucky Peach. What kind of publication is this? From skimming results, it's a
"cult indie magazine founded by chef David Chang and writer Peter Meehan" [link] about all things food. It is a "quarterly journal of food and writing. each issue focuses on a single theme, and explores that theme through essays, art, photography, and recipes." [link]. The style of the magazine is ad-driven with loud cartoons and other attention-grabbing stuff. So an article about a secret menu fits in, although no claims are made whether it's true or not.

So, a writer that can be serious (at least at times) and a magazine that can be serious (at times) have paired up and released this story. Is this one of their not-serious moments?

The investigation returns to those customers who have tried this. They should be able to verify whether any of the creations bulleted above actually exist (I personally believe any McDonalds can deliver on Mash Brown). Where can you find these people, these witnesses?

Try Twitter.

A search for #secretmenu (guessing that's been used) turns up hits for secret menus submitted by members. Down the list is an entry by Lucky Peach with a picture of Sausage Egg Big MacMuffin, captioned: "We like to have a little fun sometimes, too!" Not quite definitive, but a sign the article is more fun than serious.

What other evidence can you find--without actually going in and muttering, "Satanize me?" (Note: I suggest not actually trying this. Keep in mind: McDonalds crew members read the Internet--they might actually comply-- in which case it doesn't have to be an official secret menu, but an underground one.)

Monday, August 3, 2015

Spam email: Red Flags

Other than a SPAM: alert that may be provided by your email software, how can you tell this message isn't real?

Good Day,

My name is Mrs Linda Walker and I work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), I am writing you to let you know that finally your ATM Card worth $650,000.00 USD has been delivered through UPS to Mr Hart Leroy, who works with the IMF where it is going to be activated before final delivery to your home address. You can use the tracking number with the tracking site below to track the ATM Card to be sure it has been delivered to Mr Hart for activation.

UPS Tracking number: 1z2876490390947593
UPS tracking site: http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/track

Below is the contact information to Mr Hart Leroy

Contact Name: Mr Hart Leroy
Contact E-mail: hart.leroy.office@gmail.com
Contact Number: +1 347 298 9752

You are to contact Mr Hart with his email address above then he will guide you on how your Card will be activated and delivered to your home address.

Note: The only fee you are to send for the activation fee is just $280 USD so make sure you don’t send him more than $280 USD. Your card is already with him and you can track it with the tracking details given to you above for confirmation.

Congratulations once more.

Best Regards,
Mrs Linda Walker
International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Before sending in $280 to activate this card, how can you check its validity? Here are some Red Flags:

On the surface,
Too good to be true: Experience teaches that few things in life are free.
It costs something: Be wary when a stranger asks for money.
It sounds complicated: Why would the IMF send a card to someone else at IMF that you have to contact? Why not just send you the card?

Below the surface,
Sender: If you look closely at the sender's email address you'll find this: "International Monetary Fund (IMF)" info@sender.org.   IMF actually uses this email: @imf.org, which can be found on their Website.  
No Data Found: If you look up whois.net registration information for sender.org, you won't find any. It appears to be a smoke screen.
Third Party Review: Copy the first phrase of the email: "My name is Mrs Linda Walker and I work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)" and google it. There is an exact match from antifraudintl.org › Scam Mail Depot › Government scams.

There may be more Red Flags, but it's clear that this is not going to result in your receipt of an ATM card.

Have students identify Red Flags -- what others can they find?