Defending the Truth in a Wikipedia World

Elisabeth E. TullyDirector, OWHLGrandparents Day, 2008

Alden Elisabeth, March 24, 2008

Defending the Truth “How many legs

does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

Abraham Lincoln

For example:

Unfortunately, it’s not TRUE

Truth by Consensus

The Millennial generation is immersed in Web 2.0.

They CREATEThey COLLABORATEThey CONNECT

Cumul.us

A weather site where users collaborate to report on and predict the weather.

A new culture: belief over fact

“Collateral misinformation”

“Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions. Define your world”

Searching for History on the Web

Ten Typical History Terms

World History U.S. History

•Frederick the Great •Otto von Bismarck •Panama Canal •Konrad Adenauer •Taliban

•Fourteenth Amendment •Roosevelt Corollary •Dust Bowl •Taft-Hartley Act •War Powers Act

Is the information accurate?

Maybe

Stephen Colbert calls this “Wikiality”

The big question:

What is TRUTH in a world of user-generated information?

Truth: A History and Guide for the Perplexed

• Information has replaced knowledge

• The truth of information doesn’t seem to matter very much.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Information vs. Knowledge

Do students know the difference?

(Do they care?)• They are impatient.• They lack critical thinking

skills and experience.

What do they really know?

"Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University's sociology department, has discovered that students aren't nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume."– Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2008

Horizon Report 2005

Students use technology for:

• Social networking• Entertainment• Task-related activities

PEW Internet & American Life

“Internet searchers are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve.”

– 92% of those who use search engines say they are confident about their searching

– 87% of searchers say they have successful search experiences

most of the time,

This is where librarians come in

Example: How to improve a search

Three strategies• Phrase searching with quotes• Site operators • Exclusions with the - sign

A search for information on: Seasonal Depression• Typical Student Search:

Depression• My search:depression –great seasonal

FAQ site:edu symptoms “seasonal affective disorder”

Example questions:

Who is the Prince of Pop, and what is the blotted line that he made famous?

Which of William Shakespeare’s plays is said to refer to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605?

Information Literacy