Digital Literacy

How often have you received emails which are untrue or hoaxes?? Forwards of forwards of forwards of forwards offering eternal health, wealth and happiness ...

It still amazes me the number of people who seem to believe (and therfore forward) much of the junk which they receive in their INBOXES.

Well ... digital literacy starts to come into play here.

Content Evaluation
When is a globe-spanning information network dangerous? When people make too many assumptions about what they find on it. For while the Internet offers myriad opportunities for learning, an unconsidered view of its contents can be misleading and deceptive. This is why critical thinking about content is the Internet competency upon which all others are founded. You cannot work comfortably within this medium until you have established methods for judging the reliability of Web pages, newsgroups postings, and mailing lists.

Any teacher who has used the Internet in a classroom setting can tell you how troubling it is to see children taking World Wide Web pages at face value, without the evaluative skills to place them in context. In that sense, the Internet can, in the wrong hands, become a tool of propaganda.

http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/resources/digital_literacy.asp