19 January 2009

Wrong approach

The title of this editorial, “Universities should flag up which websites to trust,” sums up a well-intentioned but wrong-headed approach. The article goes on:

(T)o make best use of the internet as an educational resource, its content has to be audited for reliability, and a system of classification introduced.

No, it really doesn't. People have to learn how to evaluate information on their own. They have to learn to ask not, "Who do you trust?", but "What is the evidence?"

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