Navigating the Net Effectively and Efficiently

At the end of the first adventure in Block 6, I must say that a nagging thought surfaced in my understanding of the issues in Internet safety . For two years prior, I now feel like I was like a sailor with no destination or tools just trying this or going there without much direction or just using what I had been able to accidentally discover or with the help of some passer-by! I cringe to think how much of my personal identity is now public knowledge and what kind of viruses/worms etc. I willingly 'let in' by accessing some junk mail.

I mentioned to someone that it felt like I now have these special lenses to focus on the treasure and filter out the junk from the treasure although at first glance it all seems valuable. Knowing what constitutes a red flag warning is invaluable:
- names or titles in URLs
-unknown domains
-"Angelfire, Geocities and Tripod are popular web hosting sites that allow anyone to host a site"


It feels more scary to know that a trusting person has to be more careful because one definitely does not know by physical clues when looking any longer who might be honest or dishonest since you don't know where anyone on the net is from or who they are affiliated with if you do not know how to MAP. (from ideas in Alan November's "Empowering Students with Technology")

Alan November's term "Reading the grammar of the net" is comparable to learning a second language and having to come to terms with the fact that reality can be distorted in a convincing manner complete with graphics, names, titles, and references to similar legitimate sites and organization. The user definitely has to have a focus and a plan on how they will navigate and filter the useless or dangerous information.

I agree that many people, especially children explicitly believe authoritative figures and charlatans/predators take advantage of this quality in people as do companies/individuals to sell products/ideas or services, gather personal information, track usage, and entertain.

For the first time, I was introduced to the term " MAPping" which is a tool to help users navigate effectively and efficiently.

This acronym was useful to me for the following reasons:
1. Easy to understand
2.Examples were given to walk the user through the steps of locating and identifying important symbols and vocabulary.

"Metaweb Info: M in MAPping "
"The structure of information on the Internet: URLS, Links, search engines"

http://web.rbe.sk.ca/learningplus/informationliteracy/mapping.html

Some domain name abbreviations were new to me and this helped me to know that there will always be something new around the next corner as the Net is evolving so quickly and it is up to the user in many cases to update their knowledge to make informed decisions. This is especially critical in the case of elementary school age children who access the net unsupervised and in an unstructured pattern. The adults in these users lives whether they be parents or teachers need to be cognizant of the lessons required to teach these children how to navigate safely and how to determine for themselves what is legitimate or not.

"~" This symbol for me has been one that I never had to use until now. It also helped me to add the word "truncate" to my tech vocab. list.

I learned to use the Altavista seach engine and link command to find who should be linked to a quality site.

"/" I just accepted that this slash was part of the address, although I never knew why or what it's purpose was. 'By deleting the next backward slash and hitting return it was quick and easy to move back through the folders of the sited and locate the original source of the page.'

This was an "aha moment" that I had because I felt relieved to discover and feel really good about my self for being one baby step further along in my Internet practitioner's journey. I know that many people including myself do not ask questions about concerns or thoughts which are initiated from findings on the Net because they don't want to appear stupid. I no longer say with some measure of pride that 'I don't know much about the NET' which to me seems embarrassing now. Rather I am appreciating each time I learn something new that I am further along than I was yesterday. Literacy for me is a requirement now in order to do my job more effectively and efficiently

"A in MAPping: Understanding the author."

I still had difficulty with locating the author accurately and quickly in some of the exercises. I could not find the author 'Robert L.' of the AIDs Hoax site even after quickly reading through every page ,although many names with impressive titles were listed and looked like they could have been the author. I do see how many children would think the author of the site would be the name of the man in the first picture posted on the site, and many web masters might use this to their advantage.
I found myself getting frustrated and then upset when I couldn't find the 'contact info' or 'about us' information. It seems deliberate to try the patience of the user and know that many users would most likely give up the cause of searching. Hopefully this red flag would take them elsewhere for more reliable information.

It is important to find out who the author is , what their credentials, their reputation amongst others in their field are as well as who they are affiliated with. If this information is lacking, this is considered to be a red flag warning that the information is not credible.
Another way of knowing that a user could use was to type in the author's name and their topic in quotation marks in a Google search was an effective way to help determine credibility. Education and practice on a daily basis is the only way for students and all users to become effective, efficient and safe knowledgable users.

I wish I would have known this information before Christmas when
my nephew ordered skateboard clothing online from a 'company' in California which he later discovered was a private individual in a private residence with no license to sell. Although he had my nephew's money, he wasn't returning it because the clothing was 'in the mail' and it was now the fault of the Canadian postal service for not delivering. This was a hard lesson to learn but learned very effectively the hard way!

"P in MAPping: What is the purpose of the site?"

Viewing with a critical eye is very difficult to do especially when there is such a huge choice offered from which to select your information. It seems that the site creators know that the patience level and attention span of most users- millions of whom are youth under the age of 18 years- to sift though information is very short and most users will stop after the top two sites posted on any page and use that as their research material.

At the best of times, everyone is selling something to someone:Entertainment; Ideas; products or services. The free services on most sites in the long run aren't free because you're exchanging your email or other info when you log on to enter contests or get newsletters. The colorful graphics and easy to read messages contain a hidden agenda and are like lures in many cases that children get caught up in because they are not able to discern without some education and practice what is relevant and worthy.
The bottom line is "know how to manipulate the web or be manipulated!"
http://web.rbe.sk.ca/learningplus/informationliteracy/mapping.html