Increasing one’s Technology Capacity via “MAPping”
As
superintendent, I would infuse Alan November’s strategy called “MAPping” as a
way to build our district’s informational literacy as we increase our student’s
access to information via the Web. MAPping is an acronym for Met-web, Author,
Purpose, and would be extremely beneficial to elementary students as a
foundational skill that contains its own language and grammar. It would be mandatory for all children prior
to accessing the internet to complete any school-related research
projects. As students begin to take
ownership of their learning MAPping must be utilized as an essential tool used
to validate and authenticate internet sources.
There
are three components to examine; the first part of MAPping is meta-web
information which he calls “the grammar of the Internet.” The first component of meta-web information is
vital for all students (and adults) to have a discernment of Web addresses
beginning with the structure of the universal resource locator (URL). Students can be instructed how to read the
meaning of a Web address in the same fashion they are taught to read sentence
structure. Our students need to create new
connections of technological vocabulary knowledge pertaining to internet
addresses that specifically include the home directory, domain names, and
subdirectories that are set off by symbols such as the tilde ( - ) and a
forward slash ( / ). The second
component used to increase one’s meta-web knowledge of Web addresses is to
learn about links, also known as digital threads. Links and their patterns can help to validate
any information and quite possibly the value of their source. The third component
of meta-web information is search engines.
It is important to determine which search engine may be the best to use
for a given project. Each student should
possess an understanding that all search engines are not the same and will
yield different results. Each search
engine examines numerous databases of multiple directories. Once a search
engine has found possible matches to your search it return their results in
several different ways such as by popularity, keywords, etc… The second part of MAPping deals with the
author of the Internet site. It is
important for children to understand that anyone can author anything on the
internet. They will need to be taught to
verify their author’s qualifications and accreditations prior to reporting
their findings. They should never be
lured into a false sense of security because of someone’s title or alleged
credentials. The third part to MAPping
is to learn how to assess the author’s purpose behind the website. Is the website built for the shear purpose of
advocacy or was it built based on objectivity. If the website was built for the
purpose of advocacy, then what is it recommending to the reader of the article? If the author’s purpose was objectivity then
what perspective and/or viewpoint is the author presenting? These are several questions that the
practitioner will need to be trained to ask their students.
