Thing 11

Well, it turns out that Cool Cat Teacher agrees with me on a couple things: 1. just because someone subscribes to a million websites, it doesn't mean that they are well informed, and, 2. we tend to teach others what they should be learning rather than how to learn. The second part is neither here nor there. But, it's something I have been talking about for the last year or so ever since I finished my Associate's Degree and began looking forward to my time at APSU. The first point, however, is more recent for me. Like... within the last 24 hours. 

So far, the best search tool I have used for this assignment is Google blogs. The other search engines didn't even come close to what I was looking for, but, none were as bad as Topix.net. When I searched something in Google blogs, there was something there that was what I wanted to read. Topix.net, though, would search my key words and itself. It was like Google searched the world and Topix searched its bedroom. It could be that I'm just more used to Google. I hear people say all the time that Bing is a better search engine than Google, but, I just don't see it. I know bad engines. Back when I first started using the internet, I used Yahoo! for everything. Then I saw the light that is Google. But, I digress. 

Thanks to Google blogs, I found several pretty good political blogs. My favorite one is more along the lines of European current events through CNN. I read an article about how some Swiss investment banks are saying that if the salary cap is not raised on their executives, it could drive them to take their business overseas to Asia or New York where there are no caps to speak of which would cripple the European economy now rather than steadily raising the cap over the next several years (because when people give in to the requests of those who claim to have a bargaining chip, that's what happens) and crippling it later. Again, I digress. 

During my "travels", I searched for "french culture" and came across a blog begging the question, "Why are French people so rude?" He says that he went to France and noticed that the their manners were like those of animals and that the men could pass for "queers." My first reaction to this blog was "No wonder they were rude to you. You are judgmental. That's what happens to judgmental people in France! They get treated as if they shouldn't be there!" But, I held my tongue. 

My opinion still remains the same as it was in Thing 10; these are great tools for us as future educators. But, we have to be very selective about, not only the information we find and use, but also, the search engines we approve for use while our students do research. Students are highly impressionable at any age. The last thing we need is for them to come across something bashing other cultures for being a little different from us and carrying that home to their parents or, worse yet, on into their own lives. It's things like that that lead to a life of ignorance and bigotry. If that doesn't speak to my point about teaching students how to learn, I don't know what does.