The moral of the story is...

There are two stories I would like to share with you. Both of them have different morals, and they both are significant to today's young people and the society they are immersed in. As well, they are both true.

Story Number One:

There once was a young boy, probably around the age of 10, who loved to play hockey more than anything else in the world. He would play before school and after school, on the ice and on the street. All the neighbourhood boys would come out after dinner, set up the nets and drop the puck. This one summer's night, after dinner, the young boy's mother asked him to dry the dishes before going outside to play. Well this just couldn't do. There were a mountain of dishes to be dried and the puck was going to drop any second! But the boy did not despair instead, he ran to his room, grabbed the rotating fan that sat on his dresser, and returned to the kitchen. He plugged in the fan, and positioned it to face the dishes, turned it on, grabbed his hockey stick, and ran outside. By the time his mother noticed what her son had done the boy was on the street making his first goal of the night.

The moral of the story: when there are dishes to be dried, put them in front of a fan and let the fan do all the work...OR...when there's a short cut available, take it, and don't look back

I love this story because not only does it give me a new way of drying my dishes, but it also enforces the idea that children will do anything to get one thing over with and move on to another thing. I am happy to report that this story is true, and the young boy was my dad. He still plays hockey to this day, but no longer lets the dishes dry via fan - and unfortunately won't let me or my sister get away with cutting corners or taking short cuts.

We can relate this story to any young person today by simply changing the circumstances. Substitute hockey for texting/talking with friends, drying the dishes with homework, and the fan with a computer. For young people today it's all about doing things quickly and moving on to something more enjoyable. They will cut corners and complete tasks to a satisfactory level instead of taking the time to do it properly.

Story Number Two:

"When's your birthday?" a woman asked a young boy.
"It's June 13th" the young boy replied.
"And who told you that's when your birthday is?" she asked.
"My mom, and my dad," he replied.
"And you believe them?"
"Yea, why wouldn't I?"
"Well, here's a story for you. My very good friend celebrated her birthday as well as her cousin's, on October 1st for twenty three years. She truly believed that October 1st was her birthday. Her mother, her father, her aunts and uncles all told her that this was true. It wasn't until she was getting married and moving to Canada that she actually needed her birthday certificate. When she got this tiny piece of paper from her mother she learned that her birthday was actually September 29th. For twenty three years of her life her mother, father, aunts and uncles told her that her birthday was three days later. When she asked why, they simply replied, because a double birthday is easier to plan and get everyone together than separate parties."

The moral of the story: who do you trust? how can you trust them?

As a teacher librarian, my mother tells this story to every grade 9 class that comes to the library. She is a passionate educator who has been teaching for twenty years. The story however is not about her. Her birthday is February 6th. The story is in fact about her mother, my grandmother. The moral of the story is extremely important, especially in a digital age.

My essay and subsequently my presentation for this course thoroughly explored credibility in a digital age. I looked at the Internet, and specifically Google, as a convenient source of information and the inability for a student to effectively sort and decode through the plethora of information. The "Net is becoming a universal medium" that chips away at a student's "capacity for concentration and contemplation" (Carr, 2008, pg 57). There is no disputing the "fact that students are largely motivated by the ease of access and time saving aspects of Internet use" (Breivik and Gee, 2006, p.26). Students are choosing the convenience of Google, Wikipedia and other search engines over proper research. They are choosing to use the fan to dry the dishes instead of the dishcloth. They are taking what they find on Wikipedia and Google at face value, trusting the website instead of making sure that the information is credible.

There is so much information on the Internet it's unbelievable, and for a student doing a research paper, it can be overwhelming which is why they choose the first few hits in a Google search.


Bibliography:

Breivik, P.S., Gee, E. G. (2006) Higher Education in the Internet Age. United States of America: American Council on Education and Praeger, 26-27.

Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic, 56-63.