6c+Ruth+Schapira

There seem to be differing opinions about students engagement with internet resources. Tapscott, in //grown up digital,// feels that the Net Geners (albeit older than some of our students) already have the tools needed to critically assess and evaluate content on the web. Yet, there was a recent posting in the Jewish Forward that there was an error on Wikipedia (not a major egregious error, but the middle name of George Constanza's mother Estelle was listed as Manishewitz!) that thousands and thousands had viewed.

It is clear to me that as Jewish educators that we need to mediate content. I'm sure that most students may resist this, after all, they have 'owned' many aspects of technology from customizing the iphone with one of thousands of apps to their internet experience. The list of individual choice is staggering. In fact, I can see ways of using this as an opportunity for us as Jewish educators. It would be an interesting discussion to relate their experience with the web with their Jewish experience. After all, in the Jewish experience,//aren't we 'mediating' content? So, it would be interesting to ask them so many questions, but among them may be:// Do they assess content crtically? Do they use a baseline of knowledge/ethics/values/morals/ in which to do that? Are others in their lives helping them negotiate content? Who and how? Would they ask for more mediation with content? Less? Why?