Why 'Digital Literacy' Can't Replace The Traditional Kind. Have you heard about the octopus who lives in a tree? In 2005, researchers at the University of Connecticut asked a group of seventh graders to read a website full of information about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, or Octopus paxarbolis. The Web page described the creature’s mating rituals, preferred diet, and leafy habitat in precise detail. Applying an analytical model they’d learned, the students evaluated the trustworthiness of the site and the information it offered. Their judgment? There’s something wrong with this picture, and it’s not just that the arboreal octopus is, of course, a fiction, presented by Leu and his colleagues to probe their subjects’ Internet savvy. (MORE: In Praise of Tinkering) There is a flaw in this popular account. Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. (MORE: Should Your 2-Year-Old Be Using an iPad?)
Two questions that can change your life. Networked Student. Learning to Change-Changing to Learn. Sketchy Explanation: Starting a PLN.