Free Dogs and Climbing Octopi

Imagine a place where your dog can run free forever, living a stress free life and taking in cool ocean breezes while meeting new friends and frolicking all day. Supervised by trained "dogologists," your best friend will join almost 2,500 others who are learning to live again.

Does this sound too good to be true?

That's because it is! Dog Island (in the words of the website creator recorded in a disclaimer hidden in the fine print at the bottom of an otherwise impressive looking page), "was made in jest, for fun for love of dogs and for love of life....The only point for you on this website is to enjoy yourself. And if you don't enjoy yourself, you absolutely can NOT blame us for this lack of enjoyment - it is completely your fault."

Being convinced that the single greatest skill that today's student needs to learn is the ability to identify unreliable information online, I've started to share hoax websites like Dog Island with my students lately. We discuss ways that readers of online information can judge the sites that they are using as resources.

Our favorite has been an effort to save the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Plagued by natural predators like domesticated house cats, bald eagles and Sasquatch, these loveable creatures are forced to pull themselves along "in a form of locomotion called tentaculation" to remain safe in their natural habitat: The evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Sounds ridiculous, right? No middle schooler could possibly believe that octopi lived in trees, could they?

That's what I thought too until I read this study completed by the University of Connecticut. Apparently, they sat down with a group of 25 seventh graders identified as some of the "most proficient online readers" in their schools to see if they could spot the spoof in the "Save the Octopus" efforts.

Their results were alarming. "All 25 students fell for the Internet hoax; All but one of the 25 rated the site as very credible; Most struggled when asked to produce proof...or even clues..that the web site was false, even after the UConn researchers told them it was; and Some of the students still insisted vehemently that the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus really exists."

What implications does this have for parents and educators? What are we doing in our homes and our classrooms to help students swim through the digital soup that they are increasingly relying on for information?

Have we taken the practical steps necessary to teach children about how to use the Internet reliably?

If not, when will we start?

Posted by William Ferriter at 05:23 PM on March 15, 2007 | Leave Feedback

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