Day 2

Shodor Main Image Text that says the Shodor Foundation

To begin the class, Alton reviewed what happened yesterday. The students discussed reasons to use computer models. The students then looked at yesterday's report online. The students wondered how bookmarks were made and organized, and Monte explained. The students then brainstormed some uses of bookmarking. The students then went to three sites and bookmarked them, just to see how the system worked. They then renamed and re-organized their bookmarks. They then learned how to move bookmarks from one computer to another. Alton then took over and taught some 'Set Theory'. The easiest way to do this demonstration is with Venn Diagrams. This applies to internet searches because some web pages are about one thing, some are about another, some were about both. The students wondered why use an internet search engine, and Alton explained about how everything on the internet as a whole is Noise, and what you're looking for is Truth. Internet search engines help you find what you're looking for. They used Yahoo and Altavista to demonstrate categorical searches (Yahoo) and keyword searches (Altavista). Some things they searched for were pictures from the Hubble space telescope, whale pictures, and information about bats. They learned how to narrow their keyword searches down to cut ten thousand hits to only about one hundred hits. After this the students did some searching on their own.

After the break, Anne went in and led a discussion on who you believe and why. The students then viewed and checked the credibility of eight different periodic tables, and tried to figure out which one was the most accurate. They checked things like who made it, when, and whether they had supporting links. They finished up with three credible sources, and none of them agreed. This is one problem with the internet. To demonstrate the use of common sense, the students went and viewed the Heaven's Gate website. This, even though it looks fairly professional, is not credible because of the fact that they are selling something, and that they all comitted suicide. Then, just to prove that common sense is not always right, they went to a site that claimed that the oceans were created by intergalactic snowballs hitting the atmosphere. This, though it sounds impossible, actually has the support of many scientists, and has quite a bit of evidence to prove it, despite the fact that the majority of the scientific community dismiss it as lunacy.