This week consisted of readings from “Verified” by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg and a lesson on including images in a Markdown file.
Markdown
What fascinated me the most learning how images work with Markdown was seeing how file paths work. Each file and each folder is essentially another building block that you are working with. I started thinking about well developed web pages, and even video games, where there are multiple folders and folders inside of folders, and I like the thought of creating something like that. Working on one piece here, and another piece here, then tying the pieces together to create, essentially, a work of art in the form of a game, website, or anything you can imagine.
Verified
These introductory chapters have been about how to look at a webpage and figure out if what it is telling you is true or not. This is very useful information, honestly. A lot of the processes that are taught in the book are ones I have learned myself, but I never mapped it out and made it conscious like this book does.
S – Stop. We really don’t know as much as we think we do, especially when it comes to something we don’t know anything about. Don’t waste time thinking about how something sounds, it is made to sound good.
I – Investigate the Source. Take 30 seconds to quickly look at the source. Search it in a new tab, hover over the profile, or other methods to see who the poster is. Nothing crazy here, just get more info.
F – Find Better Coverage. Figure out what other people are saying about the topic. This is often an easy way to figure out if something is fake or true. If other reputable people are saying the same things then it is often true. Maybe it isn’t exactly what you thought it was.
T – Trace to Original Context. The source you are looking at is often the sharing source and not the original reporting source. Find the original context and report to see if the source you found is telling the same story.
Along with these tools, we learned about how Google focuses on user intent and that .org is not a fool proof sign of a reputable sight. Becoming aware of how Google works is super useful in bettering our searches and getting the results we ACTAULLY want. Often, we search for something and don’t get what we want because we don’t know how to get what we want. This is all nice stuff to become aware of, even if you already know about it.
Comments
2 responses to “Week 4 – Working With Markdown and Verifying Sources”
I appreciate how passionate you are regarding the construction of file paths, since I had the exact opposite reaction. As someone who thinks they are extremely bad with computers, I had a rough time even finding all my downloads, screenshots, etc. Although, it is interesting to associate it with the creation of video games. I’ve never really thought of all the building blocks behind a game or website. This experience has at least let me have a glimpse at that, so thanks for making me see it in a new light.
Hi Bryson,
Great article! You brought up some important topics, like SIFT and learning how Google searches operate. I also really enjoyed reading your thoughts about the markdown file path stuff we learned. I found that fascinating too, and I was also thinking about how much of the complex internet is built on relatively simple things like file paths and files. I felt like a magician when I got the images to work in my markdown document–I feel like I can almost understand the thrill programmers get when their code works too. “Art” feels like a good word for it. Thanks for your insight!