Originally published here.
I found that it was very good that this weeks assignment built on last weeks. It was helpful that we conducted research ourself and then found out if it was as good as we thought it was. Here is the link to my published assignment.
I normally take it for granted that a website or book is accurate, but I have discovered that this is not always the case. People tell me don’t use Wikepedia, anyone can write anything on there, but anyone can write anything on any website! How do we know what we read is true? Absolutely everything we see is biased and objective. Everything. Even if what we read is true, it is still influenced by opinions. Even the smallest things can effect the reliability and validity of information. From the way we word things, to what the weather is like. I am still not a hundred percent confident with what reliability and validity are, but I do know some things that effect reliability and validity.
These skills will help me when becoming an independent learner because when I go away and learn by myself, I will have an idea of if a website is reliable and valid. It has also given me the further message that I shouldn’t take things on face value and question everything. Everything is objective. My history teacher always tells me that “no source is ever completely objective” and now I have discovered for myself that this is true. I have learnt that just because a source is not completely reliable and valid, it doesn’t mean I can’t use it. It just means that I need to point out it’s flaws.
