Becoming Information Literate in a Global Society

   Boilerplate was unveiled in 1893 by Professor Archibald Campion. Built as a prototype soldier for use in resolving the conflicts of nations, Boilerplate served with Roosevelt's Rough Riders and fought alongside PanchoVilla.

I laughed at myself during this MAPping/blog activity.  Mostly because it made me realize how gullible I am to things I read on the internet and off the internet.  If it looks like news then it has to be true right? Maybe because in my world it would be really cool if things like in The Examiner magazines were true.  Alien sightings, man that is half chicken, and even the cool robots that I read about in the website I picked for this assignment are things that I always fall for.  I was quite disappointed as I went on with the next steps in our weekly assignment.  Oh, silly me!

Even though I am very gullible to what I read, when it comes to doing research papers or anything that involves others reading my work, I am pretty good about checking my sources. No one likes to look like a fool, right?  I really like to be able to find the same information on multiple websites and then maybe read reviews written on topics that I choose to write about. The Victorian Robot website seemed really legit up until I explored the links connected to it and then reading about the site in other blogs.  The random ads popping up connecting to the original page was kind of another hint that lead to the conclusion of my robots being a fake. I learned that my Boilerplate robot is a fictional robot originally intended for comics.  Oh boy, was I disappointed! AGAIN!  Maybe one day I will learn my lesson.  I still got a real good kick out of this whole thing though.

I knew more than I thought I would for this mapping/blog activity.  It was a helpful reminder that I can’t always go off of the first thing I read about.  We must always check our sources and the credibility of them before we go off and share information.  This is true not only for school assignments but also real life situations.  I would have sounded really silly if I read an essay in front of a whole college class on robots using only the information found on the Victorian Robots website. Oh my goodness, I don’t even want to think about it!

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