Raw weather data is knowledge of a very different sort in comparison to the information found in a weather chapter in a textbook. Teachers must learn to first recognize this insight as useful and then learn to utilize it and other alternative resources in their efforts to facilitate learning. They must shift their thinking from boldfaced words and questions at the end of the chapter to situated activities and subject matter ideas, real-world tasks, and authentic performance tests. Because these articles originated from actual Civil War era newspapers, the nuance of voice and political stance varies and the writing style of the articles may differ from what most students are accustomed to. However, the educative power of these sources is unmatched by textbook accounts of the same period.
Primary sources offer a sense of the real world that can be used in pedagogically powerful ways.
Changes in Psychology As alluded to in the previous section, we believe technology suggests a significant change in our thinking about student learning. Teachers must model methods for judging the trustworthiness of information by checking it against other sources, executing mental experiments to investigate the logic of purported claims, and asking critical questions about the origins of claims. Students should be taught to scrutinize knowledge carefully and hold all information as suspect until a reasonable level of certainty can be established. This is difficult and time consuming for both teachers and students, as it demands skepticism first. However, becoming a good consumer of knowledge and information is a skill we'll all need as the Web continues to expand.