Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Online "Filter Bubbles" - TedTalk by Eli Pariser

California Teacher Librarian Susie Goodin alerted California librarians to a TedTalk by Eli Pariser on the dangers of online "filter bubbles".  The description states that as web companies tailor their services and search results to our personal tastes, there is a dangerous yet unintended consequence -- we get trapped in a "Filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview.  Pariser argues that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and for democracy.

This is particularly interesting for educators, given the high degree of Internet filtering in schools, thanks in large part to federal funding requirements under the E-Rate (Education Rate) program.

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