In Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy, the author argues that although filters of search engines are designed for a good purpose, they can potentially prevent learners from accessing more learning resources. The author used a community college student who’s name is Nina as an example to illustrate how filters blocked her from learning and conducting research. I find this example convincing because I also have the same experience. As an undergraduate student at uvic, I am encouraged by my instructors to use the uvic library search engine to find sources and conduct research. In my experience in the past two years of essay writing, the uvic library search engine alone often cannot satisfy my research needs; I had to use outside sources such as google scholar to find sources for my essay because of the uvic search engine only provided limited sources. Therefore, I find it plausible when the author discusses that the filters prevent Nina from accessing information, making her less competitive compared to students who have a more open search engine.
In order to find a solution for providing students with more open access to their learning sources through an appropriate filter, the author argues that collaboration from educators, policymakers, and designers is necessary. I agree with his claim because nonprofessional outsiders, such as policymakers, often determine the redlines. Thus researches from educators must be conducted to impact how the determination of redlines; conducted studies should be taken into consideration by policymakers and designers to create a suitable filter for students. Students can also provide feedback in the process of utilizing these filters. From my perspective, the best learning environment can only be realized by listening to our students. Educators may conduct surveys to collect students’ opinions and experience of using certain filters and improve accordingly.
Reference:
Gilliard, C. (2019, November 06). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/digital-redlining-access-and-privacy
Hello Yiwei,
Thank you for sharing your learning this week! I enjoyed your discussion on the importance of students having access to outside resources other than only what is available in the school library search engine. Similar to you, I often find myself using google scholar to help write papers, because some concepts are explained better in articles that aren’t in the schools library search engine. However, don’t you sometimes find that it is simpler to use the school search engine to help narrow down resources instead of having an overwhelming amount of resources to choose from? I do agree with you though, that students should have access to more resources if they wish to, as it can enrich their learning environments and expose them to more content in their field of interest. Open learning is a great way for students to get to learn alongside others with similar and differing perspectives on topics; allowing students to engage more with the content. Awesome post, excited to read your last post!
Regards,
Tanvir Sidhu