Author: rdlankes

Lankes has been selected to write a chapter in the new foundation series on the credibility of information. The chapter title and initial abstract to be included on a volume on credibility are:

Trusting the Internet: New Approaches to Credibility Tools

Synopsis: This chapter looks at how new approaches to credibility on the Internet can make information more credible than traditional channels. Examples from online retail to the Katrina catastrophe will be used to illustrate the way in which the Internet has the potential to revolutionize how people judge credibility.

Here is some more on the series:

The New Media Consortium and the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, are soliciting abstracts for chapters to appear in a series of volumes entitled The MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. The MacArthur Foundation Series will explore the intersection of digital media and learning from the perspectives of experts, visionaries, and thought leaders chosen from across the globe. Authors whose chapters are selected for inclusion in these volumes will receive an honorarium for their contribution.

The working hypothesis of the effort is that digital media tools have advanced significantly in recent years, enabling new forms of knowledge production, social networking, communication, and play. People who have grown up with access to these new digital tools are engaged in an unprecedented exploration of language, games, social interaction, and self-directed education that can be used to support learning. They are different as a result of this exposure to and use of digital media and these differences are reflected in their sense of self, and how they express their independence and creativity, and in their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systemically.

Six volumes of such work will be published in the first year of the MacArthur Foundation Series, each with a unifying theme that addresses a critical aspect of this emerging field of study. The themes are Identity and Digital Media, Credibility, Digital Media and Civic Engagement, the Ecology of Games, Incidental Learning and Unexpected Outcomes, and Race and Ethnicity. These volumes are intended for an informed but wide audience. Each volume will include an introductory chapter by the editor, and 7-10 additional chapters that will explore the topics from a variety of perspectives. A summary of each topic is attached.

Authors for the volumes will be chosen in a competitive process, with selections based on a peer review of an abstract of their proposed chapter. Submissions of abstracts are due April 28, 2006. Abstracts will be reviewed by a panel of scholars who will base their selections on the relevance of the content to the planned volume on the topic, the conceptual underpinnings and quality of the ideas represented in the abstract, the publication record or relevant expertise of the author in this area, and other related factors.