Teaching Information literacy

Teaching Literacy use to mean teaching someone to read well.  It later included writing and expressing yourself verbally.  Today, literacy must also include "understanding online material sources" (coupled occasionally with good ol' common sense).  I received this email this morning from a  relative I love and respect very much  (Encase someone doesn't read further than the email repost, this story is not true )-

>Not pleasant but it makes a good point and it should never be forgotten.

>This one should be give wide circulation. 

VERY IMPORTANT - ALWAYS REMEMBER      When  I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular. Maybe  this will explain why. General  Eisenhower Warned Us.[ It  is a matter of history that  when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight  Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible  photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding  villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the  dead. He did this because he said in words to this  effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the  witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will  get up and say that this never happened' This week,  the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school  curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it  never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening  portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country  is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years after the Second  World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a  memorial chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians,  10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered,  raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many  in the world looked the other way! Now, more than ever,  with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,'  it is imperative to make sure the world never  forgets. [This  e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial  chain and help distribute this around the world. How many years  will it be before the attack on the  World Trade Center 'NEVER  HAPPENED', because  it offends some Muslim??? Do not just delete this message; it  will take only a minute to pass this  along. FREEDOM  ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT! Hmmm.. The United Kingdom, who got flattened like a bad souffle in WW2, not educating it's newer generations on the horrors of the holocaust and the evils of the Third Reich?  The UK, who is more anti- Muslim than we are, perhaps because, sadly, they have had more attacks (though lost fewer ppl) than we have from Islamic extremist, deciding to cave to "Muslims who are offended" by a historical event? Really?  And I should pass this on to as many ppl as I can?  Really?      I guess what gets my goat here is this is clearly an anti-Muslim email spread for the sole purpose of hating a specific religious people, of making Muslims a "them" that we can hate, take rights away from and look down on. The email didn't want a call to action to protect our freedom to a factual history.  It wasn't calling for us to honor those who died in the holocaust, or the 9/11 victims, with a moment of silence so they may never be forgotten.  It was a call to hatred. (And before anyone gets on their high horse to ride over and refute me on the evils of Islam, please be reminded that the Klu Klux Klan calls themselves a Christian group.  Jihadist are picking and choosing from their book just like the Klu klux Klan backs everything they do up with the good book, The Bible.  Extremist are called such because they sit on the fridge of their religious community and do not, by definition, define it or represent the majority of those in it.) I'm sad that a person I love was duped into passing on what they believed was "an important email" that I should know about and read.   I have a counter argument- Information Literacy.  Information literacy 101 is Snopes.com.  Use it liberally (even if you're a conservative).  It's free and a wonderful source of help in determining if an online email chain if worthy of forwarding to everyone you know.  Here 's a good list of  (what should be obvious) fake wesbites.  It includes a webpage on dehydrated water!  Here's a generally cool website I was clued into by a FB friend, Sherene, about an article describing a tree octopus and how 87% of the kids who read the article believed it, because it was online.  Let me repeat that-They believed it because it was posted online.  In fact, most of the kids who didn't believe the tree octopus existed had had prior exposure to the page by what I can only believe is an amazing, forward thinking teacher.   I had thought to be rather sly; wait a couple of days, send all the "Muslim hate history" recipients the amazing Tree Octopus site, wait 5 days and then send the information literacy page by Wolchover.  We live in a fast world and learning logic, critical thinking and relying on previous experience to help us decipher current information is not a luxury anyone can afford to live without.   We need our children- and ourselves- to be critical thinkers.  Information literacy is one step to that overall package.