This New York Times' article focuses on a site that provides information that is proved to be factual. The site, Factual, was founded by an investor and inventor, Gil Elbaz. Gil Elbaz was particularly interested on creating a site that provides solely facts, even "unusual facts". I found this article to be interesting because it is a site that can be trusted by schools, teachers, and students for gathering all kinds of data.
Factual, if proved to contain only accurate data, can be a very helpful tool for people in the educational field to use. As a current student and former teacher, I always question the accuracy of information found on online websites when I am doing research for an assignment. I have heard repeatedly from some teachers to not use Wikipedia or sources that end with .com or .org. For so many of my research papers, I have had to rely on databases such as Jstor or EbscoHost. However, I can not always find what I am looking for, especially if it is information that is not given much attention to. After reading this article, I realized that Factual could be the perfect site for students to use when completing assignments that require research. As Gil Elbaz stated, Factual would not only include popular information but also very unusual information that is not given much thought. It can act as another reliable source of information alongside the other most commonly used databases when students are required to do some research. This would be a nice tool for student's in my English class to use when they are brainstorming for and constructing research papers.
Also, Factual can also be used for other curiosities. As stated in the article, it provides information on schools. This would be an excellent tool for parents to use when trying to learn more about their children's school district and community. If Elbaz's goals are achieved, Factual can serve as a useful technological tool for students, parents, and teachers.
Emily, I will definitely look at Factual and see how well it works. It is true that we are always told not to use other sources that are not peer reviewed journals or "educational" sources; however, I think that as future teachers, we need to be different and offer our students with other websites that they can visit to do research. Perhaps Factual would be one of these websites that offer reliable information. Thank you for sharing your findings!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to check out Factual and hopefully be able to use it in future lessons next semester. You're right when saying that most of our professors tell us not to use websites such as Wikipedia because it isn't always accurate. As future teachers we need to make sure our students are finding data that is truthful and accurate.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI think Factual would help challenge students to think critically because you could raise questions to students about concepts they don't encounter on a daily basis. I know research projects require a lot of time and effort, which is something students get very frustrated with. By presenting Factual, the process may be less frustrating and intimidating. I could see myself experimenting with Factual and tying it in with research papers.