The Hunchback of Notre Disney
An interview with Jaimie McKenzie
Staff -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2000
Jamie McKenzie is editor and publisher of From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal (www.fno.org). McKenzie, a former teacher and school administrator, spoke to us from his home in Bellingham, WA.
What's the biggest misconception about the Internet? Most people are incredibly unaware of its weaknesses and tend to falsely equate it with a library collection. They don't understand that it is driven by pop culture and pretty Disney-fied kinds of information sources.
What do you mean by "Disney-fied"? Information becomes "entertainerized"; it gets driven by entertainment values and cleaned up, so that sometimes it doesn't resemble reality any more. Like when you see what happens to, say, the Hunchback of Notre Dame when Disney gets ahold of it. Suddenly, the Hunchback becomes somebody you'd hire as a baby sitter.
What can a librarian do to help kids use the Internet wisely? Teach students to be selective consumers of information sources, and to recognize that sometimes a book would be the best source. There's a tendency to rush to the Internet when it might not be a good source. The most important thing is to teach [students]... to be critical consumers.
