Hey! That looks cool, but…

Some of my students asked me about a Web site they’d been on recently. They seemed pretty excited about it and about the cool but inexpensive gadgets they found for sale, but they also seemed a little unsettled. It looarborealcephalopodked good, but was it reliable? Was it real? Were the good deals honest, or was it some kind of scam?

I felt bad that I didn’t have time for them to show me what had them abuzz with excitement and at the same time leery. They filled my bucket, though, by asking those questions. We’ll be asking a lot more of them as we develop our literacy and critical thinking.

In the mean time, they reminded me of a very interesting site with some information about an endangered species, Octopus paxarbolis, from the temperate rain forests not far form here. I thought we ought to find out more about what we should do to try to save this critter and protect the area’s biodiversity. Theses students are showing they’ve got savvy; now it’s time to get good at using it.

 

14 thoughts on “Hey! That looks cool, but…

    • Thank you. I’ve had class blogs since about 2006. This site got started maybe half a dozen years ago or so, and I finally moved our blogs to this site during the last school year. I hope we’ll be able to publish more of your writing here before long.

  1. i think that the website shows truth, and looks reliable. but the fact of a octopus and a tree would be connected is absolute nonsense! its like saying a mouse lived in the ocean. although on one website they said that they are real and described how they breath and see. but also they said it can attack and more nonsense. all in all this taught me not to always trust the internet.

  2. I remember going on that web site. When I first got on it, it seemed a little weird. I started reading it and I decided that I should look around the website a little more. I went to the sightings and after that I knew that it was totally unreliable. All of the pictures either looked like they put a stuffed animal in a tree or it was totally photo shopped. Some of my other classmates looked on Google and found that the Tree Octopus is just an internet hoax. So I have learned that you can use other resources to figure out if the web page is telling the truth or if it is just a lie that someone is trying to convince you that something that is totally fake is real.

  3. I think the Huzzah commenting guidelines are really interesting they really help you relies that caps are like your yelling or spelling wrong could get the topic off topic well that’s my comment I hope you like it by Laurence

    • Thanks for paying attention to the commenting guidelines we talked about and those posted at Huzzah.

      Speaking of staying on topic, what did you think about how to tell truth from fiction online? THat was a very cool site about that octopus, wasn’t it!?

  4. Well, I feel that the sudden interest in this article shows just how much caution wee should have on the internet. As I have discovered, this rumor that a tree octopus exists is false, witch goes to show just how much people, are just tricking us.

  5. I really like hazzahs guideline because it really tells us how to be safe and careful about the internet. Now when I go into the internet will be safe and careful always.

    • I’m glad you thought the guidelines posted at Huzzah were a helpful reminder of our conversation in class. What do you think is most important to remember to do when commenting on someone’s post?

  6. Hi Mr. Milloy! I’ve read Huzzah’s comment guidelines, I think that their blog was helpful, but sometimes on YouTube videos I see comments that don’t really follow the guidelines, but I am going to do what the guidelines said.

    • I’m glad you visited our friends at Huzzah and read their information about commenting. I hope you will apply those guidelines to ALL of your commenting. By the way, what did you think about my post that included the octopus paxarbolis?

  7. I think that the website shows some truth, but the tree octopus was false. And you can’t always trust people on the internet because there are some bad people but there is also some good people. You should never put your name and information on the internet because people might use it.

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