Feedback Mechanisms
For this quest, read “A Brief History of London’s Speakers’ Corner” and watch a few minutes of the following documentary about this historic location in London, England.
Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London, England exemplifies free speech and interactive dialogue among a diverse group of people in a public space. Every Sunday afternoon speakers from around the world express their views by saying whatever they want in this part of historic Hyde Park. Some of the excerpts you hear from speakers in the documentary are outrageous and even offensive. Each of the individuals is voicing their own unfiltered and unedited ideas publicly. Anyone listening in the park has the right to express their own opinions as well and offer feedback through mechanisms of voice, sign, banner, song, and cues both verbal and non-verbal.
Today’s online environment features networked technologies that are highly collaborative and interactive. We see this in online communities and social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Everyone with access to the Web through a browser or mobile device has the chance to express and share their ideas to a potentially global audience using text, sound, images, and video. Participants create their own original information while offering feedback to others in response to their unique contributions. When returning to an original expression days or weeks later, producers of information may find responses to postings and publications. All that we read and experience online requires a close examination and careful critical thinking process to help filter the unfiltered information and make sense out of so many different perspectives.
The interactive nature of these social spaces invites responses to published materials through feedback mechanisms such as online comments in a blog, status updates in Facebook, video responses on YouTube, and 140 character tweets in Twitter. Today’s online and mobile environments allow readers to share book reviews on Amazon, or dialogue with other readers of The New York Times. In addition, travelers post instant reviews of hotels and restaurants via Yelp!, and Trip Advisor. When making decisions about travel arrangements we can easily access the opinions of fellow travelers who have flown with specific airlines, stayed at hotels of choice, or visited historic sites, or exotic travel destinations.
In many ways this online sharing of feedback is similar to the word-of-mouth recommendations we may receive in a library, classroom, restaurant, or the rumors or strong expression of opinions we may hear in public spaces, such as Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. Whether or not we receive this information in person or online, we need to listen carefully to that advice or opinion while also making our own critical decisions about what to do with it, and whether or not we agree, or disagree, or need more information to form a complete viewpoint.
As part of developing a critical thinking process about the feedback mechanisms we encounter online, we need to consider several interrelated questions:
How do we effectively consume feedback from so many different perspectives that are communicated in a variety of mechanisms and formats?
To what extent do we become critical creators and consumers of digital information?
How do we effectively differentiate between views and reviews, opinion and truth, fact and fiction, popular and scholarly ideas?
How do we look at this information critically, without automatically discounting the views of others?
For this quest, plan a trip to Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London, England. This will allow you to see for yourself this international corner of free speech and to find it using democratic social technologies. This quest requires you to create an effective travel itinerary and budget (Don’t really book anything, we don’t have the budget for that!). You will need to combine several information sources and feedback mechanisms. Incorporate each of the sources below in your itinerary and itemized budget. Feel free to write the itinerary as a complete paragraph, or a list of items associated with your itemized budget. For each source below, refer to specific user-generated information (such as reviews) and how it informed the development of your itinerary.
To help plan your trip, go to Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or another online bookseller and pick out the best travel guide to London. When making the decision, be sure to consider such factors as price but also user ratings and reviews (Were some reviews better than others? Why or why not?).
In addition to a travel guide, you will also need another book or books to learn more about Speakers’ Corner. Go to Google Books and see if you can find any books freely available online. Consider user ratings and reviews in this search as well. If the online previews of the book(s) do not provide enough information, add the full book to your budget for purchase.
How will you get there? Explore online options for flights (Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, etc.) and consider such factors as timing, airline, duration of the flight, added fees, and proximity to Hyde Park, etc.
Where will you stay? Do any of the airline searches also provide the option for hotel reservations? What do the online reviewers suggest? Can you confirm quality hotels by checking TripAdvisor.com?
Where will you eat when you get there? How are the London restaurants rated via Yelp, Trip Advisor, or other sources?
What can you find out about Speakers’ Corner itself as a travel destination? How is it listed on Trip Advisor, Yelp or other sites? Did you find any comments or reviews related to the documentary about Speakers’ Corner?
What is the latest news in London? Check out online newspapers, the BBC, or Google News. Do any of the top stories include blog entries, or comments from readers?
When analyzing all of this information, consider the reliability of your sources and think critically about all of the information you encounter, including the formal and informal material. Write up your response in the submission form below.
Have a safe flight and enjoy your time in London!
Assignment
Write up a paragraph and/or itemized list that include a summary of what you found and how much it will cost to travel. Write about the feedback mechanisms you identified when preparing the research for your travel itinerary and budget.