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Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world
Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world

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3.2 Developing your ‘trustometer’

Described image
Figure 5 Barometer

Often, you are taking a calculated risk when deciding whether or not to trust someone or something online. What you decide to do may depend on how much time you have available and what is at stake. Developing your research and evaluation skills will enable you to weigh up the ‘pros and cons’ more quickly and make good decisions. You could think of the decision-making process as a kind of barometer which changes in response to a variable set of factors – your ‘trustometer’. For the penultimate activity this week you are going to put some of what you have learned into practice.

Activity 7 What would you do?

Manuela, Michael and John are facing some predicaments in their digital life. Listen to the audio recordings and note down the advice you would give to each one of them.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: Manuela talks about her digital life
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Manuela talks about her digital life
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Download this audio clip.Audio player: Michael talks about his digital life
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Michael talks about his digital life
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John talks about his digital life
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Discussion

Manuela now knows that her bank would never ask for her PIN by email in this way. The site that she was taken to looked convincing and professional. However, on closer examination the URL was not quite right. The email itself began ‘Dear Sir or madam’ and contained several grammatical and spelling errors, which would not have occurred in a real communication from the bank, as these are usually carefully proof-read. A useful site that lists scams and hoaxes to be aware of is Hoax Slayer [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Michael could have done a search for information on treatments for coeliac disease, to establish the facts and research behind the article. Using the PROMPT framework would help him here, as it would encourage him to ask questions about the provenance and accuracy of some of the figures quoted. An update to the article Michael read was later published, clarifying that the NHS food prescription bill was for all special diets, not just sufferers of coeliac disease (Daily Mail, 2015).

John could have done an image search using the ‘Usage rights’ filter in Google advanced search, to search for images that are free to use or share. Or he might have found something suitable in an online collection of images licensed under Creative Commons, such as Flickr.

Manuela, Michael and John are generally becoming more sceptical about information they find online, or that comes to them via email. At the same time, they are becoming more open about the possibilities of learning through the many online resources available to them.

Knowing what questions to ask is giving them confidence that in future they will be able to avoid being taken in. As you encounter different information and people online, keeping those questions in mind will enable you to live wisely and safely in a digital environment. Developing a critical mindset helps you to avoid the ‘potholes’ in your information landscape and make the most of life online.