Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy

[The Straight Story]

Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy
Posted on 02/01/2011 by mludwig


The endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus in its natural habitat. (snicker)

Is this creature capable of exposing shocking internet illiteracy?

Donald Leu, a researcher from the University of Connecticut, conducted a U.S. Department of Education-funded study of internet literacy among so-called “digital natives,” fabricating the tree octopus to test students’ ability to evaluate information they find on the internet.

Researchers asked students to find out information about the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. Students had no problem locating a Web site dedicated to the cause, http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ “but insisted on the existence of the made-up story, even after researchers explained the information on the website was completely fabricated,” according to a press release.

(Author’s note: You gotta check out this Web site, you can actually buy posters and T-shirts through Cafe Press.)

Most students “simply have very little in the way of critical evaluation skills,” Leu said. “They may tell you they don’t believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do.”

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2011/02/tree-octopus-exposes-internet-illiteracy/

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I do love the photoshop on that one

[The Straight Story]

4. The have pages for other species as well, the mountain walrus:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020124024407/

[hfojvt]

12. do they have any flying scorpions?

I told my sister they had those in Oklahoma. For some reason she didn't believe me.

Sigh. Baby sisters grow up so fast.

[The Straight Story]

13. Here is the list. Not sure which are real, which are not.... :)

Other Animals Of Interest:

* Save The Mountain Walrus — Another endangered Northwest creature that needs our help. (Original site down, link is to Archive.org mirror. Also, see the Mountain Walrus Foundation for some photos.)
* Save The Manhattan Beach Mottled Roach — Save one roach today, that tomorrow we may save millions!
* Rock Nest Monster — Known only from its rocky nests and porcelain-like eggs, Cryptogorgo petronidus is so endangered that existential environmentalists wonder if it ever existed at all.
* Dwarf Orca — Rare miniture killer whale sometimes seen in Cascadian waters. Now being bred as a family pet!
* Giant Palouse Earthworm — This threatened earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) is native to the Palouse prairies of Washington and Idaho. They can grow up to three feet in length, are pinkish-white, and smell of lilies.
* The Red Crabs of Christmas Island — Once every year, 120 million of these forest crabs migrate en masse from their inland burrows to the sea to spawn. Along the way, over a million are crushed by traffic and many die of dehydration crossing deforested land. The offspring of those that survive then have to contend with super-colonies of yellow crazy ants, introduced to the island by the thoughtless actions of Man.
* Mangrove Killifish — This unique fish spends several months out of the year living above water in the trees of mangrove swamps.
* Saber Tooth Salmon — The 3 meter (10 foot) long Smilodonichthys rastrosus once prowled the shores and rivers of Cascadia, attacking Cretaceous octopus swimming in the waters. Could escaping this menace have been the impetus for arboreal octopus evolution?
* Fur-Bearing Trout — Also sometimes called Beaver Trout, these species of the Artikdander genus can be found in the chilly streams and rivers throughout the northern regions of North America.
* Yeti Crab — This crustacean (Kiwa hirsuta), found near mysterious Easter Island, protects itself against the frigid waters with a silky covering of blond fur on its arms and legs.
* Flying Squid — Squid species in the Ommastrephidae family are known for their ability to glide through the air just above the open ocean, using their fins and stretched arm membranes as wings. Their numbers have been dropping due to over-fishing.
* Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods — A 1911 book by William T. Cox that lists little-known animals, most now extinct, discovered by lumberjacks in the wilds of North America.

[TheMadMonk]

19. Giant worms, crabs and flying squid are true. /nt

[pokerfan]

48. The Giant Palouse Earthworm is real

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126312580

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060202081127.htm

[Diclotican]

38. hfojvt

hfojvt

I know the feeling, even tho it was my big sister who was telling me that a troll was living on the addic of our grandparents house.. And I belived it.. She could be good in telling stories my dear sister... In fact I was old, 25 year old, before I deared to go up to the addic, mostly becouse I was told the story of the troll, at an age of 4... She really scared me.... And today, the story is something that make us laugh, as it is rather funny to thing about, as an grown up...

It depend of how you tell the story, and what you tell them... If you had been smart, your baby sister might have belived in the flying scorpions... :evilgrin:

Diclotican

[a la izquierda]

55. oh my god, ew!

i have a hard enough time with real scorpions. if there were really flying ones, i'd freak.

[snagglepuss]

2. A Fascinating study. I wonder if evaluating online info is more difficult

than info presented on TV?

[leftstreet]

3. Yep. They never do these 'studies' about TV

[hootinholler]

35. That was simple prescient. n/t

:rofl:

[Electric Monk]

5. Of course, this entire "study" could simply be as fabricated as the tree octopus site...

Oh no, now we're through the looking glass!

[The Straight Story]

6. This whole post or just your reply could be too....

now I have a head ache - and hell, maybe there really is a tree octopus :)

[petronius]

7. Of course there's really a tree octopus - that's the point of the joke

How else do you think they got a picture of one? Duh...

[The Straight Story]

8. The only way we will know is to put it on FB, heck it may have it's own page

If I know the RW'ers on FB they will have all the answers... just not the right answers :rofl:

[petronius]

9. Not only does it probably already have a FB page, it probably has

1000s more friends than I do... :)

[lapislzi]

40. Ow! Head do splody thing!

Lzi no know what is real creature! Hairy crabs! Tiny whales! Aaaaah!

[panzerfaust]

32. Solipsism, in the end, must rule

Or, more precisely, solipsism of the current instant.

Beyond that ... ?

Me? I believe in the Tree Octopus.

Now, mind, I have never seen one - but many times have heard them in the night whilst backpacking in the eastern Olympics for, like most octopi, they are nocturnal. One can often see their trails in the tree branches - as long as you know what to look for - if you arise before dawn 'fore the dew has gone.

I was shocked to find that they are threatened by extinction.

As shocked as I was a few years ago to learn of the widespread contamination of our environment by dihydrooxide which directly kills thousands of people across the world every year, and the long-term effects of even low-level exposures of which have not been adequately studied.

The internet is a great resource, books are obsolete - as is the need for study.

[Hissyspit]

60. Tree Octopus is one of Ceiling's Cat's beloved creatures.

[kenny blankenship]

10. We always had one for Christmas. But they never lived

They always got flushed down the toilet by the middle of January. Some say there's a colony of tree octopi living in the sewers, but that's just an urban legend.

The coconut crab on the other hand is completely for real.

[hfojvt]

11. that does not fit my idea of illiteracy

an illiterate person is unable to read. Seeing these strange shapes on a screen, what we see as words would be incomprehensible to such a person. That's different than being able to distinguish when something is false or true. Having a source that tells you that there is a such a thing as a tree octupus, how are you supposed to prove that the first source is making things up? Given the number of strange creatures on this planet, why couldn't there be a tree octupus? Maybe some branch of octopi evolved to live, not only on land, but also in trees. Maybe it's a tree-living species that resembles an octupus and thus has that name even though it is a completely different species. How are you supposed to find an article or a site that says "there really is no such thing"?

Plus, isn't that the general mode of learning? You read something, or are told something, and you memorize it and repeat it on a test. Typically you are not taught about any controversies except those that have been settled. Once there was controversy about the shape of the earth. Once there was controversy about the place of the earth in the sky. Even when there is controversy a student is not generally expected to take a side or come to their own conclusion. Instead, they are expected to, again, memorize the arguments of other people. Laplace says this. Fourier says this. Kant says this. Marx says this. Keynes says this.

Nobody cares what I say. I am not one of the giants whose opinion matters. My job is to be able to repeat what others think or have thought. Not to try to think anything new myself. Putting your own thoughts on a test is just asking for a red marker to come out.

[Electric Monk]

14. Agreed, this falls more into the category of "critical thinking skills"

Does it fit with, or contradict, the rest of what I've already come to think of as "proven" or "true" or, might it at least be considered "plausible"?


(psst, the BFEE wanted a New Pearl Harbor™ to justify their wars for oil, pass it on)

[TheMadMonk]

23. no that's SUB-literacy at best. Assembling letters into words.

Litteracy is assembling words into ideas and conveying complex ideas with words.

Once upon a time critical thinking was required learning in schools, now it is tantamount to a criminal offense.

Nor are philosophers presented simply as unquestionable authorities. Enormous amounts of class time and skullsweat is devoted to perpetually reanswering the question of why they are each UNSHAKEABLE authorities in their own way.

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. "booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch"

That's on the page about the octopus, with a link to another page titled "Tree Octopus Protection Vs. Sasquatch Traditions" from "The Republic Of Cascadia Bureau of Sasquatch Affairs".

I'd have hoped that seventh graders had enough general knowledge to smell a rat there. They were asked how credible the site was.

* All 25 students fell for the Internet hoax;
* All but one of the 25 rated the site as "very credible;"
* Most struggled when asked to produce proof - or even clues - that the web site was false, even after the UConn researchers told them it was; and
* Some of the students still insisted vehemently that the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus really exists.

http://advance.uconn.edu/2006/061113/06111308.htm

Mind you, it was over 4 years ago, and perhaps children would be a bit more suspicious of things like this now:

The history of the tree octopus trade is a sad one. Their voracious appetite for bird plumes having exhausted all the worthy species of that family, the fashionistas moved on to cephalopodic accoutrements during the early 20th Century. Tree octopuses became prized by the fashion industry as ornamental decorations for hats, leading greedy trappers to wipe out whole populations to feed the vanity of the fashionable rich. While fortunately this practice has been outlawed, its effects still reverberate today as these millinery deprivations brought tree octopus numbers below the critical point where even minor environmental change could cause disaster.

http://zapatopi.net.nyud.net:8080/treeoctopus/cascadiaeveningpost.jpg

[Toon Me Out]

15. well I jus' like sayin

treeeee octopusssss




NO ADORABLE BABY FOX WAS ACTUALLY DEVOURED BY A TREE OCTOPUS BEARING A HEAVY RESEMBLANCE TO CLARENCE THOMAS MERE MOMENTS AFTER THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN. THE ADORABLE BABY FOX WAS INSTEAD RELOCATED TO OKLAHOMA, WHERE IT IS CURRENTLY BEING HOME-SCHOOLED. MOST RECENTLY, THE ADORABLE BABY FOX HAS BEEN STUDYING AND QUESTIONING THE EVOLUTION OF TREE OCTOPI.




UPDATE: THE ADORABLE BABY FOX BECAME A PIMPLY ADOLESCENT FOX, AND DISCOVERED IT SHARED PART OF ITS NAME WITH A FASCISTIC NEWS NETWORK. DEJECTED, IT TRIED TO WATCH THIS VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnSRTEqPiww


BUT IT COULDN'T, BECAUSE OF THE GI-NORMOUS TREE GOOGLOPUS.

[catzies]

53. OK, now I'm laughing hysterically....thank dog for being alone inthe office!

[demtenjeep]

16. our school librarian has done a lesson on this for years

she gets the kids to really believe it is true

then exposes the truth


the point behind is you have to back up your sources

she does a really great job on it

[slay]

17. This guy is just living in endangered tree octopus denial!!1!

no but seriously - we live in a world where people believe in an invisible man in the sky and lie to their children about a man who comes down the chimney on the same night as the birthday of the invisible man in the sky. :wow: some people will believe anything - we teach it from a young age. :evilgrin:

i don't think it's particular to the internet. smart internet users know you need multiple reliable sources as well as critical thinking. and there are sites out there like snopes.com that exist solely to debunk shit.

i remember seeing a study about how when confronted with facts contrary to a person's belief some people will cling to that belief even more strongly.

if anything i blame our capitalistic consumer culture which encourages stupidity as a way to keep the masses in line unquestioningly doing as they are told.

it's icky - but it's not the internet's fault. lol.

but then again - think about all the people who think Facebook alone IS the internet. :eyes:

[Electric Monk]

20. Jackalopes

http://www.jackalope.org/Douglas/DouglasJackalope.html

[slay]

25. Hey now I KNOW the Jackalope is real i have video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbANo3LD1-A&feature=related

[chollybocker]

18. Is this the same species that bets on soccer games?

I prefer to reserve judgment until I see it with my own eyes at the Kentucky Ark Experience.

[REP]

21. Is that related to the Appalachian Mud Squid?

[Toon Me Out]

22. yeppers

PERFECT!:bounce:

[Solly Mack]

24. but can he name World Cup winners?

Snicker.

That's sad.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. That experiment has been done many, many times- thousands of years before the internet, even.

Except they called the Tree Octopus "God".

[The Midway Rebel]

27. Snow snakes.

I almost got bit by one while shoveling the drive.

http://www.naturenorth.com/winter/snwsnk/snwsnkF.html

[Toon Me Out]

28. HOMEMADE SNOW SNAKE ICE CREAM

DELICIOUS WITH BEER AND/OR serving suggestion

[Oak2004]

30. My favorite line is "Sign an online petition! Nothing activates activity like an Internet petition."

It's so very true

:sarcasm:

[slampoet]

34. Yeah that petition banning the Taliban back in 1999 ought to be kicking in any day now.....

[marked50]

31. Spaghetti Harvest

Spoofs like this have been around a long time. I remember watching the Jack Parr show back in the 60's and he had a short film about the Spaghetti Harvest in Italy, filming people plucking strands of spaghetti off of trees. Pretty believable. Lots of folks thought it was true.....

[Octafish]

33. Old News to DU.

From 2004:



The Endangered Tree Octopus!

[niyad]

36. great photoshop--at first glance, I thought it was a pineapple with eucalyptus attached (okay, I

haven't had enough coffee yet)

[Edweird]

37. First I was like:

"Octopi in TREES!?!? WHAT. THE. FUCK?"

Then I was all like:



"TROLLED"

[Quantess]

50. Cute!

I wonder...do porcupines not have teeth?

[mike_c]

39. I have their big poster hanging in my living room and I love it....

I've had the poster for several years. I'm glad zapatopi.net is still out there!

[catzies]

63. That. Is. Awesome. Cephalopods in the conifers. Made my day. n/t

[Lucian]

41. People really are getting dumber.

My god. I knew it was a fake the moment I saw this.

People. Are. Idiots.

[Codeine]

42. They've always been dumb.

Have you ever heard of the spaghetti harvest story? Classic April Fool's television story in 1957 that fooled a shitload of Britons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_harvest



And there's always the old War of the Worlds radio broadcast that Orson Wells did.

[Lucian]

43. Geez.

I can't believe people fell for that.

But then again, I'm not surprised.

[KamaAina]

44. The tree octopus is the Flying Spaghetti Monster become flesh!

[WinkyDink]

45. And students should be expected to differ from American adults?

[mkultra]

46. im sure that if the created a flase encylopedia entry, the results would be TOTALLY different

lol

[pokerfan]

47. Mentioned in today's Pharyngula

Readers of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZ_Myers">PZ Myers' blog will know that he is a big fan of cephalopods so I wasn't surprised to see him mention this story today.

I actually use the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus every semester, in the first lecture of our introductory biology course! After giving an overview of the scientific method and how to ask good scientific questions, I use it as an example: I show them the page, read a few excerpts, and ask them what they think…and always the majority of students are skeptical. The few who will grant it tentative plausibility always follow up with specific questions about the site and about where they can get additional information to confirm it.

Then we discuss how to validate scientific information, what we look for to trust a source, and further, I ask them to think more deeply about how, if the website passed a routine sniff test, we'd also go on to test unusual claims in nature. My experience has been that students are much more rational and practical about evaluating material on the web than we'd give them credit for (of course, there are also always a few students who still turn in papers with wacky web sites cited as sources — but they're a minority).

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/its_in_the_daily_mail_so_im_co.php

[muriel_volestrangler]

49. Notice how the Daily Mail managed to insert falsehoods in the story

which is typical of them - they claim the site was set up by the academic especially for the test, when it's been around over a decade. They also stripped the story (which they appear to have picked up from a press release from a few days ago) of all indication of how old the children were (they were seventh graders, which the Mail could easily have made into "13 year olds" for British readers). The actual study was over 4 years ago, but the Mail only bothers when it gets a press release it can rewrite slightly, and then pass off as "by a Daily Mail Reporter". The Mail does more to spread ignorance and laziness on the Internet than 1000 tree octopus sites.

[Matariki]

51. Viva Cascadia. We are dedicated to protecting the endangered Pacific Tree Octopus.

[Lithos]

52. ROFLMAO

Wonderful!

[Sabriel]

54. That whole site is worth looking at

I especially love the photos people submitted.

And the trick or treat box.

[The Doctor.]

56. LMAOWMSYOSITLR.

(laughing my ass off with my 16 year old son in the living room)

Thanks for posting.

[marmar]

57. That's really sad.

nt

[A-Schwarzenegger]

58. Um ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=624815

[Hissyspit]

61. Oscar!

[A-Schwarzenegger]

62. Ceiling Cat!

:*

[Quantess]

59. I love the tree octopus!

;)