Lesson+14.+Evaluating+Online+Resources

=Unit: Research and Information Fluency - What strategies should students know to effectively guide their inquiry and evaluate and use online information?= =Research and Information Fluency: Grades 9-12= =Evaluating Online Resources - Overview= Students learn to think critically about their choices of Web sites for research by using an evaluation checklist that discusses the key characteristics of trustworthy sites. A sampling of sites on a topic of high interest to students provides the lesson context. Optional strategies for the use of Web 2.0 tools are included. Extend the lesson to examine the use of Wikipedia.

Download [|Student Activity Sheet(s)] in PDF format. Read a [|Letter to Educators] about research and information fluency from Cybersmart!

Learning Targets

 * I can compare and contrast the reliability of resources available on the Web to those in a library.
 * I can interpret the criteria on a Web site evaluation checklist.
 * I can apply an evaluation checklist and reach a conclusion about the usefulness of a Web site for research.

Site Preview
The follow sites are recommended to illustrate the point that not all Web sites are good sources of information. CyberSmart! does not endorse their content or advertising.
 * [|What are Performance Enhancing Drugs?]
 * [|Should We Allow Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports?]
 * [|Dangerous Facts About Performance Enhancing Drugs]
 * [|Performance-enhancing drugs and your teen athlete]
 * [|Essay, Research Paper: Performance Enhancing Drugs]
 * [|NIDA Initiative Targets Increasing Teen Use of Anabolic Steroids]
 * [|Ergogenic Use of Anabolic Steroids]
 * //Optional strategies for using [|Web 2.0 tools] with your students are recommended throughout the lesson plan.//**

Materials

 * Student Sheets (one set of two)

Introduce (offline)

 * Tell students that libraries and reference librarians are trained in selecting high-quality resources for students. Most of the resources they select for use in the library—print and electronic—go through many stages of development, involving authors, editors, fact checkers, expert reviewers, copyeditors, designers, proofreaders, and publishers. For this reason, librarians can be fairly sure that these well-regarded resources contain accurate, useful information.
 * **Ask:** //How is the way information is published on the Web different from reference library resources?//Students may know that anyone can author and publish a Web site, while traditional publishing has many layers of approval, including editing and fact checking.
 * Point out that the Web has many high-quality sources of information, but the challenge and responsibility of sorting the good sources from the not-so-good sources lies with the student.

Teach 1 (offline)
//**Use [|Web 2.0 tools] such as wikis and online graphic organizers to facilitate the brainstorming process.**//
 * To elicit prior knowledge, have students brainstorm a list of questions they might ask themselves about each source they find when doing online research. Record this list, without commenting, on the board.
 * Have the class spend a few minutes classifying the list of questions into broad categories.

Teach 2 (online)

 * Distribute the student sheets.
 * Have student go to www.becybersmart.org or www.cybersmartcurriculum.org, click on Student Links, and then click on the star. Then have them find the title of this lesson and open its links.
 * Assign individuals or groups to one of the selected informational sites. Have students use one set of student sheets to evaluate each site, recording the URL of the site at the top of the first sheet. Encourage them to support their answers in the "Details and Comments" column.

Teach 3 (online)
If you are planning to have your students work on a research project, you may want to have them use social bookmarking and other [|Web 2.0 tools] to facilitate sharing of high-quality Web resources.
 * Have students or groups report on each of the Web sites they evaluated and reach a conclusion about whether they would use the site for research or not.

Assess (offline)
The following items assess student proficiency and learning targets.
 * **Ask:** //What is the difference between information found on the Web and in a reference library?//(Anyone can publish material of any quality on the Web, while library materials are reviewed by experts.)
 * **Ask:** //Which of the questions in the checklist do you think are most important when making research decisions? Why?//Students should support their answers.
 * **Ask:** //How will using a checklist to evaluate sites make you a better researcher?// (It may prevent students from using poor-quality sites and getting inaccurate information.)

Extend (online)
The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade.
 * Discuss your school's or your course's policy on using [|Wikipedia]as a source for research assignments.
 * If no policy has been made, this is an excellent topic for Internet research. Have students apply the checklist from this lesson to evaluate Web pages that discuss whether students should be allow to use Wikipedia or not.
 * //Have students use [|Web 2.0 tools], such as online surveys, to explore the issue of whether high schools should block access to Wikipedia.//**