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Critical Literacy
Explain how you will help students understand the importance of critically evaluating what is on the web. How can students develop a discriminating eye when they are surfing the internet? How can recognizing the objectives of a web page help us determine how reliable the information contained in the web page is?
Consider the following objectives of internet pages:
- news
- topic information
- commerce - shopping
- entertainment/humor
- artistic/gallery
- advocacy - persuasion
- personal
Evaluating web pages skillfully requires you to do two things at once:
- Train yourself to quickly find what you need to know about web pages;
- Train your mind to think critically, even suspiciously, by asking a series of questions that will help you decide how much a web page is to be trusted.
Your assignment: To fulfill the requirements for this unit, read through the four activities outlined below and be prepared to discuss them in class. The only assignment to be turned in is #4, a paragraph summary of five different professional organization websites you have visited.
1. Introduction to Critical Literacy--Questions to ask about the reliability of a website:
- What can the URL (website address) tell you?
- Who wrote the page? Is he, she, or the authoring institution a qualified authority?
- Is it dated? Current, timely?
- Is information cited authentic?
- Does the page have overall integrity and reliability as a source?
- What's the bias?
- Could the page or site be ironic, like a satire or a spoof?
- If you have questions or reservations, how can you satisfy them?
These questions are taken from "Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask," UC Berkeley Teaching Library Internet Workshop, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
How reliable do you think the above website information is?
For a website evaluations, try the following sites:
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/rtrieger/problemsolvingchap3.htm
http://www.tammypayton.net/courses/print/rubric2.htm
http://www.onlineenglishdegree.com/resources/web-and-content-evaluation/
2. Activity: Read the following short article "How Credible is Information on the Internet?"
How does knowledge of domains help discern the credibility of a website?
3. Activity: Interactive Net TutorBegin the following Ohio State University interactive tutorial by clicking the first link, or select any page to review. (The last three links actually lead you to the same page.) Review the pages and take the "Quick Quiz" at the end of each page.
http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/les1/
This page uses these criteria for website evaluation:
- Purpose: Determine whether the main purpose of the site is to inform or to persuade (advocate for a cause).
- Author: The best sites are produced by those who have appropriate education, training, or experience to write with authority on the topic. Check site documents or external sources to find out more about the author.
- Content: Consider whether content seems biased. Does the author have a "vested interest" in the topic? Look for documentation of claims and a balanced point of view.
- Coverage: Shop around for the best source. You can compare the page to others on the same topic to see which provides better coverage.
- Currency: If you are looking for the most current information on a topic, be sure to determine when information was added.
- Recognition: Also try to determine whether the site has been recognized as exemplary, either in reviews or by others linking to it.
How reliable do you think the above website information is?
4. Activity: Website Evaluation
Locate the websites for five professional organizations in different disciplines. Write a paragraph summary of each, describing the resources they provide for teachers. You can email your paragraphs as a document attachment/
Some examples of websites from the EOU CORE class, January 2006
Educational Technology
EOU Malheur County Center (541) 889-7468 or (541) 889-6222
