Evaluating Internet Research

With so much information available on the Internet, it is important for teachers to help their students evaluate the good and the bad of the sources available to them. Rather than blindly trusting whatever sites a search engine presents, students need to be armed with tools they can use to see if a site is credible. This is especially important when teaching young elementary students who have no reason not to trust.

In our readings this week, there was a lot of discussion focused on evaluating websites. Robert Harris (http://www.virtualsalf.com/eval8it.htm) suggests using the CARS checklist when evaluating sites. He warns that most sites will not be able to meet all the criteria, but using the criteria in this checklist is a strong starting point for discerning the good sites from the bad sites.

CARS Checklist:

• Credibility--Whis is the author?
• Accuracy--Is the information timely? Is the information comprehensive? For whom is the article intended?
• Reasonableness--Is the article objective? Is the message consistent?
• Support--Is the information supported by other sources?

The CAFE Advice:

• Challenge--challenge information and demand accountability
• Adapt--adapt your skepticism and requirements for quality to fit the importance of the information and what is being claimed
• File--file new information in your mind rather than immediately believing or disbelieving it
• Evaluate--evaluate and re-evaluate regularly

Susan Beck's website (http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html?step=0) regarding the importance of evaluating web sources breaks down the key criteria into:

• Authority
• Accuracy
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage

Beck's website also provides a list of suggested Internet activities and examples of websites that vary in credibility. These suggested activities and examples are great resources to use when discussing the importance of evaluating websites with students.

Alistair Smith's article, "Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources," (http://epress.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html?step=0) focuses on the criteria needed for librarians and library users to evaluate resources. Smith provides a much more in-depth look at the criteria than either Beck or Harris, but much of the information is consistent with the other articles.

After reading the articles and websites of Harris, Beck, and Smith, I feel better prepared to not only talk to my students about becoming more discerning researchers, but I also feel better able to discuss with my colleagues some of the issues related to student research. While some of the other teachers require students to use non-Internet sites only, I feel as though this avoids the issue of knowing how to be a more savvy Internet researcher. Rather than empowering students and arming them with the tools they will need in the future, some teachers stick to the old ways. While I do believe knowing how to find and use information in a variety of ways is important, it is also important for students to use the resources that are available to them now and in the future.