After looking through the readings this week, I found the resources on critically evaluating web-based information to be particularly helpful; especially the information provided by Schrock (2018). This area of digital literacy is something that “every teacher, instructor, and increasingly learner, needs to make decisions about, often on a daily basis” (Bates, 2015). Because of this, I think it’s important to teach the skills and tools needed to critically evaluate the vast amounts of digital information students have access to and to develop some questions and guidelines to help them determine if sources of information are credible and accurate. To do this, I hope to have my students evaluate websites and other sources of information as part of my Technology Integration Activity project. These are the guiding questions I plan on using to help my students develop these digital literacy skills:

  1. Who wrote the pages and are they an expert? Can you find more information about the author?
  2. What type of bias might this website contain? Is it clear who is sponsoring this page?
  3. What information is included and does this information differ from other sites?
  4. When was the site last updated? Is this information current?

References

Bates, A. W. (2015). Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Vancouver, BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/

Schrock, K. (2018). Critical evaluation of information. Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/critical-evaluation.html