Evaluating Resources

"With the advent of the World Wide Web and the huge amount of information that is contained there, students need to be able to critically evaluate a Web page for authenticity, applicability, authorship, bias, and usability. The ability to critically evaluate information is an important skill in this information age."
    - Kathy Schrock, http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask
This UC Berkeley site offers a useful four-part process for evaluating Web pages, including examining the URL, the perimeter of the page, indicators of quality, and what others say.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Critical Evaluation Information
This Discovery Channel site contains a wealth of articles and tools to help students learn to evaluate the reliability of online information. Among the most useful tools are critical evaluation surveys that Schrock developed for different grade levels and a number of sites to use with students to practice critical evaluation skills.

Separating Fact from Fiction: Examining the Credibility of Information Found on the Internet
This Project Look Sharp site provides an excellent collection of resources for the teacher. Categories include: Web evaluation clearinghouses, hoaxes and urban legends, decoding URLs, Web sites to analyze for authority/accuracy, advocacy/objectivity, and currency/coverage, and lesson plan ideas.

The Web: Teaching Zack to Think
This online article (written by Alan November for High School Principal magazine) makes a compelling case for teaching students to critically evaluate online information. He advocates the use of several techniques, which he groups into three main categories: Purpose, Author, and Meta-Web Information.

The Big 6: Information Literacy for the Information Age
This site provides an overview of a six-step problem-solving model that integrates information skills along with technology tools in a systematic process to find, use, apply, and evaluate information for specific needs and tasks.