Tools
for Teachers:
"Internet
Evaluation Webquest"
By,
Kathleen
P. King, Ed.D.
Webquest Worksheet Questions and Sites
Go to the following sites and answer the accompanying questions.
What problems did you find with these web pages?
Smoker's What Issues? - (http://www.smokingsection.com/swafr.htm)
AIDS "facts" - (http://147.129.1.10/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm)
What clues were there that these pages had problems?
Smoker's What Issues?
AIDS "facts"
Institute for Historical
Review
As the Information Age is rushing past us in a rampant frenzy, adult educators and learners are facing new challenges in utilizing the vast resources of information now readily available. This article will present a lesson and additional resources for evaluating Internet-based information for adult educators.
As adults learn how to access the wealth of information, there emerges a tremendous need that is not being asked often enough -
How do we analyze and evaluate the
information that is inundating us?
How do we sift through fact, fiction, opinion and error? Be it false advertising on E-Bay (a web-based auction site), "miracle" medical cures, or propaganda, if you have not yet, you soon will face misinformation on the Internet. Even though we, as adult educators, may pick up on the errors, what about our less informed adult learners? What insight and skills can we offer them to effectively cope with this challenge? This short article will offer some preliminary guidelines in this respect, offer a classroom tool and provide additional web- and print-based resources on the topic.
As I have worked with teachers, I have seen that this dilemma can be turned around to be a tremendous opportunity to promote the development of critical thinking skills among learners. Truly, technology skills are highly valued in our global community, and this fact is seen in the great motivation adult learners have to use technology. Building upon this motivating desire to learn, educators can use the Web to teach fundamental lessons in critical evaluation and analysis that can carry over into other areas of application and cognitive development. Learners will be motivated to learn with the Internet for several reasons including, 1) they are learning to use technology, 2) they are using the much-talked about "Web," 3) they are gaining control over the vast deluge of information and misinformation, and 4) they are becoming savvy consumers.
Using the principles of constructivism, a powerful means for learning is to enable adult learners to discover and create (construct) knowledge. This Internet Evaluation lesson provides an opportunity to use this approach. Given a setting where your class can use computers connected to the Internet, this lesson can be conducted with small groups going through the activities and reporting back to the class for further discussion. If your learning institution does not have such facilities, students should be able to find Internet access at public libraries, their friends' or own homes. If this is the case, the teacher can introduce the assignment, have them do it for homework and then engage in class discussion about it. Here is an overview of the lesson:
Internet Evaluation Lesson
Objectives
- Become aware that everything posted on the Internet may not be true.
- Observe the parallels between print- and web-based information.
- Determine the disparities between print- and web-based information.
- Develop guidelines for evaluating web-based information and resources.
Action Plan:
- Students visit web sites listed on the Webquest Worksheet.
- Students complete the questions on the worksheet.
- Students discuss the findings and implications of the Webquest activity with the class using the Webquest Class Discussion Questions.
- Students revisit the
sites to determine how to identify and categorize problems using the Webquest Analysis Questions.
- Students discuss and develop guidelines for web-based information evaluation with the class.
- Students assess the guidelines they developed by using them at new web sites and answering the Webquest Assessment Questions.
Webquest Class Discussion Questions
- What problems did you find with the web sites?
- What were clues/indicators to you that there were problems with these web sites?
- What implications do you see for people who access these sites?
- Why do you think this information is available even though it may not be accurate?
Once again, the students form groups and revisit the web sites to determine how they can identify problems. Based on their observations and analysis, they then decide on categories the problems can be put in.
Webquest Analysis Questions
- List the specific problems found on the sites.
- Group those problems that are similar and give that category a name (i.e., facts, authorities, claims, etc.)
- What questions could Internet users think about in order to identify such problems?
The class then reconvenes and discusses the analysis questions. They work to develop a series of questions, or guidelines, to consider when using the Internet. For adult educators' background information, the resources listed at the end of this article provide several perspectives on evaluating Internet-based information and web sites. Several that I find key, and are also widely identified by others are: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage. These are very briefly described below.
As a form of authentic assessment and/or extension for this lesson, I would suggest that the students take the guidelines the class has developed, visit several web sites and try them out. The small groups can write down answers to the questions and also observe if there was anything missing. They can also visit the web sites on evaluation by Beck (2000) and Alexander and Tate (1999). I would pose the following additional questions.
Webquest Assessment Questions
- What did you learn by using the class's list of evaluation questions?
- What else did you learn about critical evaluation by visiting the following web sites?
The good, the bad, the ugly. http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html
Web wisdom. http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
Internet Evaluation Guidelines
Summary
Five widely identified and key guidelines that are helpful in evaluating Internet information are described here (Alexander & Tate, 1999; Beck, 2000). First, Internet-users must be able to assess the authority of the web site author. What are the credentials and expertise of the author and sponsoring organization? Next, users must consider the accuracy of the information that is posted on the web. Are the sources of the information disclosed? Is it apparent that careful editing has been done to the web page (i.e., no typos, easy to read design, no technical errors) indicating that the author was careful about what was presented? Thirdly, users should determine the objectivity of the web site. If a web site has a commercial or promotional purpose, the content could be biased. Advertising could indicate that a web page has the purpose to promote an opinion, product or service. Users should also determine if the web site is current. Currency is indicated by whether a web page has a date on it and whether it is frequently updated. This information can usually be found in small print near the bottom of the web site's home page. Finally, the extent of the coverage of information is important. Does the web site propose to be a complete or limited presentation of information? Are additional resources available? Is the information in-depth enough?
Considering these five criteria will provide a valuable assessment of web site information. Bringing the need for and examples of such criteria into the awareness and reach of our adult learners is a leap forward in cultivating critical thinking skills and application of learning.
Conclusion
Through this lesson, adult learners gain technology skills and engage in observation, deduction, analysis and synthesis in a collaborative, problem-based inquiry. The final phase of the lesson and related activities can include content-related web sites so that the learners may evaluate ESL, workplace sites, etc. Additionally, classes throughout and between adult learning programs can share their guidelines through paper-based handouts, email or web sites. This lesson has the potential to put the tools for critical thinking and informed Internet-use into the hands of our adult learners.
Additional Resources
Alexander, J., & Tate, M. A.
(1999). Web wisdom: How to evaluate and create information quality on
the web.
Beck, S. (2000). The
good, the bad, the ugly: Why it's a good idea to evaluate web sources.
Fitzgerald, M. A. (1997, Feb.) Misinformation on the Internet: Applying evaluation skills to online information. Emergency Librarian 24 (3), 9-14.
Mardziah, A. (1998). ERIC
Digest: Guidelines for evaluating web sites.
Schrock, K. (1998/1999). The ABC's of web site evaluation. Online as an Adobe Acrobat pdf file: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/pdf/weval.pdf
Dr. Kathy King is director of the
Additional Internet resources for educators are available at http://www.retc.fordham.edu
and http://www.fordham.edu/gse/kpking/kpkedu.htm
Graduate School of Education Home Page