Information+Literacy

[|Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons]
1. [|Evaluating Information - A Guide to Websites]. - This is a one page list of guiding questions to consider while viewing a website. This guide is best suited to high school and college students.
 * From Free Technology for Teachers**
 * Downloadable PDFs from DocStoc and Scribd**

2. [|Gary Library Website Evaluation Checklist]. - A two page document containing checklists in six different categories for determining the validitity and quality of online information. "Smiley" icons provide clues for younger students. Suitable for middle school and high school use.

3. [|Evaluating the Quality of Sources]. - A one page document outlining a list of questions to consider as you evaluate a website. This document recommends and provides a link for checking the WHOIS domain registry.

4. [|Boolify Lesson Plan for Evaluating Websites]. - A simple lesson plan from [|Boolify.org] that is appropriate for grades four through nine (give or take a grade).

5. [|Bear Essentials Evaluating Websites]. - This document is part of series of documents about finding and evaluating online and print references. These documents were produced by the Baton Rouge Community College.

**Online Lessons and Activities** 6. [|Cyber Smart Lesson Plans and Student Activities]. - Provides more than a dozen lesson plans and activities appropriate for grades K-12. Lessons cover everything from finding websites to evaluating websites.

7. [|Kathy Shrock's ABC's of Website Evaluation]. - Tried and true lesson plans, online activities, and handouts for teaching website evaluation. The resources found here can be adapted for use in elementary school, middle school, and high school.

8. [|Cornell University Library - Evaluating Websites]. - Geared toward college students, the resources here can be accessed by high school students. Many links out to other resources on the topic of website evaluation.

9. [|Evaluating Websites for Learners]. - Created by [|Maggie Verster], this presentation provides justification for teachers previewing websites, creating their own search engines, links to resources for teaching website evaluation. Presentation is embedded below.
 * For Brushing-up on Your Own Skills**

[|The Anatomy of a Hoax Website]
One of the skills that today’s students need to learn--and that many schools fail to systematically teach--is how to identify hoax websites. In a world where content can be created by anyone, being a critical consumer of online content is not an optional skill.

=[|Examples of false sites to aid in evaluating internet resources]=

[|Great Visualisers - Information is Beautiful]
A good source of infographics

[|Critical Evaluation: Scary Research Findings Prompt New Internet Reading Strategies]
Below you will find five activities associated with the online reading tasks our research suggests are particularly challenging for students who read to learn on the Internet. We will explore each of these individually or in small groups throughout the day, taking time to network with other teachers to reflect about how best to teach these new literacy strategies with your students.
 * **Challenge 1: [|Evaluating Relevancy]**
 * **Challenge 2: [|Evaluating Reliability (Part 1)]**
 * **Challenge 3: [|Evaluating Reliability (Part 2)]**
 * **Challenge 4: [|Detecting Bias]**
 * **Challenge 5: [|Evaluating Bias]**

A fabulous [|listing of fake web sites, hoax photos, etc].
The best being a site warning of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide (also known as water).

[|Information Skills]
This wiki is designed to assist teachers to teach information skills and students to research.

[|Information Literacy Resources]
These resources will help you become a more productive user of the Internet. Links to websites to validate, info literacy quiz, how to read web addresses ...
 * [|Websites to Validate]**

[|From Rhondda's Reflections] So far I have brought together some of the hoax sites and will work on organising some suggested activities that will lead the students to “discover” the problems with not evaluating the information they find. So I have included most of the sites, I have found that would be useful in classrooms, below. Any other good sites would be welcomed. Next step some simple and medium level activities > Posted from [|Diigo]. The rest of my [|favorite links] are here.
 * [|The Hoax Photo Archive] The Museum of hoaxes website has a list of photo hoaxes throughout the history. The website also has april fool jokes, college pranks hoax websites and tall-tale creatures hoaxes.
 * [|RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center. All the miracles of modern medicine.™] Acclaimed as providing ‘all the miracles of modern medicine’. Also offers Male Pregnancy and Clyven the Transgenic Talking Mouse
 * [|McWhortle Enterprises, Inc.] This hoax site was set up by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to teach people how to watch out for scams. The site looks and ‘feels’ real to the people searching the Internet for investment opportunities and is great to use with older secondary students.
 * [|The Ova Prima Foundation] Investigates which came first – the chicken or the egg.
 * [|Haggis Hunt 2008/09 – The Great Scottish Haggis Hunt – webcams in Scotland] This funny site adamantly proclaims that a Haggis is a wild animal.
 * [|Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division – dihydrogen monoxide info] Tom Way’s scientific terminology demonises a substance we can’t live without. The whole site is worth investigation. This site originated from a 14-year-old secondary school student’s science project.
 * [|http://www.genochoice.com] Create your own genetically healthy child online.
 * [|Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie] Shield your brain from mind control.
 * [|California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge] Ken Umbach’s obvious but amusing satirical piece of writing for students in Early to Late Adolescence.
 * [|The Pacific Northwest tree octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/] This site was created as an internet hoax by Lyle Zapato. It is a good site to have students access in order to demonstrate that they cannot believe everything they find on the internet
 * All about explorers [] This website is a great tool to use while teaching students about ensuring the authority of their resources by double checking them with multiple sources of information. The website is purposely designed to appear authentic, however, it is peppered with false information. A series of lessons based around the use of this website are provided in the section titled “For Teachers
 * [|Infosearcher: teching students to evaluate websites] Provides three strategies to teach evaluation of Internet material. Stresses the importance of students being actively involved in designing questions or criteria for evaluation.
 * [|The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources] Contains an excellent selection of websites dealing with controversial topics for mature students.
 * [|Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators – Critical Evaluation Surveys and Resources – Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators] Forms designed for students at three levels: Elementary, Middle and Secondary. There are also links to many excellent sites for critical evaluation.
 * [|Internet Detective | Home] An interactive online tutorial that can be downloaded for use offline.
 * [|Evaluating Internet Sources]


 * Rhondda's Sharetabs**

[|Teaching for Information Literacy]
Students no longer need to rely on teachers, textbooks and libraries to access the information they need to make decisions or complete assignments. They live in a world of immediate communication where they can find the answers to the questions that intrigue them. As well, the [|read/write web], also known as [|Web 2.0] , where individuals have the opportunity to be not merely consumers of information but also producers requires educators to reevaluate the skills that students need to be successful learners and ultimately contributing citizens. The major changes in the way our students access and use information lead to the question, "in a world radically changed by new and emerging technology what are the skills that will allow our students to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information?" We can begin to respond to this question by first understanding that a [|definition] of information literacy is a constantly evolving concept.

[|Information Age Inquiry]
Information literacy standards for student learning, indicators for student performance, and hundreds of collaborative lesson plans around the country give us some indication of the skills students are expected to master as effective and efficient users of information.

[|Get FIT! Fired Up with Information & Technology]
Whether you're getting physically fit or redefining your use of digital information and technology, it's time to get FIT! From books and videos to websites and virtual environments, this workshop will help you develop a plan for rethinking your use of technology in teaching and learning.

[|21st Century Information Fluency Project]
Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically. DIF involves Internet search skills that start with understanding how digital information is different from print information, knowing how to use specialized tools for finding digital information and strengthening the dispositions needed in the digital information environment. As teachers and librarians develop these skills and teach them to students, students will become better equipped to achieve their information needs.

[|Evaluating Web Pages]
This page is organized to combine the two techniques into a process that begins with looking at your search results from a search engine or other source, follows through by investigating the content of page, and extends beyond the page to what others may say about the page or its author(s).

Fake Sites!

[|Internet Detective - Website Validity]
Be an internet detective!

**[|21st Century Literacies]**
All schools are probably teaching many of the information literacy skills found in this body of lessons. Usually, individual teachers will tackle the process of plugging the gaps in their curriculum when an issue or opportunity arises. A sixth grade teacher may see the need to review note taking, while a high school teacher needs to re-introduce Boolean operators and review Citing Sources. Eventually, schools and districts will attempt to make sure the skills covered in these lessons are integrated into the K-12 curriculum. As a teacher, you can begin by looking at the chart below to see which lessons are appropriate for the age and abilities of the students you teach.



**[|Information Literacy Resources] **
Links and downloads for questioning, searching, researching writing expositions

**[|Big 6]**
Information and Technology skills for student achievement

**[|S.O.S for Information Literacy]**
**S.O.S. for Information Literacy ** is a dynamic web-based multimedia resource that includes lesson plans, handouts, presentations, videos and other resources to enhance the teaching of information literacy. Information literacy skills enable students to effectively locate, organize, evaluate, manage and use information. S.O.S. includes materials for instruction at the elementary, secondary and higher education levels. Read a [|full description] of the project. Each lesson plan, teaching idea and media resource has been carefully reviewed to ensure that you will find quality materials.

[|Lexisum]
Lexicon Wikipédia Summary. Browse wikipédia as you type and impress your colleagues with excellent prints.

[|Evaluating Information]
Being able to evaluate the quality and purpose of information you encounter online can prevent a bad grade, but in the case of information you encounter through contacting people online evaluating the quality of that information can prevent a bad or life threatening experience. The activities contained in this section will help you develop critical evaluation skills in your students that will make them Cyber Safe and Information Literate.

Look up domain names for validating the authenticity of websites