Putting It All Together

To reinforce the information literacy skills outlined in this article, and to help guide students to quality sites, it is tempting to create or locate an evaluative checklist for students to follow in locating the "best" sites. There are many such checklists out there-some of them listed in the online version of this article-but David Warlick cautions that the question needs to be rephrased as, "best for what?" Moreover, he believes that most checklists are too cumbersome for any of us to use on a regular basis.

HOW TO He suggests narrowing down the checklist categories to three basic questions: Who? Who created this site, and does that lend credibility to or detract from the validity of the information? When? How current is the site, and does that matter for this particular topic? Why? What is the reason for this information and the site's format, and how does that affect its value to you? David Jakes also advocates keeping the number of questions to a minimum. Here is Internet Innovations' three-step process for narrowing a search. Step 1: Applicability. Students determine if the information at the website is relevant and useful for answering their questions. If so, they continue to step 2. If not, they continue searching. Step 2: Authority. Students then determine if the information at the website originates from a readily recognizable expert, organization, or qualified person or group. If yes, they use the website to answer their questions. If not, they return to searching. Step 3: Reliability. The final step in the information evaluation process requires students to cross-reference websites. Each student or team is assigned a site to use for answering a set of questions. They then compare their answers with those obtained from other sources in order to assess the reliability of the information.

Of course, as with most of the other activities described in this article, deferring to the students is often the wisest course. As they become increasingly Web-savvy and information literate, most learners will be more than ready to create checklists, posters, and a variety of other teaching tools to help fellow students learn the grammar of the Internet.

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Judy Salpeter, an experienced educator, freelance writer, and education technology specialist, is program chair for Technology & Learning Events and consulting editor for Technology & Learning magazine.

We would like to thank the following authorities for their assistance with this article:

• Bernie Dodge
• Marianne Handler
• David Jakes
• Merle Marsh
• Alan November
• Kathy Shrock
• David Warlick
• Brian Wasson [Training Specialist & Webmaster drvc.org]

(This article is reprinted with the permission of Technology and Learning magazine, located at http://www.techlearning.com.)

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