Teaching Evaluation Skills

How do you know if information you find on the Web is true, or what the authority of the person writing it is? We've included here a few good resources for teaching critical thinking skills and helping students apply them to the Web.

You can find more information about this topic on the Evaluating Sites page of our On The Web section.

Concepts

Evaluating Web Resources

by Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate. A curriculum for teaching critical thinking skills and applying them to Web site evaluation. The pages include a slide presentation, checklists for different types of Web pages, example Web pages for discussion, and links to additional resources. Widener University, Chester, PA.
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm

Resource Selection and Information Evaluation

A short, informative, more personal approach to Web site evaluation by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe.
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~janicke/Evaluate.html

Information Quality WWW Virtual Library

From Australian National University, an extensive, up-to-date collection of online resources for evaluating, developing, and administering "high quality factual/scholarly networked information systems," categorized and presented in table format. Excellent resource.
http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-InfoQuality.html

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Tools
Model evaluation criteria, projects, and checklists you can use with your students to evaluate Web sites.

The Quality Information Checklist

Eight ways to check the information you find on Web sites. This is a colorful, timely, and effective interactive site. It includes an online quiz, and a teacher's guide with tips for using the site and links to further resources.
http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm

Master WEBster Competition Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteria developed by OPEN Clearinghouse for peer review of the Master WEBster Competition.
http://www.open.k12.or.us/mwebster/mwc03.html

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Critical Evaluation Surveys

Critical evaluation surveys that you are free to use with your students, one each for elementary, middle, and secondary school levels.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

Jurassic Park: an Information Literacy Webquest

The good doctors of Jurassic Park need a new way to fund their research. They want to set up a Web site, www.dinosaurs.com, to educate the public about dinosaurs. Students in this Webquest are the research assistants, and must narrow down the thousands of sites about dinosaurs to those with the best information about specific dinosaurs. Grades 9-12.
http://fayette.k12.in.us/~cbeard/jp/webquest.html

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