Look at this image about “Magic 2017.” If you saw this on social media, would you click “Share” or “Like”? Probably so! Now, take a good look at the image. You most likely thought “how cool is this”, without realizing 1-1-2017 was on a Sunday. It’s so easy to click “Share” and “Like” that we forget to use common sense sometimes.
Children and adults are presented with mountains of information on a daily basis. From the news to our social media feeds to our friends and family, information is everywhere. Some many people (children and adults) have gotten into the “It’s online, so it must be true” mindset, that images and information are often shared and discussed without questioning if they are actually true or false.
We have to teach our students (and ourselves) how to determine what is true and what isn’t online. These are three resources that can help students become a better critical evaluator of information online. The first place teachers can go to find some great critical evaluation, is at Kathy Schrock’s Critical Evaluation website . This website provides some great resources and information teachers can use to better prepare themselves and their students when it comes to evaluating information online. Kathy provides printable resources for multiple age groups.
A great resource for upper elementary through secondary teachers is November Learning . Alan November provides some great resources for teachers on information literacy. Be sure to check out #3 Websites to Validate. These are great sites to use with students when determining what is and isn’t true online.
Of course the Digital Citizenship Curriculum by Common Sense Media provides lessons for grades K-12 that include evaluating information online. They also have lessons that deal with cyberbullying and data privacy. These are a must in every classroom! The lessons are laid out, so there is no guess work for the teacher.
Being a critical evaluator of websites and information can help ensure you (and your students) are not sharing images like the one above! Do you have any resources you use to evaluate websites? Share your resources with us!
Article by Eva Harvell, Ed.S., Director of Information Systems, Pascagoula-Gautier School District