Technology Goal 5&6
Research and Information Fluency
content and present their knowledge through a digital product.
“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” -Wernher von Braun
ISTE•S Standard 3: Research and information fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks
d. Process data and report results
a. Plan Strategies to Guide Inquiry
Kidspiration Maps
Popplet
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
Learning In Hand with Tony Vincent
The Noun Project
Open Clip Art
Google It!
KidsClick
Kid Rex
KIdtopia
Kidzsearch
Sweet Search
GoGooligans
c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks
While you always need to question the information and consider its historical context, there are some specific questions to ask when you're evaluating websites.
Because anyone can post information on the web, every search will give you a range of reliable and unreliable results. To decide whether a website is reliable, ask yourself:
- Who made the site? You should be able to contact them through an ‘About us' or ‘Contact' section.
- What does the domain name tell you? Has the site been made by a reputable organisation?
- gov.au = government site
- edu.au = education site
- org.au = public organisation, usually non-profit.
- What's the purpose of the site? Is it designed purely to give information, or is it trying to sell you something?
- Is the site well designed and easy to use? Do all the links work? When was it last updated? Reliable sites are usually fully functional and regularly updated.
For example
There are a range of non-profit, government and media sites that provide reliable and free information on various topics. They often have common elements in their domain names.
As a general rule, in Australia look for:
http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/learn-skills/research-skills/select-resources/evaluate-websites