A totally free index of Internet resources for the K-12 Community.
Evaluating Resources
With the reliance of students, teachers, business people … well, everyone … on the Internet and its resources, it’s imperative that everyone has the tools needed to evaluate and identify good and bad information.
Use the resources and challenges outlined here to equip students to become savvy consumers of information. Use example fake sites or sites with an obvious bias to introduce students to this concept.
As teachers, you will have already developed a sense of quality sites. Your students need to acquire similar experience thru practice and examples.
The U.C. Berkeley Library has developed a methodology for evaluating the quality of resources and evaluate their authority and appropriateness for your project. Useful for both students and teachers – anyone doing research on the Internet. learn more
Anyone, in theory, can publish on the Web. Therefore, it is imperative for students to develop a critical eye to evaluate the credibility of Internet information. Virginia Montecino from George Mason University proposes 9 questions that can help your students evaluate is credibility of a page's information. learn more
Dihydrogen Monoxide is one of the most dangerous chemicals in existence. It causes death and severe tissue damage, is a major component of acid rain, causes severe burns, damages and destroys machinery. It kills thousands in the U.S. every year. Have your students do a report on Dihydrogen Monoxide using this web site as a… learn more
Fact Check has received many awards as a neutral and non-profit group. Located within the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, it assesses the accuracy of U.S. political news. Evaluating the Quality of Information FactCheck is another highly regarded fact checking website, mainly focused on U.S. politics. It is a project of the Annenberg… learn more
S.O.S. for Information Literacy, a project of the Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University provides lesson plans, handouts, presentations, videos and other resources to enhance the teaching of information literacy in all grades, K-12. learn more
You don't have to be a science news junkie to find yourself constantly confronted with scientific facts and factoids. The truth is slippery, and it's not always graspable even by experts. The Exploratorium has complied a list of seven questions that can help you and your students weigh the validity of scientific information, wherever it… learn more
Snopes is a well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors on the Internet. It is a great source for identifying and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture. Highly recommended by our webmaster. learn more
As educators, we must teach our students how to make sure the resources they are using are reliable. This collection includes information and resources related to checking sources and determining if a source is reliable and credible. We have included resources for all grades. Remember, our "In the Classroom" suggestions give you ideas about using… learn more
Anyone with an idea and internet access can create a website and fill it with just about any content they want. As of 2018, there are over 1.8 billion websites in the world, many of which are protected by free speech and anti-censorship laws. Website owners can print anything they want, true or not, without worrying about the consequences. This post from WhoIsHostingThis posits that the oceans of data and globe-spanning inter-connectivity of the internet make verifying sources easier than ever as well. In addition to the time-honored practices of using… learn more
A technique our webmaster uses to evaluate a product or web site is to run it thru Google search. Enter the name of the concept, web domain, or item (e.g., Yugo Car) into Google and see what comes up. If 20 of the first 50 entries talk about removing spyware or include words like hoax, worst, or dangerous ... you get the idea. learn more
