Information Literacy A New Basic Skill

Now that children are choosing to use the Internet as their personal media, we are faced with consequence of not teaching them to decode the content (Alan November)

The Internet as a Source of Information  The Internet is a free and global forum.  It represents the most dangerous of information environments.  It can be seductive.

Zach’s Story “Read the excerpt from Alan Novembers Book” Page 2

The Address of the Professors Site  /index.html /index.html /index.html  What can we tell about the site by looking at the folders that make it up?

14 Year Old Persective  Teacher told him to find a unique topic. This fits.  The page is simple and clear. It is written in a logical tone.  It is a valid source from a tenured professor at a top University  It has a 1990’s publication date and it is on the internet.

Teaching students to use the Internet is much more complex than simply using a search engine to search the web. (Alan November)

We need to teach the critical thinking skills to understand the structure of information and how to cross reference the source. (Alan November)

MAPping by Alan November  Alan November identifies three areas of a website that must be analyzed critically. –Meta – web information –Author –Purpose

Meta Web Information  The structure of information on the internet.  Url’s, - Universal Resource Locators  Links  Search Engines

Meta  URL – Universal Resource Locator  Domain Name  Folder Structure .com.edu.net.org.gov.k12  Identify the parts of a web address

z/index.html Public Web Server Domain Higher Education Personal Web Folder Symbol Professors Name/folder

Links  What is a link? –the means of connection between things linked in series. A hypelink is a connection of two existing websites.  Who can author a link? –Anyone  Why are they significant? –There is not link police. –Anyone can create one pointing anywhere.  How can we use them to validate the information?

Strength / Weakness of Links  The ability of anyone to add a link from his or her website to another.  It is important to teach students that there is no link police.

The Link Command  Checking the links on a page to verify the information.  Are the links all internal?  Do they point to the same author?  What type of sites are linked?

The Link Command  Copy the web address of the source.  Go to  Type LINK: in the search box. (don’t forget the colon)  After the colon paste the address.  Click Search  Your search results will have a list of sites that are linked to the page.

The Link Command  In the case of Zach, Butz’s site is linked from the following: –The White Nationalists –Fascists Resource Page –Knights of Michigan KKK

AUTHOR  Investigate the Author’s credentials.  In Zach’s case the author is an Engineering professor.

Purpose  Advocacy VS. Objectivity  Students should ask fundamental questions about any site. –What is it trying to do? –What is its purpose? –Entertain, sell products or services, present information, advocate ideas or entertain?

The Internet is a place where you can find proof of any belief system that you can imagine.

Developing Critical Thinking Skills  Below is a resource from the library association for teaching critical thinking online.  s/acrlinfolit/infolitstandards/stnd3/st andardthree.htm s/acrlinfolit/infolitstandards/stnd3/st andardthree.htm s/acrlinfolit/infolitstandards/stnd3/st andardthree.htm

Blocking vs. Access

Website Evaluation Forms  df df df  guide/eval.html guide/eval.html guide/eval.html

Resources    Alan November “Teaching Zack to Think” High School Principal Magazine, September1998  Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli. "The Read/Write Web: New Tools for a New Generation of Technology." Principal - The Tech Savvy Principal January/February 2007:  November, Alan. Empowering Students With Technology. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 2001.