Ed Tech Lesson Plan

Brief Description

Students often turn to the Internet as a resource for information. Unlike many print resources, anyone can publish on the Internet. Some of the information is valuable, while some is inaccurate, misleading, or downright false. In this lesson students will learn ways to determine if a web page is authentic or not, giving them the tools to be more critical of the web pages they view.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

5T-E2. Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources

Academic Standards

R-E2. Use reading strategies such as making inferences and predictions, summarizing, paraphrasing, differentiating fact from opinion, drawing conclusions, and determining the author’s purpose and perspective to comprehend written selections

Objectives

Academic/Technological

Students will evaluate a web page as a legitimate source of information based on given criteria and techniques.

Pre-Requisite Technology Skills

Students need to be able to navigate a web page by following links and using the “back” button in the browser.

Materials

A classroom computer or computer lab with Internet access
Copies of the handout (available at http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamed3/web_page_activity.pdf)
A classroom computer with a TV converter, such as and AverKey or similar device.
I have created a web page that contains all the links necessary for the on-line lesson. It can be found at www.amphi.com/~lmitchel/deconwebpages.html

Accommodations for Special Needs

Special education students: students can be paired with other students. Some students may require that some one (the teacher, another student) write while the he/she dictates. The teacher may also have to work more closely with these students.

ESL/SEI students: Again, students can be paired with other students. Also, student may want to dictate answers to be written down for them.

Gifted students: students can be encouraged to explore other sites to determine the reliability. Sites can be found at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html. Teachers should take care to monitor this closely, as some sites might not be appropriate for all age levels.

Procedures

This lesson is based on a lesson by the Media Awareness Network. The lesson can be found at http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamed3/deconstructing_pages.htm.
I have adapted it for use in my classroom.

Day One:
Discuss with the students the following items:

Who uses the Internet for research (to find information)?
How do you know that the information you get is accurate?
Lead a discussion based on the ideas that virtually anyone can publish what ever they want on the Internet. In print publishing there are “gatekeepers”, editors, copyreaders, fact checkers, that check the validity of information being published. On the Internet there are no such “gatekeepers.” Because of this, there is a lot of “junk” on the Internet and students need to be able to tell what is “good” information and what is “bad” information.

Share with students the “5Ws” of web page evaluation:

Who is the source (who wrote it or posted it)?
What are you getting?
When was it created?
Where are you?
Why are you there?

By asking some questions and following some simple procedures, students can determine if a site is valid or not. Students can use a search engine to perform a search on the author’s name or the group that posted the information to see what others have to say about the author. Students should check when the page was posted to check for currency. Students should be taught to pare down the URL to its base host and visit that site to see who the host if, and if the host has any bias. Students should also be taught to verify the information by checking with other resources to see if they find the same information.

After this discussion, use the classroom computer and TV converter to demonstrate some sites that might look like credible sites, but after a little investigating are revealed to be bogus. Some sites to use are:

http://web.fvdes.com/teacher_resources/Web_Eval_TL/OKWine2/okawp.html (Oklahoma Association of Wine Producers)
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html (Pacific Tree Octopus)
http://lme.mankato.msus.edu/akcj3/bmd.html (Burmese Mountain Dog)
http://lme.mnsu.edu/mankato/mankato.html (Mankato, MN)

More sites can be found at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
Discuss with students how we can tell that these sites are not real (common sense, following links that tell us the sites are bogus, the 5 W’s, etc.)

Day Two:

Students will use the handout to walk through the “5Ws” with a specific web page. They will apply the techniques of the “5Ws” to a web page about the health effects of aspartame. Steps the students will take include: an author search, a search on the “conference” referred to on the web page, checking the date of the original posting, and examining the host of the posting. At the end of the exercise, students will determine whether or not the given web page is the best place to find information about aspartame.

Assessment

Students will be assessed based on their responses to the questions on the worksheet, with particular attention given to the response to the evaluation question at the end. (Is this the best source of information for a science report on aspartame?) I will be looking for complete, thought-out answers that are supported by the findings the student has made in the course of the lesson.

Teacher Name: Liesl Mitchell
Site: Coronado K-8
Date Submitted: January 27, 2003