Check the Facts! Cross Check the Facts! Lessons & Media

Fact checking is essential in a (mis) information rich environment. 

FactCheck.org
Brilliant resource from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. There is also a six year archive of contents. As you would expect, the current materials focus on the health care debate.  For a truly balanced view of things, when the facts have been checked, and all varieties of political spin revealed this is my new FIRST STOP for FACTS.  This is a treasure trove!

Tags: media, research, factcheck, 21cif, evaluation

FactChecked.org
Luckily, FactCheck.org also has a highly developed classroom section that provides in-depth lesson plans and media links. These are highly polished materials for educators seeking a way to teach critical thinking and evaluation skills to their students. The Lesson Plan Archive ( http://www.factchecked.org/LessonPlans.aspx ) will intrigue any educator looking for a way to engage students. These plans are edgy and up to date. If you've been looking for a way to teach thinking and evaluation of media.

I've been vitally interested in Investigative Searching for sometime. Fact checking, triangulation of data, skeptical and inquisitive attitude has been part of that package all along. However, I hadn't focused on Fact Checking until I reviewed the results of our summer work with 1000 teenagers who took our new Investigative Searching 20/10 online course. The data clearly shows that Fact Checking is an area of great weakness. Teenagers HATE to fact check.

This resource could change all that because once you break through the barriers, this works is stimulating, engaging, and fun. In fact, I may try one of the plans with my current group of undergraduate teacher candidates. Monty Python and the Quest for the Perfect Fallacy really appeals to me!

If you decide to use this resource, let me know what you think! (Emphasis on the think. 8-)

~ Dennis In San Diego,  remembering Joe Friday's essence "Just the facts..."


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

21Cif Evaluation Resources

Information Fluency Homepage

• Gateway to hundreds of free online resources focused on 21st Century Information Fluency.

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation, web, 2.0

  • Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically.

• Internet Search Challenges - Evaluation Games

  6 online learning games that teach evaluation skills. Multiple levels. NETS alignment!

  Tags: 21cif, information fluency, learning games

• Web 2.0 Evaluation Kit

  Information Fluency Evaluation Kit. Online resources for evaluating author, publisher, bias, links, date, evidence, and accuracy.

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, evaluation

  • Evaluating Digital Information
    

    Part Five of the series Five Things Today's Digital Generation Cannot do (and what you can do to help) discusses how searchers have to invent their own evaluation standards because schools are not teaching them.

  • Teacher's Guide: Personalized Evaluation Searches
    

    How to use Rollyo, Swiki and Google Co-op to create personalized search engines for safe Web page evaluation practice at all grade levels.
    

  • Teacher's Guide to Action Zone Evaluation Games
    

    Recommended uses for the Bad Apple and Use It! or Lose It! online evaluation games in this Kit, including tips and answers.

  • IMSA Evaluation Wizard
    

    How to use our Evaluation Wizard to assess how students evaluate what they find online. (The Evaluation wizard is a 10 step online guide to investigating websites.)
    

• Evaluating Digital Information: Introduction, Research, Resources

  In depth article on evaluation of digital resources by Dr. Carl Heine.

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation

• Excerpts:
  

  • Every school administrator wants to maintain a safe distance between objectionable material and impressionable students. Blocking students from potential contact with sexual predators and other mal-information is absolutely well-intended. However, blocking sites does not help students think critically about the quality of the information they retrieve or prepare them for the real world of information they encounter outside of school.
  • Teachers may contribute to the problem by introducing filters of their own into learning experiences. In practice, it works like this: a teacher wants her class to access digital information, so she conducts a search ahead of time and selects web pages she finds credible and appropriate. Students then engage in a Web quest using pages or sites that have approved content. Aside from the intended benefits of the exercise, the students have missed an opportunity to learn skills in searching and evaluating that they need in the 21st century.
  • Our research suggests that students who search for digital information are better able to judge its credibility than students who are handed information. In a pilot study, over 100 middle school students were given a question and three relevant web pages for answering it. Two of these pages were credible. The success rate for answering the question using relevant information was 73% when the task involved reading the three pre-selected pages.

• Workshop Resources: Assessing Information Fluency

  Guided tours of 21CIF resources perfect for workshop presentations. This is a series of webslide style sets of pages that detail 'Speculative Searching" and "Investigative Searching".
  

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation

• MicroModule: Checking the accuracy of information found on a webpage.

  A one page overview of how to check the accuracy of information. Includes a link to an online learning game to help learn essential concepts.

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation

  • Try this interactive micromodule companion for a hands on experience in determining the accuracy of web-based information. Test your skills at:
    

    • finding embedded evidence
    • checking evidence for accuracy
    • triangulation of data

• Information Fluency Newsletter

  Low volume, high content free newsletter to keep you posted about new resources and developments from 21cif.

  Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation, web, 2.0

  • Subscribe to our free email newsletter and receive periodic updates about 21CIF including professional development opportunities and new resources.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

How can you verify that this news is credible?

• SpeedSignal News

  How can you verify that this news is credible?

  Tags: evaluation, challenge

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

Information Fluency Online Classes

Search Help, Evaluation and Digital Ethics for School, Business and Home

Courses Starting Soon...

Need to create a back to school training?

Use our modular content to snap together your own unique training course.

Power Searching in a Web 2.0 World

Next session starts September 22, 2008 (4 Weeks $99) View as Guest | Enroll | Course Description

Website Investigator: An Introduction to Information Forensics

Next session starts October 6, 2008 (2 Weeks $68) View as Guest | Enroll | Course Description

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Website Investigator (Moodle Based Online Course)

Website Investigator: An Introduction to Information Forensics
begins Monday, July 14th. (2 Weeks $34) View as Guest - Register

A facilitated online learning experience in Web Site Investigation. Game Based, Challenging, Fun!