Search form

 

 

 

I Read It on the Internet:
Teaching About Web Literacy


Lesson Planning Channel

 

Can you trust everything you read on the Internet? Can you trust anything you read on the Internet? Teach your kids which Web sites to trust!


The words you are reading now have been read -- and reread -- by several experienced editors and educators. They are words you can trust -- posted at a site you can trust.

At a time, however, when any ignoramus -- or satirist or bigot or fool with an ax to grind -- can create a professional-looking Web site, how do you know which sites you can trust? At a time when adults book vacations in Ruritania, how do kids distinguish between The WhiteHouse.org (a site you definitely don't want to show your students) and The WhiteHouse.gov? Lessons in media literacy must be carefully taught, and the lessons below on Web site content evaluation can help.

A brief description of each activity appears below. Click any headline for a complete teaching resource.

 

Sites and Stereotypes
Students use online resources to create portraits of present-day American Indians. (Grades 6-8, 9-12)

 

True or False?
Students complete a tutorial on Web literacy and identify Web hoaxes.
(Grades 9-12)

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Evaluating Internet-Based Information: A Goals-Based Approach
In this article, Internet educator David Warlick discusses the uses and abuses of modern informational tools. The site includes a Web-based form for evaluating Internet content sources.

Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning
The American Association of School Librarians provides standards for information literacy.

Better Read That Again: Web Hoaxes and Misinformation
This very thorough and informative article on Internet sites that are not what they seem provides fascinating examples of the dangers to people who cannot distinguish between the true experts, the merely misinformed, and the truly ugly in Web site creators.

 

Updated 01/13/2015