EDCI 5825 - Week 2

1) Being information literate means that one knows how to carefully evaluate data that is found on the internet. It also means that the searcher does not just take all information equally but looks to validate it before trusting it.

2) Teachers and students can evaluate online information in several ways. First, the website address used should be reviewed to find out if it is a personal site or belongs to an organization. Personal websites are the opinions of that person and should be looked at more carefully. Second, links into and out of the website can be analyzed to see who else is interested in the website. Third, the website author should be investigated. Although Wikipedia is useful, it should be used as a starting point and information from it should be validated elsewhere.

3) Internet Workshop, Internet Project, Internet Inquiry and WebQuests - Similarities and Differences - All four of these models challenge students to use the internet but in different ways. The WebQuest is a package already on the internet so this model has the least input from the teacher, all the teacher has to do is find it, decide to use it and direct the student to it. In all other models the teacher or student has more input into the task. Internet Workshop is usually within the classroom while the Internet Project is a collaboration with a classroom in another state or country. Both the workshop and the project are directed by the teachers. The Internet Inquiry is more of an independent task for the student and in addition to navigation and collaboration skills, builds problem solving skills too.