259 p. · $50.00
8½" x 11" · Spiral-bound
Includes supplementary materials on disk

ISBN 0-9652711-5-3
© 2000

Critical Thinking and the Web

Trudi E. Jacobson, Contributing Editor
Active Learning Series, no. 4

From the Editor | Table of Contents
Sample Lesson Plan (260K, PDF) | Order this Book

From the Editor

"Librarians understand the need to teach students and other patrons to evaluate information found on the Internet. While we are fully aware that the quality of the information can vary enormously from source to source, our students see the Internet as a monolithic entity that usually provides quick answers. The quality of the information found just isn't something they tend to consider.

"The authors represented in this volume ... have contributed interesting class and assignment ideas that will meet a variety of instructional needs. A number of chapters address overall evaluation of Websites, whereas others look at site authors and currency, the prevalence of bias in information found on the Web, and the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of search engines. One chapter uses the lens of disciplines to look at Websites, another teaches students to sort out scholarly versus popular articles found on the Web, and yet another addresses evaluating statistics located on Websites. Another takes the reading of books as a given, but then shows how the Web can be used to enhance the experience."

Table of Contents

24 lesson plans in 6 sections

Focus on Overall Evaluation
  • Putting the Web in Context
  • Evaluating Web Pages: A WebQuest
  • Is the Truth Out There? Developing Critical Thinking Skills Using a Simulated Case from the X-Files
  • Web Jigsaw
  • Using a False Bibliography As an Evaluation Tool
  • Experiential Learning about Evaluation with a Self-Paced Tutorial (TILT: Module Three)
  • Making the Links: From Critical Thinking to Evaluation
  • A Book is Not a One-Way Street
  • Building Collaborative Research Projects
Focus on Authors
  • Who's the Scholar Behind That Website?: Evaluating Website Authors
  • Determining Authority and Authorship of a Website
  • Evaluating Authorship: Why Should I Believe This?
Focus on Currency
  • Evaluating the Timeliness of Internet Sources: The Impact of Currency of Information upon the Academic Disciplines
Focus on Bias and Controversy
  • Evaluating Web Information on Controversial Topics
  • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
  • Evaluating Bias: "What Was This Person THINKING?"
  • Critically Evaluating Bias on the Internet: Focusing on Information Content
  • Advocacy Group Analysis Assignment
Focus on Key Concepts and Sources
  • Investigating Disciplinarity
  • Scholarly Articles Online, or, "How Do I Know if This Online Article Is Scholarly, and Why Should I Care?"
  • Evaluating Statistics Websites
Focus on Search Engine Evaluation
  • How Search Engines Search the Web
  • Using Search Engine Relevancy Ranking to Teach Internet Evaluation
  • A Brief Introduction to Search Engines: What they Can and Cannot Do, and How to Make them Work for You