Re: Validating Internet info

["Frances D. Aley" <fdaley@SATURN.CAPS.MAINE.EDU>]

Viviane--You have tickled one of my hot buttons.  IMHO we cannot in this
day and age with the sheer volume of information which faces these kids
_not_ teach them to not only submit their path to the information and the
date as the MLA rules teach them for their bibliographies, but must also
train them to evaluate the source by any information available on the web
page in front of them...Questions like what is a valid source, what makes
it valid must be constantly on their minds.  It's my personal opinion that
this may well be the biggest part of our teaching function in the future.
We, as teachers, must be able to teach how to _evaluate_
information...guess it's almost  like teaching how to select books for the
collection.  Here at home in Boothbay we have only one connection to the
Internet so I require that a student be able to tell me exactly what local
resources have been checked first and _exactly_ what information
additional to that is needed for this research...kinda like the old DIALOG
form one had to fill out before going out "there".  We're about to get a
full network...Who's gonna filter the search then?  Must have the teachers
on board or none of it will fly!!!!...(Stepping down off of
soapbox)...Hope this helps ;-)

web page address--http://www.biddeford.com/~fdaley
fdaley@saturn.caps.maine.edu    Boothbay Harbor, ME.04538
Teaching lifelong learning through the power of information!