Can I Trust the Information?
Objectives - ISTE NETS for Students #3: Research and Information Fluency
"locate and evaluate information from a variety of sources and media"
Materials
Directions
Bad Apple is an interactive tool that can help students think about evaluation and investigation as well as stimulate discussion about the credibility of information. The tool may be used by individuals or, in the case of the classroom edition, as a group experience.
For elementary students who have already learned the basics of online searching (keywords, search engines, etc.), Bad Apple offers several web pages that may or may not be credible. The students' task is to figure out whether the information should be believed, based on an author's or owner's qualifications and simple fact-checking. Student need to use three evaluation categories to reach a conclusion in Bad Apple.
In addition to author and owner (called publisher in the game) it is suggested they fact-check a claim or statement found on the Web page. Simply enter the "fact" or "claim" into Google or another search engine and see if any other information backs it up. Point out that as they get older, they will start to investigate who links to pages, when it was written and more, because just knowing about an author or publisher doesn't tell them if information can be trusted or not (which is the case in the Flying Penguins example in the Publisher Tutorial).
One of the best sites there is for investigating an author (and fact-checking) is Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. This is not a credible site, however, 9 out of 10 middle school students assume it is (of course, they don't bother to investigate it). See if your elementary students can do any better. There are also many claims in this site that cannot be verified by doing a fact-check.
The British Stick Insect Museum - author and owner are hard to find - karoo.com is a hosting site and is not the publisher. This example allows you to show how a subdomain works in a URL. Brookview rents space from Karoo to post the page. If the author and owner cannot be found, the information is usually not worth trusting. The Tadoos example represents the same situation: no author, no owner, no credibility. Fact-checking the title of these pages reveals they are hoaxes.
Golf Cross - it is pretty easy to find the author and check up on him. His experience seems a bit odd, but it may qualify him to be the inventor of a new way to play golf. Fact-checking evidence on the site is necessary to prove whether this site is a fake or not.
Silly String - figuring out which person is the author may be challenging for younger children. Tammy Bruce (the page listed) cites another article written by Morgan Barker, who originally wrote the story about the string--although she did not come up with the idea in the first place. This is an example how information is passed around the Internet, like the Telephone Game. Who should you investigate in this case?
Teachers' Guide to Bad Apple Classroom Edition (from the Full Circle Resource Kit)
