Final Reflection
Acquiring 21st century skills/fluencies and teaching students on how to evaluate and validate websites are not as easy as it sounds. That becomes very clear to me after I finished the applications assignment this week. Many experts have spoken on the need to teach and empower students to become critical consumers of information, to approach internet with caution and determine the veracity of information encountered online. Beth Philips informed her students on the ABC of websites, while Eagleton, & Dobler, talked about 4As of evaluation, and Jukes, (2007), talked about the 21st Century fluency skills that are very critical for students to have if they must succeed in the 21st century economy. The onus is on the consumers of digital information to predict where major links will lead, explore the website and look for relevance, identify the creator and establish his/her motives, make a note of any suspicious images or texts, and finally make judgment about the veracity of the site and decide whether to explore further or not. From my experience now, this is easier said than done. It requires many practices and great planning for students to get a hang of how to properly evaluate websites as many hoax and malicious websites are out there to mislead people.
Firstly, I like the experience I derived from the evaluation exercise, it empowers me to question every website I visit and explore, to seek validation and to crosscheck every fact listed. I will always look for supporting evidence and look for alternative website to corroborate information. I will subject every website to what Philips, (2010) called the “ABC” of website, as well as advices given by Dr. Warlick on what digital information consumers should do to evaluate websites and expose truth about the website.
The second part of my reflection is how to empower my students to be able to discern the wheat from the chaff when they explore unfamiliar websites. This involves a lot of practice and preparation on my part. It is pertinent to inform students that they need to consume digital information with caution, and strive to dig dipper for truth each time they come across information. I had not been exposed to the unit on how to evaluate website, I will believe all the information I came across on the RYT Hospital without detecting all the fallacy embedded on the site. As Dr. Warlick pointed out, the internet is unregulated, it has no boarder, anybody can publish anything, hence, the burden is on the consumers to evaluate and validate all information taken from a website. This week unit has equipped me with the ability to do this fairly and I will continue to consolidate on what I have learned this week and pass same to my students in other to prepare them for the 21st Century economy.
References
Coiro, J. (n.d.). Coiro, J. (2003). Rethinking comprehension strategies to better prepare students
for critically evaluating content on the Internet. The NERA Journal, 39, 29-34. (Julie
Coiro) –Academia.edu . University of Rhode Island - Academia.edu . Retrieved July 18, 2011, from
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New
York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Jukes, I. (2007). 21st Century fluency skills: Attributes of a 21st century learner.
21CFP - The 21st Century Fluency Project. (n.d.). 21st Century Fluency Project. Retrieved
