Determining Validity in a Confusing Online World

When teaching research to any student, it is not uncommon to run into a situation in which a student’s sources aren’t from credible sources. In fact, without instruction, some students may believe that whatever pops up when they make a Google search or even a Google Scholar search is valid and relevant information. However, this is not the case. As teachers, we need to provide our students resources in which they may check the credibility of the sources they seek to use.

Politifact

A fantastic resource that is easy to use and keeps up with the latest news is Politifact. Politifact is a website that uses a “Truth-o-meter” to quickly show the validity of a particular stance or story that has shown up in the news. Politifact writers include links to different news stories from various sources and presents the facts in a very readable fashion so that students of varying reading levels may still understand the breakdown and understand why Politifact gave a certain stance or article a certain “Truth-o-meter” score.

This is a great way for students to learn how to judge news stories and a helpful tool to teach accurate reporting and false accounts or hyperbolic news stories.

Upper Levels: Impact factor

For upper level courses that require more intensive research such as Duel Enrollment or even AP or IB courses. Impact factors are determined by how often a particular peer-reviewed source has been cited in other sources and articles over the past few years. The higher the impact factor, the more valid a source. Students may use this knowledge to determine the relevance of a certain article to whatever they are researching as well as how credible the findings presented are in a particular article or the validity of a particular journal.

All levels: check the url

For all students across various levels, teaching them how to determine a valid site by checking the URL is a great place to start teaching students how to be wary about the credibility of their sources. Teaching students to gather data from trusted websites such as Encyclopedia Britannica, .edu sites, and .gov sites are great places to get students started. Teaching students to also look into who owns and operates the website is also a great way to help them know what to look for when determining credibility themselves.

working with online trends

The increasing amount of accessible information has both helped and harmed people’s ability to determine what information or source is true or not. A good framework to follow is the News Literacy Project’s framework that, in short, teaches students News Literacy in three stages.

The first teaches students why checking for validity is important and exercises them in recognizing things like branded content, misinformation, logical fallacies, the standards of quality journalism.

The second has students practicing and applying the skills laid out for them in stage one and suggests exercises such as having students work as reporters and determine a true story.

The third stage is where students are able to deepen their learning by engaging in discussions and reflections (verbal and written).

The full framework can be accessed in a printable PDF format here.