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WE’RE TRYING SOMETHING NEW! Instead of listening to a 52-minute Speed

Lecture, you have today to move through this slide review at your own pace.

Review with “Thinking Critically…” handout. Write answers on handout where appropriate.

Your answers will be graded. Tomorrow we’ll work together to apply today’s

information and answers to privacy and censorship issues.

All slides are numbered in bottom right corner. Let’s get started!

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?Thinking Critically About Your Research Online

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Go to www.rbhsmediacenter.org

Then, click on Researchers

You should know that the RBHS Media Center website has a lot of information gathered just for you

and your projects.

You need to know that the RBHS Media Center website has information to guide your critical

thinking and your research.

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You need to know there are

many useful links on our

website

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Go to the browser right from our web

page

You will love

Purdue’s OWL

You need to know that Google isn’t the “only game in town” and that NoodleTools and OWL will help with your citation and research

questions.

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DATABASES ARE ALSO EXCELLENT SOURCES

You need to know where to find links to our databases

rbhsmediacenter.org

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YOU NEED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE… AND WHY IT MATTERS

INTERNET DATABASE Information on websites and

web pages. Authors: can be anyone;

evaluate each source carefully

Author: may be organization with a mission to share information and influence your decisions

Cost: Free Access: Web browsers and

search engines via computer with Internet access

Information: originally published in magazines, journals, newspapers, books, on radio, TV, or for specific database.

Authors: Typically professional writers and/or researchers w/ a mission to share information; may want to influence your decisions

Cost: RBHS pays for databases that hire their own writers and researchers or subscribe to magazines, journals, etc.

Access: Username & password; computer with Internet access

See your handout

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Lots of Critical Thinking Ahead…

YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO REFINE A SEARCH

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THESE TIPS WORK WITH DATABASES & INTERNET

Type the Key Words of your topic

Put your phrases in quotation marks Ex: “book challenges”

Use Boolean search terms AND, NOT, OR Ex: “Internet filters” AND “secondary

schools” Ex: “privacy issues” NOT Facebook

Remember that adding the word AND

to your search actually makes your results list shorter!

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Lots More Critical Thinking Needed…

YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO AVOID WEAK SOURCES

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READ YOUR RESULTS PAGE CRITICALLY

Read Blurbs

Read URLs

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KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE URL

A. Wiki-anything: If you use a wiki, use it to find new sources or to give you ideas for refining your topic.

B. Country of origin: If your topic is privacy issues in the United States, why spend time browsing the editorial of a newspaper in Germany?

C. Blogs: Remember that blogs can be good, bad, excellent, ugly, careful, or raw. You will need to evaluate carefully. See Blog Evaluation tutorial in NoodleTools (See note on your handout.)

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KNOW WHAT ELSE TO LOOK FOR IN A URL

A. .k12: If you must, use the best only to look for sources; avoid the rest

B. .edu: University sites are great sources and are often peer-reviewed.

C. About.com and Answers.com: Both include wiki-sources throughout their sites. Why may that be a researcher’s problem?

D. .gov: government sites are considered trustworthy

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KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE BLURBA. Dates: If you aren’t doing an historical

perspective, do you want a 12-year-old source?B. Syllabus: An outline of what a professor is

teaching this semester won’t help your research.C. Amazon/Barnes & Noble: Unless you want to buy

a book on the topic, don’t bother. D. Dissertation: The results of a student’s research

for his or her doctorate. Should be valuable, especially for sources. Be sure to cite as a dissertation.

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A

B

C

D

E

•Based only on information in URLs and blurbs, which sites can you rule out as sources for your paper?See your handout

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Still More Critical Thinking Ahead… Once you click on a result,

YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO RECOGNIZE A QUALITY WEB SITE

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LOOK FOR INFO ABOUT THE AUTHORAuthority Is the author or sponsoring organization reputable?

(Not sure? Search the author, sponsor, or publication in your favorite web browser)

Are the author’s credentials listed? Is the author’s contact information available? Is the mission of the organization explained? Are facts credited in a source list or attributed to

someone? Is that person reputable? Look for answers in About Us link on home

page No About Us link? Shorten the URL to its

domain

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LOOK AT HOW UP-TO-DATE THE SITE ISCurrencyA. Is yours a current or “hot” topic?B. Has the web site been updated recently?C. Are you sorting your database results list

by relevance or date?

Look for copyright (©2014) at bottom of home page, or click on About Us.

See your handout

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LOOK FOR MISTAKES

Accuracy Are sources for the information

listed/credited? Are there spelling errors or typos? Can you corroborate information you

aren’t sure of? Details should match what you see in at least three other sources (books, other web sites, databases)

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LOOK FOR OBJECTIVITYObjectivity (An objective site is impartial. It simply

presents the facts and does not try to influence opinion. A biased site uses information to influence opinion or actions)

Bias Can Be Subtle (And Is Not Necessarily Bad)

A. Click About Us or Mission to learn the organization’s agenda/bias/purpose

B. Does the author use inflammatory language?Ex: words like ridiculous or stupidEx: phrases like “as everyone knows”

Can you pick the word in the first bullet that may suggest bias?

See your handout

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I find it fascinating that the book banners are, generally speaking, from the same ilk as the folk constantly screaming about their freedom of speech or their right to bear arms.

I agree completely. I can’t count the number of eye rolls I give when I hear some self-righteous mother condemning a book that she deems unfit, therefore everyone must agree. 

Banning books makes me livid. Over zealous parents discover that they cannot control every aspect of their children’s lives, so they then seek to destroy anything that makes them uncomfortable… But to deny other parents their rights to decide for their own families is ridiculous. 

CAN YOU PICK OUT THE BIAS IN THESE BLOGS?

A

B

C

See your handout

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CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE FOR THE SITE

Audience Is the site aimed at children, mature

readers, or readers with a specialized knowledge and vocabulary?

Look at graphics and language to decide

Why should you care?

See your handout

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YOU SHOULD KNOW WHERE TO FIND

INFORMATION NEEDEDTO CREATE A CITATION

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FIRST - YOU NEED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WEB PAGE AND A WEB SITE

WEB SITE WEB PAGE

In “magazine analogy,” web site is the magazine

The web site title is usually in the upper left corner of each page and stays the same no matter where you click in the site

The web site title is not the URL

RBHS Media Center is our library web site title

In “magazine analogy,” web page is the magazine article

The web page title changes with each “article” change in the web site

The web page title is not the URL

Home, Readers, Researchers are web page titles on the RBHS Media Center web site

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STUDY THE ARTICLE, PAGE, AND/OR SITE Author – Publisher – Copyright

Should be on Home page or About Us page Look for Home and About Us links at top or bottom

of any page. Publisher or Sponsor

Often at the very bottom of the Home page or About Us page in small print to the right of the Copyright.

Copyright or Last Update Should be at the very bottom, usually left side of

Home page or About Us page. When a range is given, cite the most recent year.

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IF YOUR WEB PAGE IS WORTHY OF CITATION, CREATE A SOURCE IN NOODLETOOLS

Remember: you need both web site AND web page information.

Use the URL of the PAGE

you are citing

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STUDY THE ARTICLE, PAGE, AND/OR SITE

A. http://www.plan2succeed.org/index.html

B. http://www.aclu.org/national-security/surveillance-privacy

C. http://www.brighthub.com/education/online-learning/articles/128366.aspx

D. http://debatewise.org/debates/1492-school-internet-filters/

See instructions on your handout for this slide

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DATA MINING IN SEARCH ENGINES

A. http://www.google.comB. http://www.bing.comC. http://www.ixquick.comD. http://www.clusty.com

See instructions on your handout for this slide