Info Literacy Coaching Playbook: Use Wikipedia, Just Don't Cut Your Arm Off...

Knives can be dangerous, but we use knives because they're incredibly useful tools. Giving a sharp knife to a pre-K child is probably less than wise, but the benefits of knife use by those trained in the safe use of knives so outweigh the potential harms that parents all over the planet hand sharp bladed objects to children. Because parents care, most don't hand over a cleaver and scream, "CHOP AWAY, CHILD! CHOP AWAY!" Moms and dads take deep breaths, and go about the sometimes terrifying task of teaching their children to fillet, dice, and pare.

Used well, Wikipedia, is truly one of the transformative information tools of our time. Students, though, need to be taught how to use Wikipedia in ways that won't leave them heading home at the end of a school day with missing cognitive limbs. This fantastic Cooperative Library Instruction Project tutorial: Using Wikipedia for Academic Research explains it all extremely well!

Information Literacy Coaching Playbook: Evaluating Web Sources

In a Google world, becoming a good user of information is HARD!

We hope that our students graduate as good searchers and good "consumers" of information, but this is difficult if instruction is limited to 2 or 3 library visits every semester. Learning to search effectively and developing healthy evaluation instincts comes from hundreds of lessons, hints, tips, tricks, and "micro-lessons" delivered in your daily lessons and interactions that happen in the course of the amazing work that each of you does day in and day out.

As students are searching for sources with content needed for your work in class, challenge them not only on the content itself, but on the source. For example:

• Do you know if this author is qualified to write about this? 
• How do you know? 
• He's a professor at Columbia, but he teaches history. Why would we want to use his information about diabetes?

Roll over or click on the Thinglink points below for more information on things we should ask students to consider as they evaluate web sources.


Beyond the information included in a citation students should consider:

• Does the page look authoritative? (While it isn't everything, appearance matters, right?)
• Is the text well written and well edited?
• Is the site/source well organized?
• Does the page include links OUT to authoritative sites/sources on the content being covered?
• Does the language indicate a bias or specific orientation?
• Does the content seem/feel plausible based on the information learned from authoritative sources consulted earlier? (Does it pass the smell test?)
• Does the post/infographic/map/etc. include a works cited list?
• Does the works cited list include sources you have found to be reputable?
• Does the works cited list include the work of important people in the area of study?

This isn't intended to be an evaluation checklists. Our experience has shown that website evaluation checklists tend not to hold up particularly well in real world use. Our goal is simply to give you a few more tools as you help students use real-world information.

For us to create searching and source evaluation coaching opportunities, and to get the most out of those interactions:

• Require students to cite
• Consider requiring them to cite "at least X print or database sources" 

Instructionally, teaching kids to cite "because otherwise it's plagiarism" while technically correct, isn't exactly motivating to kids. Developing a habit of citation in many cases is primarily helpful because it reminds us to look for the kinds of information that helps us to know whether a source is worth using, serves as a pathway for your audience to locate sources you used for further study of their own, and helps to build YOUR credibility with your audience.

Resources for Personal and Professional Growth...

Teachers, are you working on an advanced degree or building curriculum? We have recently added access to resources that could well be worth your time!

Note: If you are accessing these links off campus, you will need to enter your Mid-Pacific username and password at the prompt screen.

EBSCO Explora: Educator's Edition is a new landing page intended to make it easier to find and access information relevant to teachers.

Click here to try it out!

EBSCO Professional Development Collection allows you to search the following resources from one interface: Teacher Reference Center, ERIC, Academic Search Premier, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Book Collection: Nonfiction

Click here to try it out!

Academic Search Complete is a database primarily designed for academic institutions. This database provides complete coverage of multidisciplinary academic journals. It supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing peer-reviewed journals, full-text periodicals, reports, books, and more.

Click here to try it out!

There's more! A complete list of databases to which we have access is available at the link below.