The Internet has become a widely-used resource in many schools around the world. Students are drawn to the web for many reasons: the attractive, up-to-date pictures, the sense of control, sounds, video and the opportunity to connect with people around the world are just a few of the reasons. There are many books that provide the same information as the web, but students in the 90's have been raised with multimedia; textbooks often have little chance to compete with the draw of the Internet.
The Internet is in our homes and in our classrooms. We must teach our students to fight the tendency to mindlessly surf the web; instead they must develop skills for critical analysis. The Internet has been described as a giant library where all the books have been thrown into one pile without their covers. Students often need to wade through pages of junk before finding useful resources.
I have developed a process that hopefully encourages students to critically analyze all web-based information before depending upon the resources in their research. It begins with a student-developed evaluation rubric and culminates with a powerful "teachable moment."
Table of Contents --- Encyclopedia --- Rubric --- Teachable Moment
Resources--- Student Responses