INFORMATION

LITERACYJenn Sveda

WHAT IS INFORMATION LITERACY?

“Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is

needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” –

Association of College and Research Libraries

Why is it important to be information literate?

Lots of information sources out there – need to know how to separate good sources from

bad sources

Being information literate means you’re able to find and access information, evaluate its

usefulness, and incorporate it into your existing knowledge in order to use the information

effectively

Good for problem solving and researching!

WHAT IS E-LEARNING?

E-learning is learning through an electronic medium, most often associated with online learning,

web-based training, and instruction delivered via technology.

Why is E-learning important?

It allows for differentiated instruction – everyone learns differently, and incorporating new ways

of learning (like through technology) means everyone can be taught in a way that works best

for them!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After this tutorial, you will be able to:

Tell the difference between good and bad sources of information on the Web

Understand the different types of search engines and become familiar using search engines

other than Google

Use educational sites to enhance your understanding of the course material

GOOD SOURCES

How do you know if a website is a good source of information?

Try to find all or most of the following to determine a site’s reliability:

Author: Who created the site? Who wrote the article? Who sponsors the site?

Purpose: Why was the site created? Why did the author choose to use some information

rather than other information?

Usability: Do the links work? Does the site have a lot of advertisements and pop-ups?

Currency: When was the site last updated? Is the information recent and relevant?

Content: Does the site cite credible resources? Is it written with proper spelling and

grammar?

BAD SOURCES

Bad sources usually have inaccurate or unreliable information

How can you tell if a website is a bad source?

No author listed, no information about the publisher or sponsor of the site

The information is clearly biased – for example, a website titled “Why I Hate Thomas Jefferson” is

probably not a good source of information on Thomas Jefferson’s life

The links are broken, the site has lots of advertisements and pop-ups, especially ones with

inappropriate content

The information is outdated, there are no dates on the information or the site has not been

updated in a long time

The website does not cite its sources, cites unreliable sources, or contains bad grammar and

spelling

DOMAIN NAMES

What is a domain name?

The part of a network address that identifies it as belonging to a particular domain

For example, www.acoolwebsite.org

The domain name can tell you more about who owns the website – and therefore, how

reliable the website is!

This is the network address

“.org” is the domain name

DOMAIN NAMES

Here are five of the most common domain names:

.com: This domain is owned by a company. Because almost anyone can have a .com site,

these sites can be less reliable, so you need to evaluate them carefully!

.org: This domain is owned by a nonprofit organization. There are more requirements to

get this type of domain name, so the information may be considered more reliable

.net: This domain is usually owned by an Internet Service Provider (like Time Warner

Cable, for example). Like a .com site, these sites need to be evaluated carefully before using!

.edu: This domain name is owned by a school, college or university. It is more likely to be

a reliable source of information

.gov: This domain name is owned by the government, so it is a reliable source of

information

SEARCH ENGINES

According to Dictionary.com, a search engine is “a computer program that searches documents,

especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of

documents in which they are found.”

You are probably familiar with at least one search engine already – Google

In fact, Google is such a popular search engine that “to google” is a term defined on

Dictionary.com as “to search the Internet for information”!

Today you are going to get familiar with a few more search engines:

Dogpile.com

Ask.com

Yahoo.com

SEARCH ENGINE #1

Dogpile

www.dogpile.com

Mascot is named Arfie

It uses Metasearch technology which gives us the best results from a variety of search engines

Started in November 1995

Developed by Aaron Flin and sold to Go2Net and acquired by Infospace

Here is the URL (network address).

What is the domain name?

You can enter your search

terms here, then hit “Go

Fetch!”

I searched for “Age of

Enlightenment”These are

sponsored

results –

scroll

down!!!!

Start looking here for web results

Make sure you avoid

results that are

marked as “ads”

Clicking the images tab

brings up images of your

search

This search engine also

suggests related terms to

help you as you research!

Clicking the videos tab

brings up videos of your

search

This site also keeps

track of recent

searches, so you can

easily navigate back

to previous searches

SEARCH ENGINE #2

Ask

ask.com

Originally called “Ask Jeeves”

Founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen

Currently owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC)

Enter your search term

hereYou can also click one of these

topics below to be transferred to

Ask’s partner site, Reference

The “Answer” results

to the side give

reference sources,

such as online

dictionaries and

encyclopedias

Again, the first

few results are

ads – skip

these!

Clicking the “News”

tab on the side here

brings up news articles

on the search term

You can also click

one of the related

terms or questions

on the side to refine

your search, or look

for other news by

clicking “Browse

News Headlines”

You can use the “All Categories” and

“All Sources” menus to further limit

your search – let’s check results from

European news sourcesAnd remember, the first few

results are usually ads – keep

scrolling to find the real

results!

This is where we’d see our

results, but there are none

here…seems like a 17th

century movement isn’t in the

news very often today! Let’s try

a different topic, like the

election

Scrolling past the ads brings us to

“Related News” – all the news

results we could want on the

election!

Notice the sources of

information – they are all

online news sites, rather

than generic websites

SEARCH ENGINE #3

Yahoo!

yahoo.com

Some of you may be familiar with Yahoo already – it’s also an online email server

Founded in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo

Yahoo is partnered with Yelp – an online business review site – and it also owns Tumblr, a social

media blogging site

This is Yahoo!’s

homepage. You can

select one of the options

on the side to see news

about these topics

Enter your search term here to

begin searching

The nice part of

Yahoo! is that ad

results are clustered

on the side, away from

the relevant web

results

Yahoo!

offers

suggestions

for other

search

terms at the

top of the

results

Test yourself! Is this site likely to be

a good source of information? Hint:

check the domain name!

Scrolling to the bottom of the

page gives us more suggestions

for related topics. Let’s try to

find a timeline of the Age of

Enlightenment

This time, some of our top

results are images – let’s try

clicking “Age of Enlightenment

Timeline – Image Results” to see

more

Look! Another Kent student’s

website!

Clicking Image Results gives us a lot

of images related to our search!

On this page, the ads are once

again at the top of the page –

ignore them

The Image page allows us to sort our

search by different criteria, including

color, size, and image type

We can also turn on Safesearch to

avoid any inappropriate content, or use

the License filter to find images that

are free to use under copyright laws

Here the pictures are

sorted by the additional

criteria “Portrait.”

Remember, just because it showed

up in the search results does not

mean it’s what you’re looking for!

Can you spot some portraits that

don’t relate to the Age of

Enlightenment?

E-LEARNING

We have already talked a little about why E-learning is important

Now, we are going to get familiar with two sites that you can use both in the classroom and on

your own to better understand history!

These sites are

Eyewitness to History

Khan Academy

EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY

This site provides hundreds of primary sources for events from the Ancient World to the 20th

century

You can use these as great resources for writing papers or for gaining a better understanding of

historical context

CLICK HERE to visit the site!

Here is the homepage. You can click

on one of the time periods below to

get started…

…or you can click on one of

the featured articles, quotes,

photos or audio clips to

explore other topics!

Notice that there are still ads

on this website, but only a

few

Clicking on the 18th century tab

has brought us to this page,

which gives the date and

description of each source. Let’s

try the first one

The first paragraph gives

us a background on the

author and historical

context of the source

Let’s

scroll

down

to see

more!

The site also includes pictures of

the source’s author

The site continues to provide

background information to us

so we can understand the

context of this source

At the end of the article,

we can see where the

source came from, and also

how to cite the

information from this

articleQuiz yourself! What important

criteria of a good source can you

find on this page?

Let’s scroll back to the top and see what

else the site has to offer – try selecting

“History in Motion”

This tab shows us different

film clips we can watch

Note that the clips are all

sorted by date, with the

earliest being from 1903.

Why doesn’t the site

have clips from earlier

years? Let’s try selecting

the first one

Along with the video

itself, this page also

provides background

information on the

creation and content

of the clip

Let’s scroll back to the top

and select “SnapShots”

Like the History in

Motion tab, this page

brings us another source

of firsthand history -

photography

Again, note the earliest

date – in what ways can

photographs be limited as

a primary source? Let’s

click on the first one and

explore

The picture is accompanied

by background information,

as well as links to more

articles on the same subject

You can click the links

below to visit

firsthand accounts

related to this picture

Rolling your cursor

over different parts of

the image will highlight

these parts of the

image; clicking will take

you to a new page with

more information on

the highlighted section

KHAN ACADEMY

Khan Academy is a great resource for all your classes – not just history!

Many different subjects are offered on Khan Academy, spanning all grade levels

The site also includes Test Prep help for standardized tests like the SAT

CLICK HERE to visit the site!

This is the home screen of

Khan Academy. If you have an

account, you can sign in…

…and if you don’t have an

account, you can begin by

selecting the “Subjects” tab

Open the “Subjects” menu and

select “World History”

On the World History

page, the topics are

sorted by subject and

time period

Each topic is broken

down into subtopics.

Notice how some topics

include quizzes for you

to test your knowledge!

Let’s try clicking

“Enlightenment and

Revolution”

Notice there are no

ads on this website

This page gives us a breakdown

of the subject, as well as a Table

of Contents for easy navigation

The topic is taught by

videos. Let’s click the first

one to learn more

This takes us to a video on

the French Revolution.

Notice other videos in this

series are listed on the side,

as well as the next subject

Let’s scroll

down to

see what

else is on

the page

Here we can find a transcript of

the video (so you can read

along, if that helps you

understand), as well as a

summary and the author of the

video

There is also a section for

you to ask questions, and one

of the content creators of

the site can respond!

Finally, let’s scroll back

to the “Subjects” menu

and select SAT under

“Test Prep”

This page shows you all the

different ways Khan Academy

can help you prepare for the

SAT. Although the help is free,

you must have an account in

order to use these resources

If you wish, you can make

an account by clicking

“Sign in / Sign up” at the

top of the page

READY FOR THE QUIZ?

Not Yet! Let Me Review Again! Let’s Go!

QUESTION 1

Being information literate is important because…

There’s a lot of information – good and bad

– available to sort through

It is helpful for problem solving that involves

getting informationAll of the above

It will help you write research papers

QUESTION 2

A .com website is usually owned by…

A company

A non-profit organization The government

A school, college, or university

QUESTION 3

A good website has all of the following features EXCEPT…

Updated recently

Authors uses and cites good sources Few or no advertisements

Broken links

QUESTION 4

Which of the following is a characteristic of a bad website?

Bad grammar/spelling

Outdated information All of the above

Obvious bias

QUESTION 5

Which of the following is true about search engines?

Google is the only good one

All search engines give the same resultsThe best results are always at the top of

the page

Metasearch engines give the best results

from a variety of search engines

QUESTION 6

Ask.com used to be called what?

Ask Us

Ask Jeeves Ask-Search

Ask & Answer

QUESTION 7

Which search engine that we visited listed ads to the side?

Yahoo!

Dogpile None of them

Ask

QUESTION 8

Eyewitness to History includes primary sources like…

Letter transcriptions

Videos All of the above

Photos

QUESTION 9

Khan Academy…

Is an example of a bad site

Only helps with history class Is for little kids

Has tutorials for many grades and

subjects

QUESTION 10

This site also included test prep help

Khan Academy

Dogpile Eyewitness to History

Yahoo!

CONGRATULATIONS!

I can do better on the quiz –

let me try again!

I’m finished! I’m officially

information literate!

HELP SLIDE #1

Got it! Take me

back to the quiz!

HELP SLIDE #2

Got it! Take me

back to the quiz!

WRONG ANSWER

Try Again!