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Developing habits of mind for evaluating the credibility of online information
recently, much attention has been placed on the need to help students develop the ability to evaluate the credibility of online information. Students need such an ability in order to be engaged citizens within a democratic-, information-, and technology-based society as they research answers to both personal and professional issues, a process that often occurs on the internet.
In online contexts, where anyone may publish what he or she wishes and little information is vetted before it reaches readers, the ability to evaluate credibility is especially important. So how should we go about teaching students to evaluate credibility?
Although there are many skills, strategies, and habits of mind that go into evaluation, developing the habits of mind-the ways of being, thinking, and approaching text-can serve as the foundation from which to engage in evaluation. Helping an online reader see herself as a "frontline judge," responsible for determining the extent to which information is credible, positions her to more effectively evaluate.
Frontline judges of credibility take a critical stance, use flexible thinking, triangulate evidence within and across texts, and view evaluation as an iterative process. These habits of mind interact with and support one another throughout the evaluation process.
Take a critical stance
Readers who take a critical stance, or attitude, toward text question the authority of information as they use their own prior knowledge to construct meaning. Thus, critical readers engage in parallel processes of questioning accuracy and constructing meaning. Readers who take...