Surfing the web

Students need to know the basics of how to use the internet, but more importantly they need to learn to evaluate websites. Kathy Schrock identifies five evaluation criteria, which are useful for students to know so they can assess the validity of a website. Students need to know not everything on the internet is true so they can use the evaluation criteria so they don't get the rug pulled over their eyes. In the past I judged websites based on if they had dead links as a quick rule of thumb, because most likely the content was outdated and therefore not the most reliable source.

Moving into the 21st century and relying on the internet for information sources has made it very easy to plagiarize. Students need to be taught what plagiarism is and how to site sources to limit the amount of plagiarism. Plagiarism is tempting because it is very easy to simply cut and paste. This is why it is important for students to know how to properly cite the materials they use.

I think it is unfortunate that some teachers shy away from using content and resources from the internet because of fear of plagiarism. I am happy that fair use exists to protect teachers from issues of copyright, when they use of content for educational purposes. There are so many worthwhile materials to supplement our curriculum that teachers should be able to use them without fear.