Howard+Huth


 * Howard Huth – Learning to Use Online Tools**
 * Evaluating Online Sources**

//Task:// Skills activity for evaluating online information sources //Objective:// To provide experience in evaluating online information sources //Author:// Howard Huth, MLIS //Method:// Asynchronous After studying the lecture for this module, this assignment requires you to analyze two Web sites to determine the nature of the information found on the site. Create a document that contains a brief description of the Web site. State whether you believe each site is a primary or secondary source, factual or analytical source, scholarly or popular source, and subjective or objective source. Also describe the sites as information, propaganda, misinformation, or disinformation. Support your choices in describing the sites with examples from each site. Submit your document using the “View/Complete Assignment” link, located below this module’s assignment section, by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Not everything you read in print is true, and this applies to the Web even more so. With a little skill, anyone can generate Web content for any purpose very quickly. The ability to evaluate online information sources, an aspect of critical thinking, will serve you well in all of your courses that involve online research, as well as in your everyday life outside of college. If you have any questions about this activity, enter them in this week’s Discussion Board section, where I can answer them for everyone.
 * Instructions**
 * Activity Author’s Note**

Evaluation of Howard Huth's Learning to Use Online Tools by Christine Swartz. As we all know, websites come and websites go. Your assignment encourages the students to look critically at a websites and evaluate what they see. Determining who created a website and what the objectives of the website are encourages the student to check for authority, credibility, reliability and bias. This is a skill they will utilize, not just for websites, but throughout their life-long learning years.



**Critique of Howard Huth – Learning to Use Online Tools by John McGill**

This activity asks the students to synthesize the material by stating what type of material is post and to justify it by providing examples. This activity does not require the participant to share their experiences, but their experiences will help them to identify the different types of website. This activity does require that the learner provide useful feedback to the instructor. The instructor will know if the student understood the material based on the websites listed and their assessment of them as well as the support for the position that they selected. It allows students to be open and honest about the material as long as they can support it. This assignment does not require students to be open or express emotions. This activity is insightful and non-threatening, I believe this is a great learning tool to check for understanding. I feel that the activity could be completed in a couple of days or less. John Howard.doc

Howard,

This is a very clean, straightforward activity for looking at a topic that is critical for most classes. As I read through it, a form took shape in my mind that you could provide to your students to help them organize this analytical process (landscape view; 2 rows: web site #1 (student adds description), web site #2 (student adds description); column 1: Primary or Secondary? C 2: factual or analytical; C3 scholarly or popular?; C 4 subjective or objective? Use the fields for each of these to explain the choice and provide examples from each.)

This is also an activity that could generate a lot of debate—is a political site objective or subjective? For that reason, instead of using “assignment”, I would actually suggest using a discussion board. Post the charts and review one anothers’. Where do you disagree or have questions and why?