Transcript Five Things You Need to Know

WE’RE TRYING SOMETHING NEW!
Instead of listening to a 52-minute Speed Lecture,
you have today to move through this slide review at
your own pace.
 Review with “Thinking Critically…” handout.
 Write answers on handout where appropriate. Your
answers will be graded.
 Tomorrow we’ll work together to apply today’s
information and answers to privacy and
censorship issues.
 All slides are numbered in bottom right corner.
 Let’s get started!

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Thinking Critically About Your Research Online
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?
You need to know that the
RBHS Media Center website has
information to guide your critical
thinking and your research.
Go to
www.rbhsmediacenter.org
Then, click on Researchers
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You need to know
there are many
useful links on our
website
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Go to the
browser right
from our web
page
You will love
Purdue’s
OWL
You need to know that Google isn’t the “only game in town” and
that NoodleTools and OWL will help with your citation and research questions.
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DATABASES ARE ALSO EXCELLENT SOURCES
You need to know
where to find links to
our databases
rbhsmediacenter.org
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INTERNET
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Information on websites and
web pages.
Authors: can be anyone;
evaluate each source carefully
Author: may be organization
with a mission to share
information and influence your
decisions
Cost: Free
Access: Web browsers and
search engines via computer
with Internet access
DATABASE
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Information: originally published in
magazines, journals, newspapers,
books, on radio, TV, or for specific
database.
Authors: Typically professional
writers and/or researchers w/ a
mission to share information; may
want to influence your decisions
Cost: RBHS pays for databases that
hire their own writers and
researchers or subscribe to
magazines, journals, etc.
Access: Username & password;
computer with Internet access
YOU NEED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE…
AND WHY IT MATTERS
See your handout
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Lots of Critical Thinking Ahead…
YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO REFINE A SEARCH
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THESE TIPS WORK WITH DATABASES & INTERNET

Type the Key Words of your topic
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Put your phrases in quotation marks
 Ex:

“book challenges”
Remember that adding the word
AND to your search actually makes
your results list shorter!
Use Boolean search terms AND, NOT, OR
 Ex:
“Internet filters” AND “secondary schools”
 Ex: “privacy issues” NOT Facebook
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Lots More Critical Thinking Needed…
YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO AVOID
WEAK SOURCES
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READ YOUR RESULTS PAGE CRITICALLY
Read
Blurbs
Read
URLs
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KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE URL
A. Wiki-anything: If you use a wiki, use it to find new
sources or to give you ideas for refining your
topic.
B. Country of origin: If your topic is privacy issues in
the United States, why spend time browsing the
editorial of a newspaper in Germany?
C. Blogs: Remember that blogs can be good, bad,
excellent, ugly, careful, or raw. You will need to
evaluate carefully. See Blog Evaluation tutorial in
NoodleTools (See note on your handout.)
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KNOW WHAT ELSE TO LOOK FOR IN A URL
A.
B.
C.
D.
.k12: If you must, use the best only to look for
sources; avoid the rest
.edu: University sites are great sources and
are often peer-reviewed.
About.com and Answers.com: Both include
wiki-sources throughout their sites. Why may
that be a researcher’s problem?
.gov: government sites are considered
trustworthy
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KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE BLURB
Dates: If you aren’t doing an historical
perspective, do you want a 12-year-old source?
B. Syllabus: An outline of what a professor is
teaching this semester won’t help your research.
C. Amazon/Barnes & Noble: Unless you want to buy
a book on the topic, don’t bother.
D. Dissertation: The results of a student’s research
for his or her doctorate. Should be valuable,
especially for sources. Be sure to cite as a
dissertation.
A.
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A
B
•Based only on
information in
URLs and
blurbs, which
sites can you
rule out as
sources for
your paper?
See your handout
C
D
E
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Still More Critical Thinking Ahead… Once you click on a result,
YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO
RECOGNIZE A QUALITY WEB SITE
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LOOK FOR INFO ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Authority
 Is the author or sponsoring organization
reputable? (Not sure? Search the author, sponsor,
or publication in your favorite web browser)
 Are the author’s credentials listed?
 Is the author’s contact information available?
 Is the mission of the organization explained?
 Are facts credited in a source list or attributed to
someone? Is that person reputable?
 Look for answers in About Us link on home page
 No About Us link? Shorten the URL to its domain
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LOOK AT HOW UP-TO-DATE THE SITE IS
Currency
A. Is yours a current or “hot” topic?
B. Has the web site been updated recently?
C. Are you sorting your database results list by
relevance or date?

Look for copyright (©2014) at bottom of home
page, or click on About Us.
See your handout
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LOOK FOR MISTAKES
Accuracy
 Are sources for the information listed/credited?
 Are there spelling errors or typos?
 Can you corroborate information you aren’t
sure of? Details should match what you see in
at least three other sources (books, other web
sites, databases)
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LOOK FOR OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity (An objective site is impartial. It simply presents
the facts and does not try to influence opinion. A biased
site uses information to influence opinion or actions)
Bias Can Be Subtle (And Is Not Necessarily Bad)
Click About Us or Mission to learn the organization’s
agenda/bias/purpose
B. Does the author use inflammatory language?
A.
Ex: words like ridiculous or stupid
Ex: phrases like “as everyone knows”
Can you pick the word in the first bullet
that may suggest bias?
See your handout
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CAN YOU PICK OUT THE BIAS IN THESE BLOGS?
I find it fascinating that the book banners are,
generally speaking, from the same ilk as the folk
A constantly screaming about their freedom of
speech or their right to bear arms.
B
C
I agree completely. I can’t count the number
of eye rolls I give when I hear some selfrighteous mother condemning a book that
she deems unfit, therefore everyone must
agree.
Banning books makes me livid. Over zealous
parents discover that they cannot control
every aspect of their children’s lives, so they
then seek to destroy anything that makes
them uncomfortable… But to deny other
parents their rights to decide for their own
families is ridiculous.
See your handout
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CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE FOR THE SITE
Audience
 Is the site aimed at children, mature readers, or
readers with a specialized knowledge and
vocabulary?
 Look at graphics and language to decide
 Why should you care?
See your handout
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YOU SHOULD KNOW
WHERE TO FIND
INFORMATION NEEDED
TO CREATE A CITATION
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WEB SITE
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In “magazine analogy,” web
site is the magazine
The web site title is usually in
the upper left corner of each
page and stays the same no
matter where you click in the
site
The web site title is not the
URL
RBHS Media Center is our
library web site title
WEB PAGE
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In “magazine analogy,” web
page is the magazine article
The web page title changes
with each “article” change in
the web site
The web page title is not the
URL
Home, Readers, Researchers
are web page titles on the
RBHS Media Center web site
FIRST - YOU NEED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN A WEB PAGE AND A WEB SITE
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STUDY THE ARTICLE, PAGE, AND/OR SITE

Author – Publisher – Copyright
 Should
be on Home page or About Us page
 Look for Home and About Us links at top or bottom
of any page.

Publisher or Sponsor
 Often
at the very bottom of the Home page or About
Us page in small print to the right of the Copyright.
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Copyright or Last Update
 Should
be at the very bottom, usually left side of
Home page or About Us page.
 When a range is given, cite the most recent year.
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Use the URL of
the PAGE
you are citing
Remember: you need both web
site AND web page information.
IF YOUR WEB PAGE IS WORTHY OF CITATION,
CREATE A SOURCE IN NOODLETOOLS
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STUDY THE ARTICLE, PAGE, AND/OR SITE
A.
B.
C.
D.
http://www.plan2succeed.org/index.html
http://www.aclu.org/nationalsecurity/surveillance-privacy
http://www.brighthub.com/education/onlinelearning/articles/128366.aspx
http://debatewise.org/debates/1492-schoolinternet-filters/
See instructions on your handout for this slide
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DATA MINING IN SEARCH ENGINES
A.
B.
C.
D.
http://www.google.com
http://www.bing.com
http://www.ixquick.com
http://www.clusty.com
See instructions on your handout for this slide
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