3 Content: Sifting Good from Bad

If students are going to guide their own content searches, they’re going to need to learn how they can work effectively and safely on the Internet. My experience working with people over the years is that very few people have spent the time necessary to become effective searchers of information.

In our current age the ability to effectively search for information is an asset to any profession – A Student

Specific success in this regard is going to be highly discipline specific. Each field is going to have different levels of tolerance of ambiguity and different goals for finding different kinds of content. Whatever your field, however, introducing students to authentic content being created by experts will help them develop the connections that will contribute to their becoming more literate in their respective field.

Broadly speaking, however, there are habits and practices that will help students become better users of search engines, better evaluators of what they find and better at using institutional resources like the library.

How can they search effectively while finding good information they can depend on? What Internet skills do they need to develop to become good citizens? The following resources might be considered as part of any program to help students find and create content.

• https://newsliteracy.ca/fakeout/learning-the-skills/
• https://www.notion.so/Check-Please-Starter-Course-ae34d043575e42828dc2964437ea4eed
• https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/oer4students/
• Something about being safe when working in online spaces