Fake websites – Internet literacy

I have started to think about how to help students understand the importance of critically evaluating the information on-line. I have found a few sites over the years and after the year 8 immersion days I believe that it is time to come up with some lessons that teachers can use. There have been some very good posts about this topic already. Langwitches post “Don’t Believe Everything You See Online” being one.

She begins with “

Why is our first impulse to believe something that we see, read or hear? Especially if it is in print, online or comes in an “officially” looking packaging? How do we teach ourselves and our students, that another impulse has to follow the first one immediately: Evaluate…critical thinking… learn to listen for and to your own “gut feeling”… cross referencing…”

So far I have brought together some of the hoax sites and will work on organising some suggested activities that will lead the students to “discover” the problems with not evaluating the information they find.

So I have included most of the sites I have found, and believe would be useful in classrooms, below. Any other good sites would be welcomed. Next step some simple and medium level activities

• The Hoax Photo Archive The Museum of hoaxes website has a list of photo hoaxes throughout the history. The website also has april fool jokes, college pranks hoax websites and tall-tale creatures hoaxes.

• Burmese Mountain Dogs The ‘official’ site for the breed you will never before heard of.

• RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center. All the miracles of modern medicine.™ Acclaimed as providing ‘all the miracles of modern medicine’. Also offers Male Pregnancy and Clyven the Transgenic Talking Mouse

• McWhortle Enterprises, Inc. This hoax site was set up by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to teach people how to watch out for scams. The site looks and ‘feels’ real to the people searching the Internet for investment opportunities and is great to use with older secondary students.

• Flying Penguins The BBC created this 90-second ad. to promote iPlayer. The advertisement claims that a colony of penguins, that are able to fly, has recently been discovered.

• The Ova Prima Foundation Investigates which came first – the chicken or the egg.

• Haggis Hunt 2008/09 – The Great Scottish Haggis Hunt – webcams in Scotland This funny site adamantly proclaims that a Haggis is a wild animal.

• Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division – dihydrogen monoxide info Tom Way’s scientific terminology demonises a substance we can’t live without. The whole site is worth investigation. This site originated from a 14-year-old secondary school student’s science project.

• http://www.genochoice.com Create your own genetically healthy child online.

• Belgium doesn’t exist Anyone else think that Belgium is a real country?

• Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie Shield your brain from mind control.

• Dog Island A comprehensive website created to advertise “heaven on earth” for dogs. “Over 2,500 dogs are already enjoying a better life at Dog Island. Separated from the anxieties of urban life, dogs on Dog Island are healthy dogs who live a natural, healthy and happy life, free from the stress and hardship associated with daily live among humans.

• California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge Ken Umbach’s obvious but amusing satirical piece of writing for students in Early to Late Adolescence.

• The Pacific Northwest tree octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ This site was created as an internet hoax by Lyle Zapato. It is a good site to have students access in order to demonstrate that they cannot believe everything they find on the internet. 

• Save the Guinea Worm Foundation Ever heard of the Guinea worm? Go to this site to find out just how close the rare Guinea Worm is to extinction.

• All about explorers  This website is a great tool to use while teaching students about ensuring the authority of their resources by double checking them with multiple sources of information. The website is purposely designed to appear authentic, however, it is peppered with false information. A series of lessons based around the use of this website are provided in the section titled “For Teachers. 

• Save the rennets. You may not be able to find any cheese if this site created to raise awareness of a campaign to save the rennets succeeds

• Infosearcher: teaching students to evaluate websites Provides three strategies to teach evaluation of Internet material. Stresses the importance of students being actively involved in designing questions or criteria for evaluation.

• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources Contains an excellent selection of websites dealing with controversial topics for mature students.

• Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators – Critical Evaluation Surveys and Resources – Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators Forms designed for students at three levels: Elementary, Middle and Secondary. There are also links to many excellent sites for critical evaluation.

• Internet Detective | Home An interactive online tutorial that can be downloaded for use offline.

• Credible sources count A lower secondary level tutorial created to teach students to evaluate web sites.

• Evaluation Cciteria for website sources 
  Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.