"Just the facts, Ma'am."

I found a very funny article about Congress being divided over a bill that is entirely blank. As I read it, I couldn't help but notice how well written it was in terms of newspaper style (it's also not too far-fetched given the productivity of Congress in general). I thought about using this article in class for identifying source credibility. I could give them several sources and send them home with them to determine their credibility. 

I think with more and more research being done strictly online, teaching students how to discern a trustworthy website from an untrustworthy one is essential. Even more so, students need to be able to navigate the different agendas and biases that are an unavoidable reality. A good video I like to have students watch is the Wolfgram Memorial Library's Evaluate Web Pages Video, which gives a great overview of the criteria for evaluating web page credibility:

This reminds me of an activity I did when I was teaching freshman English to native speakers. I gave them four websites and they had to write a paragraph about each that evaluated their credibility, but most importantly, they had to identify the bias in each one. One was a white supremacy page featured in the video above, another was a US government page, another was some random website on caffeine addiction chock full of spelling errors (which I can't find anymore), and the last was a pro-gay rights website. Interestingly, despite having a discussion about every source in the world having some level of bias or an agenda, only two students out of all my students that semester noted any bias in the US government website and the gay rights one. They all remarked that the government website was "just a government website" and that the collection of gay rights petitions was a page that had "no bias or agenda. Only facts."

I think it's a tough pill to swallow that (almost) everyone is selling something even if you happen to agree with him or her, but as teachers, I think we ought to try to encourage that kind of disinterested critical thinking anyway.

Have a good weekend, and good luck out there!

-Bill