Teacher's Guide: Using Evaluation Games

Bad Apple and Use It? or Lose It? are designed to answer the question, "How good is the information?" Assessing the credibility of information can be an arduous task, especially for students who seldom see information in school that cannot be trusted.

The evaluation activities in this issue of the Resource Kit take a different approach: exposing students to benign mis-information in order to strengthen their critical abilities.

Bad Apple involves investigations of up to four Web sites. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, the British Stick Insect Museum and Tadoos are all considered hoaxes by most evaluators. However, students are easily convinced they could be real. The Golf Cross site has been listed by some reviewers as a hoax, but there is sufficient evidence to conclude it may be legitimate.

The version of Use It? or Lose It? bundled in this Kit consists of two Web pages that contain questionable information. The first draws on the story of Romeo and Juliet. Dennis O'Connor designed this Shakespeare page with intentional flaws and a fictitious author, though some of the information (date and links from) may be considered credible. The second example, the Air Car, targets a Web site that has not been doctored for this exercise. The credibility of the air car information is suspect although it probably does exist. The nature of the two examples--and the ultimate decision about credibility--should be left for students to make on their own.

The purpose of both evaluation games is to engage students in deciding whether information can be trusted, based on credible criteria.

Determining Credibility is hard

1. Effective evaluation requires asking good questions. Eight sets of questions are used in these games that help students discover strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the author, publisher, date, bias, accuracy, evidence, links to this page and links from this page. Players are challenged to search for answers to these criteria. For a complete list of questions, see the Evaluation Wizard or print a complete list. Knowing the right questions to ask is the first step in evaluation.

2. The second step is knowing where to look for the appropriate information. Oftentimes this requires additional searching to locate the name of the author, the date of the publication, pages that link to this page, and so on. These games do not teach those techniques--so if students lack searching skills, first have them work through the three MicroModule Flash Companions in this Kit: Author, Publisher and Links To.

3. Credibilty is a complex issue. Even if falsified on purpose, nearly every piece of information is credible to someone. Information isn't clearly right or wrong, good or bad--it often falls somewhere between polar opposites. However, just because an author believed in an idea enough to write it down doesn't mean others have to believe it. If there are reasons to think it is not credible, it shouldn't be used. Discussing information with others may be the only way to provide necessary and balanced perspectives.

4. Assessing the credibility of a source is different than assessing the credibility of the information itself. Finding questionable information about a source tends to be an easier task, unless you are an expert in the field of the information. Most of the criteria included in these games focus on the source: author, publisher, bias, date, links to, links from. Only accuracy and evidence are more directly tied to the integrity of the content. In terms of content, the best practice is to find agreement between experts in the field, often by conducting a literature review.

5. In practice, we've observed students evaluating digital information on many occasions. Curiously, we've also observed that teachers often neglect to watch what students are doing. Use It? or Lose It? and Bad Apple were developed to facilitate interaction between teachers and students on the topic of evaluation. Both games may function as an individual tutorial, a group discussion and an assessment. Following are suggestions for each type of application--be sure to try the activities yourself and then tailor them for your classroom.

As a Tutorial

Our evaluation games were designed to be played by an individual, although pairs or even a small group could search collaboratively for answers to its credibility questions. The opportunity to search for the information is critical and helps form impressions about credibility. Depending on the time available or the grade level of the student, assign selected criteria to be examined. For example, in the case of Romeo and Juliet, make sure students look for author, publisher, accuracy and Links To. These raise serious questions about the information's credibility. In the case of Air Car, problematic criteria are Date and Links From; the rest of the criteria may be viewed as sufficiently credible.

On the final frame of each tutorial game we have included Wizard feedback, essentially our conclusions after reviewing the information. Because credibility is in the eye of the beholder, not everyone will or should agree with our Wizard's views. As a tutorial this feedback is intended as a contrasting viewpoint. If individuals disagree with the Wizard--for a good reason--don't discourage it. Instead, encourage critical thinking and hear them out.

As a Group Discussion

Supplementing the procedure described above, once individuals have determined for themselves whether the information is credible or not, hold a group discussion and attempt to reach consensus. Encourage individuals to share their views on the credibility of the author, the publisher, and so on. If there are differences of opinion, encourage group members to explain their thinking. Hearing others' reasons and defending one's own may be very effective in assessing credibility as well as a powerful learning experience. Based on the arguments made, is there now sufficient support to use the information or lose it? Have any students changed their mind? Why?

• Shakespeare: Does the author's lack of expertise and typos make this information not credible? Is there anything here that is good enough to be used?

• Air Car: Does the lack of recent information make the rest of the Web site not credible? Is there anything here that is good enough to be used?

• Tree Octopus: Do the links from and to this site indicate that the information has no factual basis? Do glaring inaccuracies in the evidence cited invalidate everything that is written?

• British Stick Insect Museum: Can the purpose of this site be determined? Should any of the information be taken seriously if it was meant as a joke?

• Tadoos: Since little can be determined about the author, what can be learned about the publisher? What evidence is there that tadoos are real?

• Golf Cross: Is the author qualified to write about this sport? What external evidence can be found that this sport exists?

Especially with high school students, direct them to consider how the source of the information (author, publisher, bias, etc.) may affect their views about the content of the information.

As an Assessment

Have students use the Evaluation Wizard to write out and print their findings for the credibility criteria, or provide a simple worksheet on which students journal their findings. Examine the sheets to identify how students are thinking about the various criteria: are they locating accurate information about the author, the publisher, and so on? Are they providing thoughtful reasons for their decisions to use or lose the information?

Students in grade school may need to complete only Author, Publisher and Accuracy. High Schoolers should examine all eight criteria.

Note: In Use It? or Lose It? and Bad Apple, matching the Wizard ( a score that ranges from 0 to 8) should not be construed as mastery of the task, unless you have sound reasons why the Wizard is right.

Go to Use It? or Lose It?
Go to Bad Apple