Much of the material on critical thinking and Internet use has been developed by teachers and librarians, and some of it is intended for use by other teachers and librarians. The list below is intended to help students find the best and most readable material to use on their own as a guide to their resaearch and browsing.
The most widely available material consists of checklists of questions you can ask yourself when you are evaluating a web source. These checklists can be very valuable, but they can also be offputting. Some of them look like they would take forever to complete thoroughly. Remember that you don't have to do all of a checklist to learn something from it.
The most fun, of course, are the links that lead you to other links that you can look at and think about. The first two links below lead to an abundance of these. And you yourself can develop and use a critical eye wherever you are in your travels on the web.
Widener University/Wolfgram Memorial Library: Evaluating Web Resources
This module provides extensive resources for evaluating material on the WWW. It is largely geared to teachers, but it contains a wide variety of resources that can be used directly by students, including:
Address: http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htm
The Good, the Bad,and the Ugly, or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources
By Susan E. Beck, Instruction Coordinator, New Mexico State University Library. This is a well-designed web page that includes links to sample web pages to be used in the discussion of evaluation, as well as checklists for Evaluation Criteria (Accuracy, Authority,Objectivity, Currency, Coverage). Also included is a Bibliography and Suggestions to teachers for how to develop successful Internet assignments. Students can read this to learn about what teachers want you to know!
Address: http://lib.nmsu.edu/staff/susabeck/eval.html
Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools and How to Critically Analyze Information Sources
These sites were developed by Michael Engle, a librarian at Cornell University, for students working on papers. Engle treats web sources separately, but he also puts them in a more general context. The web is just one place that provides information, so to some extent, the same skills are needed to think about it as are needed for anyt other kind of source. The sites are extremely useful: the first one provides links to reviews of web sites which can be used to compare your judgment about a web site to the judgments of others.
Addresses: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill26.htm
Evaluating Internet Research Sources
An article by Robert Harris of Southern California College, written to be interesting and clear to the general public, not just academics. Features and explains the The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support) for evaluating web sources.
Address: http://www.sccu.edu/faculty/R_Harris/evalu8it.htm
Why we need to evaluate what we find on the Internet
A very readable and persuasive document in the form of a single-page outline explaining the problems with source material on the Internet. Written by D. Scott Brandt, a librarian and professor in Library Science at Purdue University.
Address: http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/~techman/eval.html
The Media Literacy Online Project.
This resource is quite different from the others listed here, as it is more general and not about the Internet as such. The site describes itself as a "comprehensive media literacy resource collection" designed to help students develop "an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the mass media, the techniques used by them, and the impact of these techniques."
Address: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/HomePage
A List of Useful Sites: A Handout from the Critical Use of the Web Workshop and
Determining Credibility of Sources: A Checklist For Researchers & Surfers
The workshop was given on March 12, 1997 by Julie Eckerle & Gardner Rogers. The checklist is in outline form, and starts with a clear, sensible introduction. The criteria used are: validity, reliability and credibility. This document includes a small but fine section on "Examples of Electronic Sources and How They Might be Used."
Addresses: http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/English/wc/workshopbib.html
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/English/wc/credibility.html
Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators
Contains a variety of Critical Evaluation Surveys, which are checklists for determining the validity of information sources. Surveys are designed for different audiences: elementary, middle school, and high school students.
Address: http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/eval.htm
Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
by Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library. This is a fine checklist of questions to consider about a WWW source to evaluate it.
Address: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/critical.htm
Evaluation of information sources
By the World-Wide Web Virtual Library (a catalog of resources on the WWW). Links to other pages discussing or stating criteria for evaluating information resources.
Address: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm