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Standards I-XI

I, II, III, IV, V,

VII, VIII, IX, X, XI

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Standard II

Acquire, Analyze, and Evaluate Information

Identify task requirements, apply search strategies, and use current technology to efficiently acquire, analyze, and evaluate a variety of electronic information.

In looking back to the beginnings of my year-long trek in this TATC online learning experience, I am thankful to be able to say that I made great strides in the area of acquiring, analyzing, and evaluating an extremely wide variety of electronic information. On nearly a daily basis, I applied search strategies to find information through the Internet for assignment requirements. I learned to analyze the reliability of the data on web sites through several means: checking site dates (including dates for updates), checking site authors (personal site, corporate or commercial site, organization's site, etc.), checking the site for navigation features, checking functionality of links, and evaluating whether the site had a particular point of view or bias. I grew in my ability to efficiently use various search engines and techniques to acquire necessary information. I learned to better analyze and evaluate the content of web sites for my use within this course and for Internet searches in many areas. These tasks are all necessary for every teacher and student in this new age of the Internet "information explosion", and I will use the knowledge I've gained to teach my students to use the Internet wisely. I want to use these ideas to teach my students the usefulness of the Internet for acquiring information and the importance of checking the validity of the information it holds.

Caption 2

Indicators: Standards I, II, III, IV, and TA TEKS 7.3s, 7.4s, 7.8s, 7.9s, 7.11s, 7.12s, 7.22s, 7.48s, 11.13s, 11.32s, 11.38s, 11.39s

Artifact #2

Descriptors: Internet search techniques, search engines, evaluation of electronic information, information reported and shared through a desktop publishing document saved as a rich text file for universal readability.

Title: Evaluating a Site for Content and Functionality

Course: 102-1 Web Authoring

Date Created: September 22, 2002

Source: Individual TATC project

Media: Internet, search engines, Microsoft Word document saved as a rich text file for universal sharing.

Description: The assignment required finding at least three Internet sites on a topic of our choice and evaluating the sites for content and functionality using evaluation techniques we had learned through our course readings and discussion. The information was to be provided as a report in a format that could be easily shared with fellow online learners in TATC. I chose to research sites dealing with the Tolkien trilogy of books that include The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the movies related to these works. I enjoyed wandering through a number of sites (about 10) and chose three sites for comparison purposes. I wrote a report detailing the evaluations and included a table for easy comparison of the sites. I posted the document as an attachment to an email discussion in the designated area of our class discussions.

Rationale: I chose to include this document because I felt it provided a good example of ways I employed search techniques and "acquired, analyzed, and evaluated electronic information". In doing research for the document, I had used the Google search engine to find a host of sites on the topic I chose. I then visited a number of the sites and selected three for comparison. I evaluated the sites based on content and functionality using evaluation rubrics provided in my course readings and research. I used a word processing program to write a report on my findings and included a table for easy reference. I included links to the sites so that readers could check out the sites on their own. Overall, I felt this artifact shows a strong example of my use of Standard II along with other TEKS.

Implications for future: I know I will continue to use electronic information for the rest of my life, both personal and professional. The information age of the Internet is here and there is no turning back. While the technology will most assuredly expand and change, I can use my basic knowledge to continue to grow along with the technology! I will pass the information on to my students through discussion and modeling efficient use of electronic information in the classroom.

Reviewer's Comments: What an incredible job you did on this, Kathleen! You put a lot of analysis into the sites that you reviewed. Your table was extremely informative. The information was clearly illustrated and easy to follow.

I, too, kept finding myself wandering into more and more related pages. I guess that's the hazard of combining interests with school work, huh? BTW, I'm a big Tolkien fan, too. I haven't gotten to see the movie, yet (my kids are too little to use them as an excuse to see it, yet.) :)

Reviewer's Name: Kim Dean

Title: TATC Student '02-'03

Date Reviewed: September 22, 2002