#nochecklists

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The checklist model is an internal model: it focuses on criteria internal to the Web page in question. An alternative to the checklist model is the contextual approach. The contextual approach uses peer and editorial review, comparison, and corroboration to bring external criteria to bear on target Web sites. The contextual approach uses information to evaluate information—it promotes the library’s resources, teaches information literacy, and encourages reasoned judgments of information quality

Marc Meola. (July 2004). Chucking the Checklist: A Contextual Approach to Teaching Undergraduates Web Site Evaluation. 4:3, 331-344.

http://www.tcnj.edu/~meolam/documents/Chucking_003.pdf

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"If you're going to give advice like a professional, you need to research like a professional"

The title for this entry, and this activity come via a conference presentation almost 10 years old now - by Susan Avery at UIUC.

Used with a class of future health professionals.

Assumption: Even as students, you are frequently asked to give health advice.

Premise: A relative tells you their child has been diagnosed with Exploding Head Syndrome. They wonder if this is a real thing.  What do you tell them.

Materials:

This 1988 article from the Weekly World News (this link goes to Google Books).

This article from the journal Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain

What to do:

Explain the premise.

Distribute the WWW article and ask students to evaluate it.

Ask them to formulate a response to their relative & ask them to share it.

Distribute the scholarly article. 

Discuss how the existence of the scholarly article affects their evaluation.  Discuss purpose of scholarly articles.

Transition into where to find scholarly articles.

Note: it would also be interesting to give students the premise and turn them loose - see what they come up with on their own.