Abstract
Online research presents unique challenges for elementary students as they develop and extend fundamental literacy skills to various media. Some features of internet text differ from that of traditional print, contributing to the challenges of discerning “fake news.” Readers must understand how to navigate online texts to conduct research effectively, while applying critical thinking to determine the reliability of online information. Descriptive data from an ongoing study revealed that children in grades 1–5 lack some basic understanding of how to search the “wild wide web.” Just as children benefit from explicit instruction related to text features, children benefit from instruction related to the features of the internet. This article presents a study of website evaluation that occurs early in the search process prior to the selection of a particular website or article. The application of the web literacy skills required to conduct an internet search is addressed, and recommendations prompt teachers to consider searches beyond the “walled garden,” as well as ways to handle the “messiness” of internet exploration.
Highlights
Research processes for most of today’s young learners include online searches
The ability to conduct online searches and discern online information is a challenge for children and adolescents [1,2,3,4], and children struggle with basic skills [5,6]
This struggle is in part due to the unique features of what we call the “wild wide web” [4], which contains unvetted content, fake news, ads, and other features that distract from desired information and make internet searches complicated [2,7]
Summary
The ability to conduct online searches and discern online information is a challenge for children and adolescents [1,2,3,4], and children struggle with basic skills [5,6] This struggle is in part due to the unique features of what we call the “wild wide web” [4], which contains unvetted content, fake news, ads, and other features that distract from desired information and make internet searches complicated [2,7]. 85–86), or the ability to determine the credibility of online information The development of such critical thinking requires instruction and practice; yet many teachers are reluctant to allow children to search the wild wide web due to safety concerns [4]. Critical literacies are among the principles of New Literacies that appear to be common across the research and theoretic work taking place
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