The Impact of Instruction in the WWWDOT Framework on Students’ Disposition and Ability to Evaluate Web Sites as Sources of Information

Abstract

Much research has demonstrated that students are largely uncritical users of Web sites as sources of information. Research-tested frameworks are needed to increase elementary-age students' awareness of the need and ability to critically evaluate Web sites as sources of information. This study is a randomized field trial of such a framework called WWWDOT. A matched-pair design involving 12 grade 4 and 5 classes was adopted. Data were collected through 3 assessments administered before and after the intervention: a questionnaire, a Single Web Site Evaluation Task, and a Web Site Ranking Task. ANCOVA and ordinal regression analyses reveal that students taught the WWWDOT framework became more aware of the need to evaluate information on the Internet for credibility and were better able to evaluate the trustworthiness of Web sites on multiple dimensions. However, students' overall judgment and ranking of the relative trustworthiness of Web sites was not improved.

From reading comprehension to document literacy: learning to search for, evaluate and integrate information across texts / De la lectura a la alfabetización documental: aprender a buscar, evaluar e integrar información de diversos textos

“…Interestingly, these benefits were observed for less-skilled comprehenders only. In the same vein, Zhang and Duke (2011) administered an intervention called WWWDOT in which fourth and fifth graders were encouraged to think about different key dimensions when considering using a specific website (e.g., 'who wrote it and what credentials do they have, why it was written, when it was written', etc.). The children learned the WWWDOT framework during four 30-minute lessons.…”

“…Para concluir, aunque son escasos, algunos estudios indican que es posible mejorar la capacidad de los niños de buscar y evaluar la información contenida en los documentos. Los beneficios obtenidos a través de estas intervenciones son en limitados algunos casos (e.g., efectos positivos solo en los lectores menos capacitados en Macedo- Rouet et al, 2013; o solo en algunas tareas en Zhang & Duke, 2011), pero siguen siendo prometedores. También ponen de relieve la necesidad de desarrollar más investigaciones en esta área.…”

TheWWWDOTApproach to Improving Students’ Critical Evaluation of Websites

“…Recently, we tested the impact of a specific framework—the WWWDOT framework—designed to increase elementary‐age students’ awareness of the need to critically evaluate websites and improve their ability to do so. In the following section, we briefly describe that study (for a detailed report of the study, please see Zhang & Duke, , ). We then describe the WWWDOT framework and how it can be taught through a series of four 30‐minute lessons.…”

“…Experimental group students’ overall judgment about whether a specific website was trustworthy did not improve—we believe more practice is needed for that—although it did improve for a subset of students (those identified by teachers as being well suited to serve as website evaluation tutors for younger students). Again, more details about the study are available at Zhang and Duke (, ).…”

An examination of teachers' planning processes as they seek to integrate technology into literacy instruction

“…Three participants from a larger technology integration project completed a think-aloud session as they planned an upcoming literacy lesson in which they anticipated using technology. This study was designed as a think-aloud study (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995;Cho & Woodward, 2014) with extensive complementary data (Cho, 2014;Coiro & Dobler, 2007;Zhang & Duke, 2011). In addition to concurrent and retrospective verbal protocols, data sources included: interviews, surveys and questionnaires, observations, and documents and photos.…”