The object was to return the information to the teacher as accurately as possible. Students presenting reports had to make sure that sufficient resources were available to support the topic chosen before beginning to work. For today s students, finding information is not the problem. Resources are obtainable in abundance. The issue is how to assess, evaluate, integrate, and make sense of the surfeit of information that can be found on the Internet.
Books come with publishers, dates of publication, and authors whose credentials can be checked.
Examining Internet documents for validity requires a different kind of scrutiny, an ability to assess the accuracy of information and to separate the meaningful from the nonessential-skills that are critical for the future of today s students. The curriculum goals that follow emphasize some of these essential skills. I ve tried to choose words that will assist you in understanding the material that follows. Higher is better, and in the case of graphics and sound, faster modems are essential. The term used for sites whose addresses are collected and stored for easy revisiting.