Searching Sources
In our second Connected Learning session, we learnt how to evaluate a source, and see whether it was a good source to go onto. You can use Currency, Bias, Authority, Audience, Relevance and Accuracy.
Skills I developed…
I developed many skills throughout the process of our sources evaluation session.
Analyzing Sources
When you have found a source, you need to find the information. The first thing we did was to find all of the information in the source, and more specifically the good information that was related to what you were trying to find out.
Reliable Sources
If you want to find information, you want to find it off reliable sources, as reliable sources give you good, correct information. Reliable sources are where you can get information that is correct and is related to what you need to find.
Evaluating Sources
Evaluating a source is seeing whether it is a reliable source or not. You can use Currency, Bias, Authority, Audience, Relevance and Accuracy to find out whether a source is a reliable source or not a reliable source.
Step No. 1
Analyzing Sources
Analyzing sources is very important, because there is no point in having in having information if you can’t interpret it. Analyzing sources is finding the information that is inside a source. More specifically, it is about finding the good information that is in a source, and the information that is relevant to what you are trying to find out, because that is the type of information that you need.
Step No. 2
Reliable Sources
Finding a reliable source is very important, because if you want information, you should only get it form sources that can give you good and reliable information. Reliable sources are important because they give us correct information, and we need correct information as that not only educates us in the right way, but it also means that we can use the correct information for useful things.
Step No. 3
Evaluating Sources
Evaluating sources is simply seeing whether a source is reliable or not reliable. You can use Currency, Bias, Authority, Audience, Relevance and Accuracy to find out whether a source is reliable or not. Let’s start off with currency. Currency is when something was used, or when something was made. Say a source was made 5 years ago (depending on what the source is about), then it is most likely reliable. However, if it was made 20 years ago, it is most likely outdated and obsolete, and is not reliable. Next is Bias. If a source has bias, then they are favoring one side over the other. This can be bad because they could change the information to make their side sound better, which means you will be getting false information. So for it to be reliable, it must be made from a neutral person. Next is Authority. Authority is who made the source. Someone who has a pseudonym may be less reliable than someone who is a doctor or professor, or some other sort of professional. Next is audience. This is who the source was made for. Say it was made for someone who is 10 years younger or older than you, it is not reliable. You need it to be a source that is targeted to your age group. Next is relevance. Relevance is how similar it is to what you are trying to find out. If it is completely irrelevant to your topic, then it is unreliable. Lastly is accuracy. That is how correct the information is, because if it is incorrect information, that can cause all sorts of problems.
What I Learnt
I learnt many things in the rotation of evaluating sources. The first thing that I learnt was what makes a source reliable. I learnt that a reliable source has many features, and many different factors go into a source to make it reliable. One of the main things I learnt was that a source may have great information, but it will still be deemed unreliable if it is not recommended for your age group. I learnt that the factors that go into a reliable website are the author, the date it was made, any bias the author may have, the intended audience, how relevant it is to what you are trying to find out and how accurate the information is. Even if one of the following factors cannot be met, it will be seen as unreliable.
My Next Steps
Evaluating Sources has helped me when researching, and it will help me when I am researching in the future. For example, I only used reliable sources when I was doing my Humanities Historical Inquiry research. I will only use reliable sources as well in future times when I am researching. This has helped me to learn how to use the different sources to their best possible capability, as I can analyse them well, and get the best information out of them.
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