We live in a world of data overload. Some information is great, and some of it needs to pass a CRAAP test.
CRAAP is an acronym for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.
Use The CRAAP Test to evaluate your sources. Be that as it may, there is a more correct method of choice if a post is reliable and helpful.
The CRAAP Test module helps students learn the difference between appropriate and inappropriate sources for papers and bibliographies by prompting them to evaluate five basic elements of the sources: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.
We hope that this module will help your FSEM students find appropriate academic sources, thus enhancing their research. Below is an introductory video for the CRAAP module.
Lots of reasons. There’s the whole “fake news” thing, of course, but that’s just one bit of a bigger problem. Almost any question that you want to be answered today, you’re going to go to the web for the answer. Even if you’re a passive consumer you’re going to absorb views about medical care, climate change, public policy, the safety of entrance. You’re going to be exposed to processes of radicalization and various forms of direction.
Bad actors from corporate astroturfers, to snake-oil vendors, to state actors promoting civil contests have all thrown themselves into this new environment and developed very web-centric ways to proceed with their interests. Yet too often in education, we’ve assumed that some generic training in “critical thinking” or “wide reading” will help our students navigate this world.
There’s no golden age of information, but there are certain moments in history when newer technological capacity comes up against older culture and critical systems break down. I believe we’re living through one of those moments now, and governments, corporations, and educational institutions have to reconsider their role.
For education, that piece is coming to terms with how online information literacy differs from what we taught in the age of print and broadcast.
If you use crappy references, you will finish with a crappy paper and most likely a crappy grade. Apply the CRAAP Test to assure you are using credible sources for all of your assignments.