Save the Tree Octopus!

In the classroom, I believe it is more important than ever to set clear research standards when teaching internet responsibility, reliability, and, especially nowadays, gullibility.   It's stressed often that, "what's published on the internet, stays on the internet," but we also need to emphasize that just because it SAYS it on Google, doesn't mean it's a FACT.  You can show the kids examples all day long of "good" websites and how they can tell they are reliable places, but as Julie McNey says, it's often the NON-examples that can be the most helpful!

Linked is a page that has a list of bogus websites that you can use for teaching purposes with your students.  These sites look and read like creditable, informational pages, but are in fact fake.  My favorite to use is the Tree Octopus one.

After an intro to our animal research project and explaining to kids how to identify valid material on the web, I pulled up this website and asked the children to rate it.  Lots of facts about the tree octopus (check), tons of pictures and even videos (check), nonprofit links on how YOU can save the poor endangered animal (check), FAQ (check), a .net address (check), updated recently (check)....  There was a resounding "YES", this is a fabulous site and every single hand went up that they would reference this page in their research.  To which I replied, "The TREE Octopus? Really??"  Hook, line, and sinker... ALL of my children bought into the fake website to the point that they were brainstorming fundraising ideas to "help the cause!" Once they realized it was all fiction, we had a really good discussion about spotting the validity of information.  It definitely made them more critically aware of what they were reading on the web!

Here is a couple of helpful places for our young learners to start their research that would provide them with a narrower, reliable search field:

kidrex.org is a Googled powered, kid-friendly search engine.  It links quality results that are child appropriate.

NC Wise Owl- encyclopedia type reference material that is child appropriate as well (this can be accessed through the school internet without entering a password)

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