Check the Source

Critical awareness of sources is an important part of teaching, but far from all teachers have received training in this area. Critical awareness of sources is specifically included in some academic subjects in teacher training programmes, whilst in other subjects it is not covered at all, or only superficially. Teachers have a great need for easily accessible support. Not only do teachers need help in developing their own competence in this area, but they also need tips and advice on how they can incorporate critical awareness of sources into their teaching. Check the source aims to satisfy both these needs. The website contains a wide range of facts, tips and ideas that can support and help teachers in their work of raising critical awareness of source material, information searching, copyright and safe use of the internet in schools. The different sections of the Check the source website are presented below:

Research

The section on Research contains articles about new research and reports in the areas of source criticism, information searching and safe use of the internet. There are also interviews with researchers. One example of the contents is an article from a researcher describing how upper secondary students search for and use information from different sources on the internet. Another article looks at a Licentiate dissertation which shows that pupils aware of the theory regarding the principles of source criticism do not always apply these in practice. There is also an interview with a librarian and information scientist who has written a doctoral thesis on how younger children search for information.

Source criticism

The section on Source criticism contains a wealth of material covering source criticism from many different aspects. Here you can find short guides on source criticism and checklists which are useful when examining and assessing different sources, for example web  sources. There are also numerous tips and ideas on how you as a teacher or school librarian can work with source criticism in the school, and how pupils can raise their awareness in these areas. Various films and articles also cover source criticism and media awareness.

You can read reports on how different teachers work with this in the classroom, and see how pupils tackle and think about these issues. There is also a series of articles about how you can work with source criticism in different subjects, such as history, Swedish, geography, psychology and other subjects. These articles can be found under the section "Source criticism in school subjects". Another series is called "Source criticism in school programmes", and this contains a number of articles about source critical programmes adapted for schools from different archives and museums. A special section here takes up issues concerning cheating and plagiarism in the school, and how this can be prevented.

Information searching

The section on Information searching presents facts, tips and ideas, as well as articles about searching for information and competence in this area. Information competence is a broad concept covering the ability to search for, select, examine, assess and use different types of sources. The articles cover the whole of this broad spectrum. One example of the contents is an article where a teacher from Umeå describes a website called "Infokoll" and how they have built up this resource to help pupils develop their competence in searching for information. Another article looks at how the "Gävle Model" has inspired pupils not to treat "searching" and "googling" as identical which they usually do, but rather to develop broad competence when searching for and handling information.

Copyright

The section on Copyright is intended for schools, and provides relevant information about the legal aspects of copyright and rules that apply in the school world. It contains a number of easy-to-use guides for teachers dealing with different types of materials. You will get to know which rules apply when teachers show pictures and images in their teaching, or when a teacher wishes to use texts, films, audio clips or music. You will also get to know which rules apply to pupils, as these are slightly different from those applying to teachers. You will also find under this section a number of links to free archives of texts, images and music that can be freely used in teaching. There are also some interesting interviews with school heads giving their views on copyright in the school, and where pupils also share their thoughts and reflections on copyright.

Safety on the net

In the section on Safety on the net, you will find articles about different aspects concerning safety of children and youth on the net. You can read about different topical conferences, such as the annual Safer Internet Day which is arranged in over 60 countries, or the international conference World Summit on Media for Children and Youth. You can also read about what responsibility adults have in terms of the security of children and youth on the net, and how different authorities and organisations work with these issues. A number of articles deal with degrading treatment on the net, and what steps can be taken to prevent this. For instance, there is an interview with the Child and School Student Representative (BEO), which deals with cases where pupils have been bullied both on the net and in school. Same articles deals with the Personal Data Act (PUL) and how this should be applied in the school.

Social media

The section on Social Media takes up questions about how you can discuss and reason around source criticism in relation to social media in the school. Social media covers a huge range of different services and technologies, but we have chosen at Check the source to focus primarily on Facebook, Twitter, bloggs and YouTube. In this section you'll find factual articles explaining what the term "social media" generally means, and this will help you understand how Facebook, Twitter, bloggs and YouTube work, and how they are normally used. There are also a number of exercises for pupils on source criticism and discussion material on the theme of social media. You can also read articles where teachers and researchers are interviewed about the role of the social media in school.

Check the source not only writes about the social media, but also uses them actively. Check the source is on Twitter and has its own Facebook page. Check the source has also created a Wiki which is continuously growing and developing. Teachers and school librarians are welcome to contribute useful links about source criticism, and the other thematic areas of Check the source. All material on Check the source is written in Swedish.

2012-11-08 | Written by: Ulf Jämterud Translated by: Brian Turner

Contact

For more information contact:
Anette Holmqvist
The Swedish National Agency for Education
anette.holmqvist@skolverket.se

The Swedish website

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