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Session 2. Finding and Evaluating Digital Resources
Objective. Find digital resources, apply six quick checks (source, cross-check, accuracy, age fit, date, rights) and decide to use, adapt or reject each one.
The internet gives you more resources than any library, and also more mistakes, adverts and copied work than any library. A polished video can be wrong, and a plain page can be exactly right. If you check a resource for five minutes before class, you protect your pupils from errors and yourself from awkward questions the next morning. This session gives a quick routine you can use anywhere, even with only a textbook and a colleague to ask.
Key ideas
Where to look first
- Start with places that name their authors: official education sites, publishers' materials that go with your textbook, universities, libraries and international bodies such as UNESCO.
- Search with specific words: topic, grade and language, for example 'fractions Grade 5 worksheet'. Look at the second and third result, not only the first.
- Ask colleagues. A resource that three teachers in your school already used is already partly checked.
Six quick checks
- Source: who made it, and can you find their name? Cross-check: do other trusted places agree? Accuracy: does it match the textbook and your own knowledge?
- Age fit: language, length and images right for your Grade? Date: is it recent enough for the subject? Rights: may you use and share it, and how?
- Five minutes of checking saves a lesson that has to be corrected tomorrow.
Lateral reading: check by leaving the page
- Researchers at Stanford found that fact-checkers do not study a strange site more closely; they leave it and see what other sources say about it. This is called lateral reading.
- Open a new tab, search the author or site name and read what independent sources say. Offline, ask a colleague or look in the school library.
- A professional look, many views or a confident voice do not prove that content is right.
Rights, credit and keeping a copy
- Found online does not mean free to reuse. Look for a licence. Creative Commons licences tell you what is allowed, usually if you credit the creator.
- Write a short credit under what you reuse: title, author, source and licence. Pupils learn from how you do it.
- Save or print what you will use. Connections fail, pages move, and a resource you cannot open at 8:30 is no use.
The six checks at a glance
| Check | Ask yourself | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Who made it? | No name or contact |
| Cross-check | Do trusted places agree? | Nobody else says it |
| Accuracy | Does it match the textbook? | Facts or numbers differ |
| Age fit | Right language, length, images? | Too hard, too long, adverts |
| Date | Recent enough? | No date at all |
| Rights | May I use and share it? | 'All rights reserved' |
From search to classroom
Teach pupils the same checks
Pupils copy from the internet because nobody has shown them another way. A routine of two questions works from Grade 4 upwards: Who made this? Who else says the same thing? Let pupils practise on two short texts about the same topic, one from a named source and one with no author, and decide which they would trust and why.
When you do this aloud with your own resources, pupils see that checking is normal and not a sign of distrust. It also gives you honest answers when a pupil brings you a page that disagrees with the textbook: the disagreement becomes a task, not a problem.
What a licence says in plain words
Creative Commons licences are built from four short parts. BY means you must credit the creator. SA, share-alike, means that if you adapt the work you share your version under the same licence. NC means not for commercial use, and ND means no changes. A work marked CC BY can be adapted with credit; a work marked CC BY-ND can be shared only unchanged.
Giving a free worksheet to colleagues is not selling it, but selling a workbook is. If a page has no licence or says all rights reserved, assume you may not copy it and ask the owner or choose another. When unsure, ask your school leader. A short credit line costs ten seconds.
Examples from the classroom
Two dates in Bukhara
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 8 history in Bukhara. Two websites give different years for the same event. He does not trust either, checks the textbook and a library book, and finds that the textbook and one site agree. He prints the page from that site, notes its author, and shows the class how he decided which date to use.
Insight. Cross-checking against the textbook and a library book works with little or no internet.
Pounds become som
Scene. Malika finds a Grade 5 fractions worksheet by a teacher abroad. It is correct and licensed CC BY, but prices are in pounds. She changes them to som, adjusts two numbers to match her textbook, and adds under the sheet: 'Adapted from a worksheet by the original author, CC BY.' She shares it with the other Grade 5 teachers.
Insight. A licence that allows adapting, plus a credit line, lets you fit a resource to your class.
The page that would not open
Scene. Dilnoza in Fergana planned a lesson on a web page that loads well at home. At 8:30 the school internet is down. She had saved the text and printed two copies the night before. Pupils read in pairs from the printed page and the lesson starts on time.
Insight. Saving or printing what you will use removes the biggest risk of a digital resource: it is not there when you need it.
Common pitfalls
- Trusting a resource because it looks professional or has many views.
- Copying pictures or worksheets without a licence or a credit line.
- Checking only the title and not watching or reading the whole resource.
- Planning a lesson around a page that you have not saved or printed.
Check Six Resources
- Read the six resource descriptions in your Activity Kit. Each describes something a teacher found online. Use the six-check table.
- In pairs (15 min): for each resource mark the checks that pass or fail and choose USE, ADAPT or REJECT. Write the main reason in one line.
- Choose the resource you would ADAPT. Write the credit line you would put under it and one change you would make for your Grade.
- As a group (10 min): compare verdicts. For one REJECT, say what you would do instead: where you would look, whom you would ask, what you would do on paper.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which check caught the most problems? Which was the hardest to do in real life?
- Which of the checks can you do with no internet at all, and how?
- What is your own short routine for checking a resource before you use it next week?
Reflect
- What was the last online resource you used without checking? What could you have found out in five minutes?
- Do your pupils copy from the internet? How could you teach them one of these checks?
- Where in your school can you keep a shared list of checked resources?
Try it tomorrow
- Take one resource you plan to use and write its answer for each of the six checks.
- Add a one-line credit under the next picture or worksheet you reuse.
- Ask pupils the two questions 'Who made this?' and 'Who else says it?' about one page you bring to class.
Further reading and links
Check source, accuracy, age fit, date and rights before you use a resource, and keep a copy.