Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

Goals-Based Evaluation
What do goals-based assignments have to do with evaluating Internet resources? Let's return to the builder's analogy. One of the many things that my father taught me is that when you are building something in the workshop, the number one key to success is using the appropriate tools and materials. Walk into any "Builder's Supply," and you have a virtual Internet of tools and building materials available to you. As you examine them individually, they are not judged as good or bad, but simply appropriate or inappropriate for specific building projects. Our task, as the shopper, is to select the tools and materials that are appropriate to our goals.
Traditionally, Internet resources have been evaluated from the perspective of the information itself and its source. This usually involves some type of checklist that puts all Internet information through the same sieve, evaluating each based on the same criteria. Here is part a checklist that I developed several months ago after reviewing some of the many evaluation forms available on the Internet.

Does the author have the authority to present this information?	Yes [ ] No [ ]
Does the author have anything to gain by presenting this information?	Yes [ ] No [ ]
Does the publishing organization have anything to gain by making this information available?	Yes [ ] No [ ]
Is the information consistent with other published material on the topic?	Yes [ ] No [ ]

It is implied that if you end up with a sufficient number of "Yes" checks, then the information is good and you use it. If not, then the information is bad and you never use it. Some of these evaluation forms can be quite long and picky, asking researchers to check spelling and grammar. But the result is the same. The resources is either stamped "Good" or "Bad," and this approval has little to do with the work that the student is doing⁵.

As students' information products should be based on teacher or student established goals, evaluating the material that they consider using in their products should also be goals-oriented. Rather than judging the material based solely on itself via an examination instrument that has nothing to do with the students work, it should be judged from the perspective of what the student wants to accomplish.
From this standpoint, we would not ask, "Is the author qualified?", but, "What aspects of the author's background help me accomplish my goal?" Under certain circumstances, a web page published by a neo-nazi organization might actually be appropriate for an assignment, while other resources, produced by people with credential would not. It depends on what the student wants to accomplish.
This approach actually serves three interesting purposes.

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  The student is focused on drawing supporting or appropriate information into the project rather than just filtering "bad" information out.
  
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  The student gathers information about the information.
  
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  As students approaches information with their goals to accomplish, they are less likely to be influenced by the goals of those who generated and published the information, which has interesting implications for media literacy.