Evaluating the reliability of Reliable Sources of Knowledge - Essay Sample

Introduction

Majority of the information that students acquire is from sources such as schools, the internet, media and personal experience. Although information from these sources may be accurate and helpful, these sources, especially the internet and the media may provide misleading information that may lead the student astray. Furthermore, sources such as the media and the internet tend to rely on a specific subject based on the student’s question and area of interest. According to Sanchez et al. (2014) students should be able to effectively evaluate the motivation of the author, how the information links to their previous knowledge as well as the nature of the information. Moreover, Coiro (2017) explained that researching from the internet requires the ability to critically evaluate information. However, schools provide accurate information that has been reviewed by experts in different subjects. Nevertheless, schools are more reliable in regards to academic information while the internet and media are more reliable in information concerning current trends as well as popular gossip.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Where My Individual Beliefs Come From

My personal beliefs may come from school, previous experiences as well as opinions that are based on information obtained from different sources. In most cases, my beliefs shape the way I interact with other individuals as well as from information that I have obtained concerning different concepts. These beliefs may be formal and obtained from school or informal from sources such as religion, the internet, and personal experiences. Schools are reliable sources while the internet, personal experience and religion can be either reliable or unreliable.

Differentiating between Reliable and Unreliable Sources

Schools offer accurate information and are thus identified as reliable sources. However, since the internet is not a reliable source of information, it is necessary to identify how to distinguish reliable from unreliable information. When evaluating information from the internet, I usually check if the author is well known or well referenced to give me the opportunity to review the information. The year which the information was published is also essential as Childs (2020) explains that reliable materials are published within 10 years. From these ideas, I can easily identify whether the information published on the internet are reliable or unreliable.

References

Childs, D. (2020, May 21). Differentiating between reliable and unreliable sources in a fake news world. Democracy and Me. https://www.democracyandme.org/differentiating-between-reliable-and-unreliable-sources-in-a-fake-news-world/

Coiro, J. (2014, April 7). Teaching adolescents how to evaluate the quality of online information. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/evaluating-quality-of-online-info-julie-coiro

Sanchez, C. A., Wiley, J., & Goldman, S. R. (2014, May 16). Teaching students to evaluate source reliability during Internet research tasks. Researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228351082_Teaching_students_to_evaluate_source_reliability_during_Internet_research_tasks