Learn to SIFT
If you stayed within the websites and relied on traditional notions about source evaluation, you may have noticed that they both look very professional, have .org domains, and include citations to reliable sources. If you left the websites to Google them, you found that the AAP Links to an external site. was founded in 1930 and has nearly 70,000 members whereas the ACP Links to an external site. was founded in 2002 and has around 500 members. Which of these organizations seems more reliable? More fringe? Reading further, you see that the ACP was founded to protest the AAP’s support for child adoption by same-sex couples and is considered an anti-LGBT hate group by some organizations. This is not something that the ACP is going to advertise on their about page, so the only way to get this information is to leave the site and read laterally.
SIFT
In the next few slides, we’ll learn four moves to evaluate web content. Developed by Mike Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning at Washington State University, the SIFT method Links to an external site. involves four actions:
- Stop
- Investigate
- Find better coverage
- Trace the original context