Your learners will need to produce well-planned, well-researched work.
This involves establishing clear goals and learning to source information and content online that’s accessible, legal, appropriate, ethical and reliable.
A key part of planning is identifying aims. What impact do learners want their work to have? Who’s it for? And what kind of media will best convey their ideas?
Digital tools can help them plan – they could create a storyboard, a 'plot mountain', or a mind map.
When learners begin the research for their projects, a big challenge is determining the quality and credibility of the sources they find.
Fake news and misinformation online are rife. So, while finding information on the internet is easier than ever, finding reliable information is harder.
Some features of the web such as clickbait and echo chambers make it even harder to find reliable sources.
It’s important to know how to search accurately. Experiment with entering keywords and phrases into search engines. Incorrect and unspecific terms still get results, just not the ones we might want.
Learners should be guided to check each source carefully for signs of reliability, such as relevance, bias, supporting evidence and reputation.
All claims made online need to be verified, and this can be done by cross-referencing facts found on the internet across multiple respected sites.
To play our part in turning the tide of misinformation, we all need to question the online sources we find and consider what motivates the ideas they present as facts.
In this short film for teachers Rhys ap William talks about using digital tools to help students plan for a research project.
Teacher notes
Storyboards and mind-mapping tools can be very helpful for project planning.
It is also imperative that when students are researching a project that they examine the sources of that research. While it is very easy to find information online it isn't always reliable as a lot of 'fake news' can be found on the internet.
Students need to learn how to search accurately and look out for sites that may show bias and be aware of 'echo chambers' based on their search criteria.
Learners should be encouraged to cross-check the information they have found with reputable and relevant sites and learn to question online sources.
More from this series:
Creating. video
In this short film for teachers Jennifer Jones explains how to get students to enhance their presentations by using creative digital tools.
Evaluating and improving. video
In this short film for teachers Rhys ap William talks about the importance of evaluation and how students can improve their work if they learn to do it effectively.
Problem solving and modelling. video
In this short film for teachers Jennifer Jones explains decomposition, which is an important part of problem solving for students and a way for them to use key thinking skills.
