Paseo 3.1 Personal Information Inquiry: Choosing (for LIS S574)

In the InfoZone model, the choosing step is the time to understand and appraise the information found in the seeking step.  The web links for this step list sites for evaluating and citing the sources. Evaluating the accuracy, credibility and currency of sources is an important step in the research process.  According to a 2012 survey of teachers about how teens do electronic research, "80% of teachers surveyed say they spend class time discussing with students how to assess the reliability of online information." (Purcell et al., 2012).  This step isn't just taught in the classrooms of teens.  In the school district where I work, elementary media specialists introduce this topic and discuss the qualities of good source material.  The lesson for children begins with the revelation that not everything on the internet is true (shocking!) and goes on from there to discuss safe, reliable places to start with for research.  Hopefully this foundation helps the teachers who teach those students in middle school and then high school.

I've decided to use periodical and broadcast news sources. There is a lot of information about my topic in the news because reports of the blackout were published worldwide.  I chose some sources from the day after the event and some from the ten year anniversary of the event.

Here is a list of links to the sources I found that I think will work the best. They are from credible and relevant sources and provide some different perspectives on the event.  I will provide a works cited section in the producing step with my final choices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/15/nyregion/blackout-2003-overview-power-surge-blacks-northeast-hitting-cities-8-states.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/14/new-york-city-blackout-2003-photos-power-outage-10-years_n_3755067.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3152451.stm

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/blackout-2003-photos-new-york-northeast-power.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/booming/the-blackout-that-exposed-the-flaws-in-the-grid.html?_r=0

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/northeast-blackout-2003-ten-year-anniversary-article-1.1426561


InfoZone Website

http://web.archive.org/web/20040407021851/http://www.assd.winnipeg.mb.ca/infozone/

Coming up:  Connecting-- I will try something new....

Works Cited

Purcell, K., Rainie, L., Heaps, A., Buchanan, J., Friedrich, L., Jacklin, A., ... & Zickuhr, K. (2012). How Teens Do Research in the Digital World. Pew Internet & American Life Project.