From Jane Guiller
The unreliability of information on the internet does raise issues regarding its use in higher education (17 January, p 44). I do not agree that the solution is to have “an international consortium of universities set up panels to audit the worth of websites, endorsing those that are reliable”.
Instead, we need to focus our efforts on developing effective ways to help students develop the necessary critical thinking skills to enable them to make their own judgements regarding the reliability of sources of information. Students should apply these skills to all sources, not just those on the internet. Popular magazines, television programmes and even textbooks and peer-reviewed academic papers can all contain inaccurate information.
For example, regarding internet sources, we could start by encouraging students to ask themselves questions regarding the source of the information they wish to use and why they should believe it in order to make judgements regarding its credibility and usefulness. For example, are they able to establish an author of the website? What is the author’s background, affiliation and qualification? When was it written? Why?
Students should also be encouraged to consult original sources where possible and not rely on second-hand information or solely one type of source. They must reference the sources cited in their work. If my students cite “Wikipedia”, I refer them to Wikipedia’s own sensible advice regarding the academic use of its articles: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academic_use.
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Glasgow, UK
