Zhang, S., & Duke, N. K. (Submitted). The impact of instruction in the WWWDOT approach to improving students’ evaluation of websites.

In this study, researchers conducted an experiment to evaluate the impact of an intervention called WWWDOT. The purpose of the intervention is to help students improve their awareness of and ability to critically evaluate the credibility and trustworthiness of websites. The instructional approach encourages students to focus on six things as they access websites: "Who wrote it, Why was it written, When was it written, Does it help meet my needs, Organization of the site, and To do list for the future" (p.11). Twelve classes of fourth- and fifth-graders participated in four lessons, with half of the teachers using the WWWDOT approach and half continuing their normal instructional activities. Click here to learn more about their investigation and findings.