As school starts, you may be asked to research topics. When you research a topic, you examine it closely. You can read books about a topic. You can find newspaper articles about a topic. You can go on a computer or tablet and search for information on a topic. There are more ways to find out about something than ever before. But how do you know if the information you’re getting is accurate? How do you know if you’re looking at reliable sources?
When you find out information about a topic, you also need to find out where that information comes from. This is called checking your sources. Most sources today tell you where they got their information from. If they don’t, check who wrote it. Find out if the author is an expert on the subject.
If you are on a website, look at the ending of the site’s address. If it ends in .gov, this website is run by a government organization. It should be reliable. If a site’s address ends in .edu, it comes from a school or university. It should also be reliable. Don’t trust a source with “wiki” in its name. Anyone can edit the information. Some people might have made a mistake or made the wiki website wrong on purpose! You can look at sites with wiki in the name, but you need to check another source to make sure it is correct.
Researching is getting more complicated thanks to Artificial Intelligence, or AI. AI can search sources and write reports about them very quickly. But those reports are often incorrect. AIs only look at search results on the Internet. They can get wrong information from those searches. Ais have also mistaken jokes made on the Internet for facts. This is another reminder that you always need to check your sources!
What Do You Think? What are some ways you can make sure things on the internet are true?
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