Web literacy practices of teacher education students and in-service teachers in Greece : a descriptive study

Abstract

Summary.In the expanding context of new literacies, the abilities to know how to locate and evaluate web information resources so as to construct knowledge are acknowledged as extremely important worldwide. Current literacy curricula should encourage the development of such abilities, and their successful implementation requires that teachers themselves are properly prepared. The present study reports the web searching and evaluating practices for educational purposes employed by both pre-service and in-service teachers. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire. The descriptive study exhibits teachers' web reading practices with the purpose of identifying aspects that require attention when designing and implementing relevant educational initiatives. According to the findings of this research, both pre-service and in-service teachers almost exclusively use popular search engines to locate web information resources, and they choose such resources without examining their wider context. To evaluate web information resources, they consider mainly morphological and design elements, rather than content features such as their origin and credibility. The findings raise the potential of applying critical literacy principles on the Web so that teachers can approach it critiquely .i when using its resources in educational settings.

The role of collaborative argumentation in future teachers' selection of online information

“…With respect to cues related to the media, only one participant questioned his / her own use of search engines; no other participants mentioned criteria related to algorithm-based content or the type of search engine (Guzman & Lewis, 2020). This is in line with other findings, indicating that teachers tend to use only one type of search engine (Bougatzeli et al, 2017).…”

“…Hence, affordances -such as interactivity, navigability, or modality -do not just represent the tools available to users (e. g., a button on a website), but rather represent users' typical use of the online media. In considering the affordances of search engines and how teachers typically navigate therein, teachers often use only one search engine (Bougatzeli et al, 2017). Furthermore, teachers -like other users -may also be attracted to the results shown at the top of the search results page and thus by a search engine's affordance (Haas & Unkel, 2017).…”

“…While drawing on certain criteria can be useful, it can also influence a teacher's evaluation of information in a dysfunctional way. Highly ranked search results can be mis-leading, for example, since the ranking of a piece of information within the search results does not necessarily indicate the quality of that information (Bougatzeli et al, 2017). Similarly, teachers' familiarity with a certain website may lead them to select information that only confirms their existing knowledge (Iding et al, 2008).…”

“…Given the mentioned obstacles in teachers' skills and time for accessing original research, the Internet offers important opportunities for many teachers, who frequently use it to search for educational evidence (Bougatzeli, Douka, Bekos & Papadimitriou, 2017;Williams & Coles, 2007). One reason for this may be the abundance of educational information that is easily accessible online at a low threshold (e. g., on open access education science journals or blogs from colleagues).…”

“…Furthermore, different teachers often judge the same website as having widely different accuracy ratings (Iding et al, 2008). Teachers also generally use only one search engine (i. e., Google) (Bougatzeli et al, 2017), although the type of search engine is highly related to the resulting information.…”