A guide for adolescents who are undertaking Internet-based research, to help them decide which websites are worth saving (whether to their browser's favourites or within a social bookmarking utility).

1. A p r e s e n t a t i o n b y L i n d a M a r s h a l l
( p r e - s e r v i c e t e a c h e r - l i b r a r i a n )

2. A great deal of 21st century learning is done online and
involves social interaction and collaboration.
There are countless tools to facilitate sharing of ideas and
workloads, including social bookmarking services like Reddit,
Twitter, StumbleUpon, Hacker News, Pinterest and my
personal favourite - Diigo.1
INTRODUCTION
M i k o l u k , K . ( 2 0 1 3 , J u l y 2 6 ) . 5 S o c i a l b o o k m a r k i n g s i t e s
a n d h o w t o u s e t h e m e f f e c t i v e l y [ O n l i n e f o r u m a r t i c l e ] .
R e t r i e v e d f r o m h t t p s : / / w w w . u d e m y . c o m / b l o g / s o c i a l -
b o o k m a r k i n g - s i t e s - l i s t /

3. WHAT IS CURATION?
The modern dilemma of information overload2 that is almost
always associated with school research projects makes it
important for kids to help themselves and their classmates by
learning about digital curation.
Curation is about “sorting the wheat from the chaff” while
surfing the ‟net. In other words it‟s about working out the
difference between great and dodgy web pages. Curation
involves more than deciding which sites to save though as
good curators also categorise related info so they can find it
again more easily. Sharing the best stuff with others is also a
nice thing to do!
A s k a n a s e , D . ( 2 0 1 2 , A p r i l 1 9 ) . C u r a t i o n t o o l s t o h e l p
y o u c o p e w i t h i n f o - o v e r l o a d [ O n l i n e f o r u m a r t i c l e ] .
R e t r i e v e d f r o m
h t t p : / / w w w . s o c i a l b r i t e . o r g / 2 0 1 2 / 0 4 / 1 9 / c u r a t i o n - t o o l s - t o -
h e l p - y o u - c o p e - w i t h - i n f o - o v e r l o a d /

4. WHAT ADVICE IS OUT THERE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS?
I don‟t want to reinvent the wheel so here are some great resources:
 Netiquette (ie. online manners), keeping yourself and your computer
safe, dealing with nasty content or bullies etc.:
 CyberSmart
 StaySmartOnline
 Plagiarism (cheating by claiming other people‟s thoughts as your
own), referencing, copyright and working as a member of a team:
 AllMyOwnWork
 Copyright information:
 SmartCopying
L i n k s o n t h i s p a g e w e r e p u b l i s h e d b y t h e A u s t r a l i a n
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s a n d M e d i a A u t h o r i t y ; t h e F e d e r a l
D e p a r t m e n t o f B r o a d b a n d , C o m m u n i c a t i o n s a n d t h e
D i g i t a l E c o n o m y ; t h e N S W B o a r d o f S t u d i e s ; a n d t h e
N a t i o n a l C o p y r i g h t U n i t ; r e s p e c t i v e l y .

5. JUDGING THE QUALITY OF WEB PAGES
Let‟s say you‟ve got a research project to do either individually
or as a member of a group. How do you avoid becoming lost
in a sea of information?
How about a checklist to work out whether each website you
visit is worth saving?
S t u d y g u i d e s a n d s t r a t e g i e s ( 2 0 1 0 , F e b r u a r y 2 5 ) . O n l i n e
l e a r n i n g s e r i e s - E v a l u a t i n g w e b s i t e c o n t e n t . R e t r i e v e d
f r o m h t t p : / / w w w . s t u d y g s . n e t / e v a l u a t e . h t m

6. CHECKLIST FOR WEB PAGES WORTH SAVING
Internet-based resources that are worth bookmarking can tick
all of the following boxes:
 Relevant
 Timely
 Trustworthy
 Understandable
 Manageable
 Original
E n g l e , M . ( 2 0 1 4 , F e b r u a r y 1 3 ) . E v a l u a t i n g w e b s i t e s : C r i t e r i a
a n d t o o l s . C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r i e s . R e t r i e v e d f r o m
h t t p : / / o l i n u r i s . l i b r a r y . c o r n e l l . e d u / r e f / r e s e a r c h / w e b e v a l . h t m l

7. 1. RELEVANT

This is all very
interesting but does
it actually answer
the research
questions? Does it
help you complete
your assignment or
write that report?
A u s t r a l i a n K o a l a F o u n d a t i o n ( n . d . ) . A b o u t K o a l a s –
I n t e r e s t i n g F a c t s . A u s t r a l i a n K o a l a F o u n d a t i o n .
R e t r i e v e d f r o m h t t p s : / / w w w . s a v e t h e k o a l a . c o m / a b o u t -
k o a l a s / i n t e r e s t i n g - f a c t s

8. TIMELY
Sometimes it doesn‟t matter how old
information is on a topic as nothing
changes over time. For example a
simple explanation of gravity or a blurb
about a fiction book are likely to still be
“right” or correct decades later. This is
not always the case, however! For
instance, take a look at this early
painting of a kangaroo that was created
after a dried out kangaroo skin was
inflated (seriously!). It‟s not exactly
accurate!
T h e K o n g o u r o f r o m N e w H o l l a n d . ( 2 0 1 4 , M a r c h 3 ) . I n W i k i p e d i a ,
T h e F r e e E n c y c l o p e d i a . R e t r i e v e d A p r i l 2 2 , 2 0 1 4 , f r o m
h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w / i n d e x . p h p ? t i t l e = T h e _ K o n g o u r o _ f r o m _ N e
w _ H o l l a n d & o l d i d = 5 9 7 9 4 1 3 1 7

9. TRUSTWORTHY
Trustworthy websites are published
by an expert or at least by a group
with clearly stated goals and contact
information. There must be no
obvious spelling or grammatical
errors and no sign of bias (egg.
sponsorship by a company with an
interest in presenting information in a
way that benefits them).
Assuming your young eyes
can cope with the yellow font
(I can barely see it!), you
might at first think this looks
good…
However, there‟s no way to know
who wrote it (may have been a
fellow primary school student), or
if the author made sure all of the
content is correct.
A n o n y m o u s ( n . d . ) . K o a l a F a c t s . G l o b a l W e b B u i l d e r s .
R e t r i e v e d f r o m :
h t t p : / / w w w . g w b . c o m . a u / g w b / a l e x / k o a h o / f a c t s . h t m l

10. UNDERSTANDABLE
 This was written by university
professors for others with „Dr.‟ in front of
their names and years of research
experience in biological ecology. I‟d
suggest you study biological sciences at
uni‟ if you can understand it!
The bottom line is that there‟s no
point saving web pages unless they
make sense to you.
J o n e s , R . C . , D j a k i e w , D . , & D a c h e u x , J . - L . ( 2 0 0 4 ) .
A d a p t a t i o n s o f t h e s h o r t - b e a k e d e c h i d n a T a c h y g l o s s u s
a c u l a t e u s f o r s p e r m p r o d u c t i o n , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n a n a r i d
e n v i r o n m e n t . A u s t r a l i a n M a m m a l o g y 2 6 : 1 9 9 – 2 0 4 .

11. MANAGEABLE
Occasionally you may come across a web page with
information that‟s relevant, up-to-date, from a trusted source,
makes sense to you but still may not be worth saving.
While you might find a website fascinating, you still have a
due date, right? That means you may not have time to get
through twenty pages of information to find the bits that you
actually need to do your assignment.
A good webpage is not too long to be able to quickly find the
information you need.
U n i v e r s i t y o f M a r y l a n d L i b r a r i e s . ( 2 0 1 4 , F e b r u a r y 7 ) .
E v a l u a t i n g w e b s i t e s : A c h e c k l i s t . A v a i l a b l e f r o m
w w w . l i b . u m d . e d u / t l / g u i d e s / e v a l u a t i n g - c h e c k l i s t

12. ORIGINAL
No, it doesn’t have to be
one of a kind!

13. ORIGINAL
You need to ask yourself if you‟ve already saved one or more
websites that contain similar or identical information. For
example, have you already got enough pictures? Do you
already have enough on structural adaptations of the
platypus?
The next slide is an example of poor curation as several
webpages containing the same facts have been bookmarked
using Diigo.

14. 5 resources and
all we‟ve learnt is
that red
kangaroos can
get almost
enough of their
water needs
from the grasses
they eat and that
their kidneys can
concentrate their
urine (saving
more water).

15. A huge variety of
web pages
curated or
grouped by
resource type
through the use
of lists and tags
in Diigo.
No significant
duplication and
all websites are
relevant, current,
age-appropriate
and trusted.

16. HOW SOCIAL BOOKMARKING CAN HELP YOU AS A STUDENT
Social bookmarking tools like Pinterest and Diigo can be used to
help you organise web-based information so that it can be easily
retrieved and transformed.
The use of groups, lists and tags in social bookmarking tools allows
you to “pick the brains” of people with similar interests to yourself.
You can be guided to great websites others have found and see any
notes people have made regarding fact sheets, images, videos etc.
You can also contribute your own thoughts and opinions on the
quality of Internet-based resources and highlight key material for the
benefit of yourself or others.
Social bookmarking tools can be used to create individual or group
reports. Group work can help you develop not only your ability to
research but vital computer literacy and interpersonal skills too.
M i h a i l i d i s , P . , & C o h e n , J . N . ( 2 0 1 3 , F e b r u a r y ) .
E x p l o r i n g c u r a t i o n a s a c o r e c o m p e t e n c y i n d i g i t a l a n d
m e d i a l i t e r a c y e d u c a t i o n . J o u r n a l o f I n t e r a c t i v e M e d i a
i n E d u c a t i o n . R e t r i e v e d f r o m h t t p : / / w w w -
j i m e . o p e n . a c . u k / j i m e / a r t i c l e / v i e w A r t i c l e / 2 0 1 3 - 0 2 / h t m l

17. SUMMARY
Regardless of whether you choose to use a social bookmarking
tool in your Internet-based research, it is important to both save
the trees and avoid information overload by focussing your time
and mental effort on high quality web pages.
The best web pages (the ones worth saving), meet all of the
following criteria:
 Relevant
 Timely
 Trustworthy
 Understandable
 Manageable
 Original