https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/how-to-help-students-spot-misinformation/253223

One of the most difficult things for students nowadays is to find the right sources for their information. There are way too many faulty sources that are all over the internet. The problem with these faulty sources is that they are all mixed in with the good quality sources that the students actually need. These sites are also disguised very will with professional looks. This only adds to the difficulty for the students to accurately evaluate. Many people will begin evaluating a site by obnoxiously clicking all of the different aspects of a resource which does not help to truly evaluate a site. This is known as vertical reading or evaluation. The best way to read or evaluate a site is to do it “laterally.” One thing that is interesting about a lateral way of looking at a site is that it is much more difficult to do. It will take some time to train the mind to do this because the natural way to look at a site is to dive deep into it and keep clicking more and more on that site. This simply causes them to dive deeper into something that is already unreliable. The important thing to focus on is the fact that the students may be given false information at the teachers expense. It is the responsibility of the teacher to inform the students on how exactly they need to evaluate sources and find the correct ones to use. This also plays into the student’s ability to perform with digital resources. Their digital literacy is incredibly important in today’s world. Overall, the student’s ability to evaluate whether or not a resource is reliable, greatly affects many other aspects of their digital literacy such as being able to effectively navigate sites. As teachers, it is incredibly important to teach this part of digital literacy. We can do this effectively by accurately explaining what makes up a solid resource as well as a faulty one.