Everyone loves a good video, right?  I especially love coming across videos that find a way to teach good content in an entertaining way.

Each fall, I spend 9 class periods with my freshman students teaching them about web evaluation and advanced search techniques.  In an attempt to make it more meaningful, I tie it into their Science Fair projects.

But let’s be real.  Web evaluation and advanced searching can be super-dry and super-boring for freshman.  Heck, by the time I’m on my 5th class of the day, it’s super-boring for me, too!

So, I use these short videos to liven things up and get their attention.  I thought I’d share them with you in case you might use them, too.

To Explain How Google Search Works

Yes, this kind of seems like a Google commercial.  But my students really enjoy it and I think it does a great job at breaking down how Google works.

Wikipedia (or, Introducing Web Evaluation)

I don’t do a lesson on Wikipedia, but I use this to introduce my unit on Web Evaluation.  I show the clip and after the snickers stop, I say something like, “We’re not talking about Wikipedia today, but we are talking about how to get the best possible information Michael was talking about in the video.”

Determing Website Credibility

I love this video for its straight-faced, sarcastic humor.  It’s really entertaining for me to see how many of my students get this humor and how many of them are wondering what is going on!  I usually show this video the day after I’ve introduced the idea of credibility and after my students are already familiar with the criteria a site needs to have to be credible.

Scholarly Articles vs. Popular Articles

This is hands-down my favorite video and my students’ favorite video during their Information Literacy unit.  I use it instead of a lecture to introduce the differences between scholarly and popular articles.  It’s hilarious, and it has great content!  Just a note:  It does mention Playboy magazine as a “popular” source, but there are no images or anything that is potentially offensive.

I hope you enjoyed my favorite information literacy videos for high school students.

Please share your favorite information literacy videos for any grade level in the comments below.  I’d love to see them!