•  The strategy that resonated the most for me was referring to wikipedia as a good starting point for figuring out if a source is reliable or not rather than reading through the website itself because of course the website is going to say only good things about their organization or article to get people to read it. I had always thought wikipedia was always a “no-no”, but it woud make sense to get a somewhat vaild opinion from there. As far as teaching this to my students, I would make sure to exaggerate how wikipedia is not purely what you rely on when writing a paper or essay and that it should really be used as a good place to start. But that technique could also help stray them further from the unreliable sources that could have a bad influence on their emotions and opinions.

Using the discussion examples provided at the end of the SIFT lesson five, investigate a social media posting to "Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to Their Original Context." display how the posting/content has been altered from its original purpose or intent. 

• Essentially how these articles get shaped differently than their original context is whomever the user of the article is will use headlines to give an automatic bias and opinion for first glance readers, so if they decide to click the link and read through the article, they will already have a set idea of how they feel on the topic being discussed.

As an educator, why is it important for you to model proper copyright and fair use?  Using Google, find and post a "Public Domain" image that you did not initially believe was free to use. 

• Students could potentially get into a lot of copyright trouble in the future for doing something “harmless” in the future. So if students see their teacher being responsible about copyright and fair use, it sets a good example while also showing them the right ways to do their assignments and/or discover reliable sources.

• I had always thought that the famous Victory Kiss photo was definitely protected under copyright, but because it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty, it is a part of the public domain and is free to use!

Teaching this model in its 4 steps (and in that order) will be key for students to become true critical thinkers and learn to socialize with others while also agreeing to disagree and having civil conversations that might be awkward or uncomfortable for all parties involved.

I have unintentionally been following a model similar to the SIFT model for years (probably since I was in about 8th grade). Upon retrieving information, it is always important to stop, think critically about what is being presented, check for bias, and look for other sources about the same topic of discussion so that you can potentially find more perspectives and decrease a chance for bias. This starts with investigating each source and looking for potential skewing of data to support one opinion over another through pathos (emotion) rather than logos (logic). This is where the ideals on ethos (credibility) tend to be misconstrued. Misinformation runs rampant, rumors become widespread news, and many people are left confused or uninformed of what is really going on in many scenarios. As long as we are always being critical of what we are consuming and keeping an open mind when reading about events, then we are doing our best job at eliminating a potential for more bias to arise [although this itself can be a pretty hard task to accomplish at times].

An example of a picture that was taken and is able to be used for public domain is "Lunch atop a skyscraper" (1932).

We do not know the real identity of the person who took this photo. Some had previously believed that it was Lewis Hine who had taken the picture, however it was not. Some people seem to believe that evidence points towards Charles C. Ebbets as the photographer of the iconic image. Most people in the photo were never truly identified. Many people are also actually even unaware that the photo was taken as a publicity stunt. The picture was staged and it still became an iconic piece of history. I never knew it was considered for use by public domain (works published in the U.S. between 1929-1963 are open for use by public domain as its copyright was never renewed).

This allows the mysteries of pictures to live on. Assumptions to be made. As well as your own interpretations of what each picture means, as what one picture may mean to someone, it may not mean the same thing to someone else.

Modeling fair use cannot be stressed enough because this also ties into plagiarism as well as pirating which can become a federal crime. It is extremely important that we are mindful of fair use and copyright infringement as it plays a much bigger role in the world of education than most realize.

There are so many photos that I still probably have no idea whether or not are free for "Public Domain" and some I may never know about as we are all truly just scratching the surface. We cannot possibly scale all of the internet within our lifetime, nor is it our responsibility to. Being aware of current events should be enough when addressing social issues in today's world.