SWIFT Method for Evaluating Resources: Home

• The five steps of SWIFT are: STOP!, Wikipedia to Verify, Investigate the Source, Find Better Coverage, and Trace Original Content.
• SWIFT was adapted by Professor Chimene Burnett at TAMU-CC and is based on the SIFT method created by educational technologist Mike Caulfield in 2019.
• The SWIFT method is an effective way to evaluate information in five steps using familiar sites like Wikipedia, Google, lateral reading, contextual clues, and fact-checking sites.
• Evaluation methods like SWIFT that use lateral reading to evaluate information found online or on social media is much more effective than checklists that rely on vertical reading techniques like the CRAAP Test.

The links presented below are more resources about the original SIFT Method for further reading and exploration.

• Verified!
  Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg's book covering SIFT and other useful tips located in Bell Library, 2nd floor ZA4235 .C38 2023.
• Hapgood, Mike Caulfield's Blog

  This is Mike Caulfield's Blog where he explains SIFT in his own words.

• SIFTing Through the Pandemic

  Another Mike Caulfield creation, this blog focuses on using SIFT during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers

  This ebook by Mike Caulfield is freely available online under a CC BY 4.0 license

• Check, Please! Starter Course

  A free, five-lesson course on fact- and source-checking from Mike Caulfield

Click on the down arrow to continue through the interactive content.

• Disinformation - Untrue information that is created or shared intentionally to mislead or falsify facts.
   
• Misinformation - Untrue or inaccurate information created or shared without deliberate intention to mislead or falsify facts.

Definitions are paraphrased from the American Psychological Association's Misinformation and Disinformation webpage. 

Note: This SWIFT method guide was adapted from Michael Caulfield's "SIFT Method" and Professor Chimene Burnett's (TAMU-CC) SWIFT adaptation. The canonical version of the SIFT course exists at http://lessons.checkplease.cc. The text and media of the SIFT site, where possible, is released into the CC-BY, and free for reuse and revision. We ask people copying this course to leave this note intact, so that students and teachers can find their way back to the original (periodically updated) version if necessary. We also ask librarians and reporters to consider linking to the canonical version.

As the authors of the original version have not reviewed any other copy's modifications, the text of any site not arrived at through the above link should not be sourced to the original authors.