Two answers, one number
You need last year's number of home broadband users. One answer comes from a statistician at a national statistics office. The other comes from a forum user called "bigdata4life".
The numbers do not match. Whose do you check first?
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reliable | gives the same result each time, so you can depend on it |
| Valid | measures what it says it measures |
| Credible | believable, because there is a good reason to trust it |
| Author | the person or group who made the source |
| Accreditation | proof, from an exam or award, that someone has a skill |
| Affiliated | linked with a group, such as a government team or a professional body |
| Regulator | a body with legal power to set and check the rules for an industry |
| Reputation | what other people say about someone, built up over time |
| Experience | real work done, or a qualification, in the subject |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can say what reliable and valid mean, and judge an author from their accreditation, groups, reputation and experience.
Starter
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3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Reliable and valid are different
Something is reliable if you get the same result every time. Something is valid if it measures the right thing.
A source needs both. A reliable source can still be wrong, if it counts the wrong thing every time.
Worked example: three kitchen scales
| Scale | Weighing the same 100 gram bag three times | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Scale A | 100, 100, 100 | Reliable and valid |
| Scale B | 80, 130, 95 | Not reliable, because the numbers jump about |
| Scale C | 120, 120, 120 | Reliable but not valid, because it is always 20 too high |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
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Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.