Friday, July 24, 2009

FTC resources

ALA Chicago Conference exhibits included the FTC - Federal Trade Commission. Here are some of the consumer protection resources they promoted that are worth including in Information Literacy lesson plans:
  • Homeowner consumer information - consumer protection and counseling. See FTC Money Matters website at http://ftc.gov/MoneyMatters
  • YouAreHere - a site for kids to learn how to be smart shoppers. The site is geared for 5th through 8th grade students and can complement lessons in critical thinking, writing, language arts, media literacy, business, civics, and social studies. Here is a sampling of topics covered in the virtual mall: Shuman’s Shoes (Lesson: Ads and Endorsements), Gr8 Gadgets (Lesson: False or Misleading Ads), Pizza Pizza Pizza (Lesson: Competition), and Triple Cold Creamery (Lesson: Mergers). The teacher and parent section includes a variety of ways for you to promote the site to students. Order free posters and bookmarks, copy and paste images (like above) or html for webpage buttons for linking to the site.
  • CURE-IOUS: be skeptical of websites hawking cures for cancer and such. Bookmark http://ftc.gov/curious
  • Bookmark on "6 Signs that your Scholarship is $unk" - scholarship scams

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