Exceptional Children (SED 220)

Check out this collection of best web resources and learn how to evaluate a website.

Education Law

Indiana Education Law

Google Scholar offers an extensive database of state and federal cases, including

• U.S. Supreme Court Opinions –1791 to present
• U.S. Federal District, Appellate, Tax, and Bankruptcy Court Opinions –1923 to present
• U.S. State Appellate and Supreme Court Opinions –1950 to present
• Scholarly articles, papers, and reports
• Patents: U.S. Patents –1790 to present; European Patent Office and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Patents –1978 to present

To get started, click on the link above, select the “case law” radio button, and choose your search terms. You may click on the menu button at the top left-hand side of the screen (that resembles three stacked horizontal lines) to pull up an advanced search feature that will let you search for a phrase, exclude results with certain terms, etc. You may also search by entering a citation to a case in the search box. After you execute your search, you may use the facets on the left-hand side to narrow your results. One of the most useful facets allows you to narrow by jurisdiction. Select a jurisdiction by clicking “select courts” and then place a check mark next to the courts you would like to search.

If you look to the the top of any opinion's page, you will see a link to the "How Cited" feature. This feature lists other cases in the Google Scholar database that either cite your case or are related to your case. The How Cited feature also provides examples of how these other cases have dealt with your case. While this citator-like feature is a good place to begin your research, and gives an overview of how the case has been treated by other courts, it is not considered to be as authoritative as citators produced by other publishers/subscription resources, such as Shepard's Citations, KeyCite, BCite, and Bad Law Bot.

(https://guides.loc.gov/free-case-law/google-scholar)

While collecting and reviewing sources, how is it determined what is okay to use in academic papers? 

Here are 4 considerations when assessing whether or not a source is right for use in assignments.

• Author: 
  • Who wrote it and what are their credentials? What larger organization are they affiliated with? If an author is search in Google, what is found? Is this article in their area of expertise? Can the author or organization be contacted?
• Bias:
  • Can the angle/slant/bias in the article or on an affiliated web site be identified? What is the purpose of the study or content—to prove something to a particular group? Can the claims be corroborated with at least two other sources?
• Content: 
  • Is the source accurate? Are there basic mistakes in grammar, dead links, or spelling? When was it published, posted, or last updated? Does it contain claims that contradict things known to be true or even other claims within the article itself?
• Support: 
  • Does the content have citations or sources? Can the source(s) be verified? Do the sources' arguments support the claims of the topic being researched?

How To Refine Google Searches

Read Google's Tips on how to refine searches in their search engine.

Remember!: The first result on Google is NOT always the correct answer or best result. ALWAYS verify the result by using the evaluation Guidelines below.