Yearout Website Evaluation

Teacher In-Service Breakout Session 2008-09

Surface AppearancesCan Be Deceiving…

these airplanes are actually over 200 yards apart – the size of the 747 and camera angle make things appear differently

The Same Goes For Websites

On the surface, this site looks normal, but a deeper look reveals it is a Holocaust denial propaganda website

.THIS AND .THATWHAT DOES IT ALL REALLY MEAN? .com, .org, and .net are pretty familiar They can be registered by ANYONE .gov and .edu are restricted Government agencies use .gov Higher education institutions use .edu Many new ones out there now, such

as .us, .cc, .info, and many, many more They can be registered by ANYONE

A Brief Website Evaluation Checklist Is the source an authority? Is the source accurate? Is the source objective? Is the source current? Is the source thorough in coverage?

For the full version of this checklist, called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or Why It’s A Good Idea To Evaluate Websites, visit http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

QUICK – Check The Site!

http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm

Are These Sites Good Or Not? http://www.smokingsection.com/issues1.html#smoke

Clearly a work of just one person No citations, just a rambling set of opinions with some relatively

unconnected statistics Banner ad indicates this person is likely a smoker – shows bias PROBABLY INAPPROPRIATE

http://147.129.226.1/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm The numerical URL should raise concern Numerous misspellings and unusual items in the text Citations might cause one to think it is real, as we tend to lend authority

to studies and citations because it seems to be “research” Special note near the bottom tells you the site is bogus DEFINITELY INAPPROPRIATE

Are These Sites Good Or Not? http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00030959.htm

The .gov and the fact it is from the CDC lends authority Has references from known organizations The information is rather dated PROBABLY APPROPRIATE, BUT RESEARCH IS A BIT OLD

http://www.genderandaids.org/ The page is sponsored by two UN agencies, but doesn’t appear to be an

official UN website It is a portal, a common type of “mashup” website you find nowadays –

think of it like an automated newspaper on a subject The disclaimer at the bottom states that any opinions are those of the

authors and not either of the UN agencies PROBABLY APPROPRIATE, BUT RESERVE SEPARATE JUDGMENT

ON EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTICLE

Review Of WSU TIPS Page I reviewed the Wichita State Technology Integration Projects

for Students page, at http://education.wichita.edu/m3/tips/ In a search for “technology integration tips” it came up as one of the top

twenty results, but with the name of the page, it isn’t surprising Seems good on the surface, with authors from the Wichita Public

Schools and Wichita State University Contains some good information about an instructional framework called

the “TRACER” model References the use of the 2000 era ISTE standards Has a few dead links The last update was over six years ago HAS SOME GOOD INFORMATION, BUT THE LACK OF RECENT

UPDATES COULD LIMIT ITS RELEVANCY