In enjoyed the Critical Evaluation of a Web Site: Web sites for use by educators exercise. I realized that as I search for topics utilizing general search engines, I automatically do much of this evaluation within my mind within my first scan/swoop over potential sites. My eye has been quickly trained to look for links, images, dates, authors, images, etc. Because many of our learners trust everything on the web more than we/I do, we need to be sure to assist them in evaluating what they choose to read and believe. This is true of both print and web resources.
I can see myself really diving in and critically evaluating sites, if I was providing a list of related links on a given topic to an audience or class. I would want to make sure that what I was passing off to them was well written, dated/recent, easily accessed by many users regardless of type of connection, unbiased, provides further relevant links, etc.
Thanks for your ideas on looking for authenticity in website. I'm often amazed at how many Internet users, especially our students, don't pay attention to verifying what they read online.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how we can better teach our kids how to do what this exercise did? If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Ron