Introduction:
Any yahoo
with an opinion and a few dollars to pay for server space can
maintain a web site. Consequently, the web is flooded with information--and
only some of it is worth your (and your students') time. In order
to use the internet responsibly and effectively in your classroom,
you must be able to evaluate internet resources. The following
information and activities are intended to provide a framework
for judging sites and to enable you to recognize high-quality
sites and make decisions about what's appropriate for use in your
classroom situation.
Credibility:
Consider both the authors and the sponsors of the site. In
general, sites that are on-line extensions of print media and
scholarly journals are pretty safe bets because they are adhering
to professional standards for reporting and/or are peer reviewed.
For example, an article posted on the on-line version of the JAMA
is more credible than an unpublished article available on an academic's
personal website. Although the JAMA article is attributed to an
author, you are actually reading something that has gotten the
seal of approval from other top scholars in the field. With a
self-published paper, you do not have the benefit of the critical
eye of others with the same depth of knowledge. A good rule of
thumb for evaluating information in the internet is to ask yourself
about the information provider: is the sponsor a site a well-known
institution or organization that is publicly accountable?
Bias:
The other thing to be concerned with when evaluating sites is
bias. If
the site is sponsored by a political or activist organization,
you must understand the bias or orientation toward an issue that
this organization holds. When
evaluating for bias, you need to look at both the authors and
the sponsors of the site (if there is advertising). Information
gleaned from a site sponsored by an advocacy group will support
the group's perspective on an issue. For example, information
about the negative impact of an abortion on a woman's health might
be minimized at a site sponsored by a pro-choice organization
and amplified by pro-life site. Likewise, when a site is depending
on companies for advertising dollars, you can assume that the
interests of those companies impact the content of the site. For
example, if you read an article that questions the scientific
validity of global warming on a site that "just happens"
to be sponsored by major American auto makers, you should be skeptical.
Bias is inescapable. And like culture, it's hard to be aware of
your own. It is important to be a critical consumer of information,
and to teach your children to do the same.
Activity
2:
Evaluating
A Website Using The Site Critique Checklist
Activity
3: Assigning
a score to a site.
Other
Helpful Links
This
module was originally developed by Ellen Dairyko, Michelle Warden,
Christie Thomas, Heather Meunier, and Frada Boxer.
Please
send comments to Stefanie
Kelly or use the Feedback
form at left.
