Web Smart-Evaluating Web Pages

Created by: Liz Sanford October 99
lsanford@warpnet.net
Fourth Grade Teacher- Auburn Elementary
Student at the Univ. of Illinois
Curriculum, Technology, Education Reform
As more and  more people learn the techniques of page creations, the need to evaluate web pages becomes more crucial.  Students will need to be able to critique a page unlike any other resource medium.  Because pages are produced without the official publications that create books, encyclopedias, and even software, students need to be able to determine a credible site from an incredible site.  A good beginning for student page evaluations would include a lesson on URLs.  This will help students save time when using a search engine that includes the url. A full description of the URL can be found: milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/url.html The domain section of the URL can be very useful in determining author and intent of the page.
 
 
 
 
.edu educational- not sure how old- try to determine age
.gov from a government office- should be reliable
.com company- might be selling something
.net network- may be some advertising
.org organization- not selling anything- usually good source-may be biased

Students should be aware that a large percentage of pages are-or contain-advertisements for products.  The student must be taught to ask, "Why was this page created?"  I have included a step by step web evaluation process students can use when researching the web. The object is to save their time and help them to become web smart.  If a student cannot find the information or answers "no" to any of these questions, he may decide not to continue with the evaluation but to look for another site.
Take a look:  web research