Activity 3c

EdPsy 387

Summer, 1998

Janeen McCarthy

Ridgely Elementary School

Springfield, Illinois

Reading the articles for assignment 3b. from the "Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources" by N. Auer" and looking back over the information on validating web-based sites from the last class, I realized to a greater degree the importance of really checking out the information obtained from the Internet. I've learned that we need to use the same critical evaluative skills when looking for resources on the Internet that we use when obtaining information from other sources. Reading through the many examples sited helped me to become more aware of how little time can be spent really checking out the information we find on the Internet. There is so much out there and a lot of it on the surface looks so good!

The following is a checklist that I had developed in C&I 335; I have added to it using some of the  Validating Web-based Information and from some of the examples given in the Online Web Evaluation Forms. I could use this checklist with my class, to check out sites that we will use, but it could be better used by older students independently when they are using resources found on the Internet for papers, projects and reports.

Research Topic:________________________________________

Website:http://www._____________________________________

Purpose of Site:________________________________________

• Does the author provide a bibliography or cite references to confirm the accuracy of the information?
• Does the author provide verifiable statistics to support conclusions?
• What do the links offer that is not easily available in other resources?

  Are users informed of the type of information they are linking to (e.g., definitions, elaboration, example, etc.)? 

1._______________________________________________________

 

2._______________________________________________________

 

3._______________________________________________________

  

*URL Domains: edu-educational (anything from serious research to students' work), .gov-governmental (usually dependable), .com-commercial (may be selling a product), .net-network (may provide services to commercial or individual customers), .org-organization (non-profit institutions; these may be biased), .mil-military (usually dependable)

Ernest Ackermann & Karen Hartman