Evaluating+websites

Evaluating websites
=== Anyone, yes anyone, can publish material on the Web... you, your mum or dad, the person next door, your local milkbar owner, your teacher, a professor in a university, a prisoner in jail, a doctor, mechanic, florist ... anyone ... everyone ... ===

Often, people who publish information on the Web, publish what they know or are expert in.

But also often, people who know little on a topic publish information that they think is correct, when it actually isn't!

And sometimes, people publish information on the web that they ** KNOW ** is __ wrong __.


 * So, how do you know what information you can trust and use in completing your subject research tasks? **

Well, it's up to all users of the web to be ** savvy digital citizens **, able to assess websites and the information they provide and make a reasonable judgement about whether something is ** correct or real ** OR ** wrong or fake **.

__Session One__
Below are 6 resources - 3 print & 3 video - that show a variety of ways of evaluating websites. Everyone in your group is to have a look at one print resource and watch one video. Take a moment now to work out who will look at what. Your group should end up looking at all of the resources. As you examine your two resources, use the note-taking template - [|Note taking template.doc] - to jot down some of the things you need to pay attention to when evaluating websites.

[|website evaluation.doc] [|09_eight ways of checking information on Web Sites.doc]  [|Five criteria for evaluating Web pages.doc]

How to evaluate a web page -
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**Evaluating websites - David L. Rice Library (3:37)**
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UMUC : evaluating websites tutorial (5:17)
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 * After you've looked at your two items, take 10 minutes or so to chat with your group about the things you learned in your research time. **


 * Discuss: **
 * similarities in the criteria
 * differences in the criteria
 * are the criteria understandable?
 * are the criteria useful? Why / why not?
 * Which makes most sense to you?

Remember to save the notes you made in the note-taking template to your personal folder. You may need to use this information in a later session.

__Sessions Two & Three__
Use one or more of the website evaluation tools - from above or that you or group members located in your search - to complete the following task.

Open this document [|checklist-endangered-species.doc]. Do a 'File', 'Save as' and save the document, with a sensible name, to your personal network folder. Open the document you just saved and follow the instructions to complete the task.

Draw some conclusions, based on your investigation, as to whether you think these sites have information that will be useful in completing an Endangered species project.


 * Once you've completed the checklist, write a couple of paragraphs on your wiki explaining how and why you came to the conclusions you did. **

Actual footage of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (1:02)
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Use this session to explore 2 of the following sites. After you've spent 20 minutes or so exploring, use the rest of your time to make a few observations on your wiki page. Base your comments on the website evaluation critieria you've already considered. Feel free to share your thoughts and conclusions with your classmates.

Dihydrogen Monoxide - DHMO homepage Save the Guinea Worm Foundation Dog Island Republic of Molassia British Stick Insect Foundation Funky shoes