Website Evaluation
Evaluating Internet SourcesWhy?
Information is everywhere on the Internet. The internet is constantly changing. Some information becomes outdated quickly. Anyone can publish a website. You need to know how to judge whether or not a website is reliable and useful to you. Pre-Evaluation Think before you search. What are your research goals? What do you want to know, and what do you need to do? Want quick facts for homework, or deeper information for a project? Maybe you need to understand a particular point of view. Once you have a clear purpose, it is much easier to screen the internet for useful sites, and reject the useless ones. Choose reliable sources You want sources that give facts, not opinions, and that show both sides of an issue. You want the whole picture, not just partial information that may be slanted to convince you to think a certain way. You want sites written by experts, not amateurs. Reliable information is power We use information to learn, make choices, and understand our world. If the information we use is accurate and reliable, we have the power of good information in our hands. If the information we use is inaccurate or unreliable, we defeat ourselves before we start. Learning how to judge websites for high quality information is a power tool. It takes practice to learn how to find good sources easily. Learning is fun. Taking control of our own learning is even better. Source: Evaluating Internet Resources, Robert Harris, Ph.D. |
CARS Checklist
CARS Evaluation Rubrics
Additional ResourcesCredible Sources Count!
Animated tutorial from Acadia University Kathy Schrock's Critical Evaluation of Information Dozens of quality resources gathered by an expert Quality Information Checklist (Q.U.I.C.K.) Upper Elementary Level Evaluation Tutorial Sites to Use for Demonstrating Critical Evaluation Sites are located at the end of the page Evaluate these websites:Burmese Mountain Dog
http://descy.50megs.com/akcj3/bmd.html Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide http://descy.50megs.com/descy/webcred/webcred/dhmo.html Cybertan http://www.mystique.net/cybertan.htm Buy an Ancestor Online http://www.fulkerson.org/ancestors/buyanancestor.html |