Website Evaluation

I will not be in class with my Monday students this week.  I will be attending an Apple Seminar in Millis.  I hope to bring back some exciting information about 1:1 iPad programs in middle schools.  In my absence Mrs. Diggins will be sharing this week’s first lesson with you.  Please make me proud and show her how responsible and hardworking you all are!!

This week we will move on to the second part or phase of getting better at searching and finding information.  This weekend I was visiting my parents and my dad asked me a question.  “What is the difference between .com, .gov, and .org?  Is one better than another?”  I laughed before I answered his question thinking, “Gee if he asks any of my students after this week, they would be able to answer his questions!!”  Last week we focused on changing your keyword searches when looking for your information.  Once you find your search results, how do you decide whether or not the results are any good?  Are the sites reliable, valid, and credible?  We will start our week off by watching a video, “Internet Skills:  How to Evaluate a Website.”  We will then work together as a class to evaluate two websites.  Once you have practiced together, you will select a school appropriate site to evaluate on your own.  You will complete a form which will guide you through this process.

So let’s check out our first website.  It is called “Build Your WiLDSeLF.”  This is really a fun site.  But we need to decide how reliable, valid, and credible this site truly is.  We will try to answer the questions found on the “Website Evaluation Guide” you have been given.  This guide has been adapted from EasyBib’s Criteria for Evaluating Websites.   After evaluating “Build Your WiLDSeLF” we will take a look at a site which is one of the hyperlinks you should have checked on this site.  We will now take a look at the “New York Aquarium” site.

So we have checked out two sites together.  I think you are ready to “fly solo.”  You will need to choose a school appropriate site of your own and follow the same procedure.  This time you will need to complete the Website Evaluation Form which is on the other side of your Website Evaluation Guide.