Evaluating a Web Site

 

Whenever you seek information from the internet, you need to determine whether or not the information is accurate. There are several things to look for which can help you make a decision about the accuracy of the web site's information.

You will be assigned to work with a group, and given a set of web sites below to evaluate. Look at each of the web sites in your set by clicking each link.

For EACH web site in the group assigned to you, use the criteria listed below to determine accuracy.
Fill out this Internet Evaluation form for EACH site in your set, and be prepared to tell the class the positives and negatives about each site.

 

AIDS:

  1. Rethinking AIDS
  2. Living with HIV/AIDS
  3. True but Little Known Facts about Women and Aids

Holocaust:

  1. A Short Introduction...
  2. The Holocaust
  3. Are the Jews Central to the Holocaust?

Sponges:

  1. Origin of the Inverts
  2. Introduction to Porifera
  3. Phylum Porifera

Periodic Table:

  1. The Periodic Table of the Elements by Thinkquest
  2. The Pictorial Periodic Table
  3. Periodic Table: the song

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

  1. A True Historical Examination
  2. Research and Education Institute
  3. About MLK

Smoking and Tobacco:

  1. Health Hazards of Tobacco: Some Facts
  2. The Ten Biggest Lies about Smoke & Smoking
  3. Fact Sheet

The Election:

  1. Don't Vote Obama
  2. Team Obama
  3. VoteGopher

Male Pregnancy:

  1. RYT Hospital
  2. Video
  3. Wikipedia

DHMO:

  1. Facts about DHMO
  2. Dihydrogen Monoxide
  3. Ban DHMO

Explorers:

  1. Juan Ponce de Leon
  2. All About Explorers
  3. More on Ponce de Leon

Child Labor:

  1. Child Labor in Factories
  2. Little Miners
  3. Child Labor

Presidential Biography:

  1. The White House
  2. George W. Bush
  3. The American Presidency

Abortion:

  1. Abortion Services
  2. Abortion Facts
  3. Abortion Access

Military:

  1. Military Strategy
  2. The Art of Military Discovery
  3. Afghanistan

 

 

Click HERE to see Ms. Hack's list of web sites that have been cited by MBHS students and should NEVER, EVER be used for academic research

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Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites:

Authority--this is the person, organization, or company responsible for the CONTENT of the page; the person or people who actually wrote the information. Do not confuse this with the webmaster, who is the person responsible for the design of the page. Try to answer the following questions about the author:

Who is the author or the person responsible for the page?
Is the author an expert in this field? What evidence can you find for this?
Is there a way to contact the author?
Is the author affiliated with an organization and is there a link to that organization's page?
Does the domain name or URL reveal any useful information about this site?
Is the information copyrighted?

Bias:
What is the purpose of the page?
To teach? To sell? To persuade? To entertain? To complete a class assignment?

 

Currency:
When was the site last updated?
Are there a lot of dead links?

 

Accuracy:
Where does the information come from? Are there references or works cited information?
Are there grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors that could indicate inaccuracies in information?
Does the information conflict with things that you have learned in school?



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Sources:

Checklist for an Informational Web Page Copyright Jan Alexander & Marsha Ann Tate 1996-1998, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, Chester, PA.
http://www.widener.edu/libraries/wolfgram/evaluate

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources by Susan E. Beck, Head, Humanities & Social Sciences Services Department, New Mexico State University Library
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

Evaluating Internet Resources: Annette Lamb, The Teacher Tap
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask: U.C. Berkeley Library
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html