Assessing Reliability

The World Wide Web offers us the opportunity to find information on any subject from all over the world.  This accessibility can be both good and bad.  As educators we need to be aware of the reliability and validity of the information our students are accessing. For example, in an article published in The High School Magazine in 1999, a 14 year old student  wrote a history paper about how the Holocaust did not happen.  He had found information on the web that stated that the Holocaust never happened and seeing as he had never heard anything about the Holocaust he thought it was true.

Let's look at the article:         

Another misleading web site:            


There are 3 major things you need to consider when assessing a web resource:

  1.     Authorship
  2.     Publishing Body
  3.     Document Information

Authorship
  • Who is the Author of the piece?
  • Is it clear who created the material from credits, references?
  • What is their occupation, years of experience, position or education?
  • Do you feel this person is qualified to write on the given topic?

Publishing Body
  • What institution ot Internet provider created or sponsored the information?
    • Commercial (.com)
    • Government (.gov)
    • University (.edu)
    • Organization (.org)
  • Does the author's affiliation with this particular institution appear to bias the information?  In what way?
  • What are the goals/purposes of the institution? Do they make money?

Document Information
  • When was the information created or last updated?
  • What appears to be the purpose for this information?
    • Inform (new information, current events)
    • Explain (describe a process, teach)
    • Persuade (change your mind, convince you to buy)
    • Express an opinion
    • Entertain
    • Other


Assignment
Pick a topic that you are working with your students in and using the search techniques you learned earlier in the day, find 3 web sites on this topic.  Evaluate them using the criteria we just discussed and decide whether or not you think they are a reliable source of information.


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