EVALUATING INTERNET

INFORMATIONBy: Kim Reynolds

2012

TRUE OR FALSE?

How can your student learn to spot a phony, biased, or outdated website? Here are activities, as well as tips for your student to sharpen his or her research skills.

TEST THE WADING POOLYounger students under grade six may not be ready to surf the vast “open Web.” They do not have the knowledge base to know if what they are finding is reliable, authoritative, and may not understand what bias is all about. Research and provide links to sites you know are accurate.

VISIT A FAKE SITE

Take a peek at www.allaboutexplorers.com, an intentionally fake research site in which the biographies of explorers are riddled with factual errors. Browse the stories at the mock site www.theonion.com and figure out which pieces of an article aren’t true.

DETECT BIAS

One way to approach bias is to teach about advertisements and persuasion. To demonstrate to students, Create a Web page about a topic you know well, and then use it to persuade others.

BE INQUISITIVE

Always ask the question: “Who wrote this?” Click on the “About Us” page for more information. Find a “byline,” or the line attributing an article to an author. Scan the bottom of a website for a person or organization’s name, and then Google it.

LOOK TO EXPERTSBrainstorm proven leaders in the subject you are researching and take note of their organization and affiliations they have. If you’re writing a report on gorillas, for instance, find out what organizations Jane Goodall has worked with. Check out their websites for further information and links to even more resources.

BEFRIEND YOUR LIBRARIANUse this free and friendly resource. Our librarian subscribes to several great databases of information and students have access to these from home.https://godleyisd.follettdestiny.com/common/servlet/presenthomeform.do?l2m=Home&tm=Home&l2m=Home

BEWARE OF PHONY URLSCheck the URL and pay attention to fishy addresses. Always check your spelling for a typo. It’s not always effective to look at the domain – .com, .net, .org, .mil, .gov – as a way to determine bias or authenticity. Except for mil , .gov and k12.us, anyone can have any domain. Also, a site that asks for personal information to access a free, public site may not be legit.

CHECK THE COPYRIGHT DATE

Most websites, especially frequently updated ones, display a “last updated” date or a year the site was created. If you see a date that’s a decade old (or more), it's wise to find a site with more recently written content (posted within the last several years).

GOOGLE SEARCH TIPS If you put a phrase in double quotes (“) Google will search

for the complete phrase.

EX: Wizard of Oz will search for any and all words.

“Wizard of Oz” will search for all words together. If you use a minus sign, you can exclude words from a

search.

EX: basketball shoes –nike Put a plus to exclude synonyms from searches

EX: +auto will exclude words like car & truck Use site: to only search certain domains

EX: site:wikipedia.com\science will only search

wikipedia.com for science information. Search for a domain host

EX: host:k12.tx.us will search for schools in Texas

CREATE A SHORTLISTOver time, build a list of tried-and-true websites. Take note of the best websites on animals, history, sports, the environment, or current events, and return to this list when necessary. You will build your knowledge of the Internet, and learn which sites are reliable.