HOW TO EVALUATE A HOW TO EVALUATE A WEBSITE?WEBSITE?

KJS LIBRARYKJS LIBRARY

Dana Dukic

HOW TO FIND A GOOD WEBSITE?

The Internet is a very valuable source of information but we always have to have in mind that some websites are not completely reliable.

Some websites have information that is not true. It is very important to know how to critically evaluate websites.

Here are some characteristics of a good and reliable website:

1. There is a name of an author or sponsor of the site

2. There is an e-mail or address of the author

3. There is a date that shows when the site was created or updated.

4. Some other characteristics• the site loads quickly• the information is easy to read• all links are active

It is very useful to check the website DOMAIN name. It shows who sponsors the site. Some sponsors are more reliable then others. The most reliable websites are the ones sponsored by educational institutions and governments.

The most common domain names are:

edu - educational institutionsgov – governmentorg  - usually non-profit organizations, but not alwaysnet - organizations involved in Internet servicescom - commercial organizations (usually will be trying to sell you something)int  - international organizations

DOMAIN

HOW TO EXAMINE A WEBPAGE?

Take a quick look through the article to get an overall impression of length and organization of the text.

Read the title, headings, and words in heavy print.

Look closely at the pictures (illustrations, charts, graphs, maps) and other multimedia resources (sound, videos, animations) and read the captions.

Read the first and the last paragraph on the page.

http://www.kyvl.org/html/kids/p4_use/ForReal.html

www.janbrett.com

Hudson Valley Youth Soccer League

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html

Exercise

Estimate the quality of the following websites.