Teacher Training Home

Evaluating Web Resources
A Workshop for Teachers

Facilitated by Sandy Scragg

For Download:

Sandy's PowerPoint Presentation for Teachers
Sandy's PowerPoint Presentation for High School Students
Sandy's "5 A's to WebSite Evaluation" (PDF format)

Sites for Evaluation:

1) martinlutherking.org & Stormfront (no direct link)
2) A short introduction to the study of Holocaust revisionism

new disclaimer added
(N.B.: These three sites above may not be accessible in NYC schools due to the DOE filter, and contain offensive content not appropriate for younger students.)
2) The True but Little Known Facts about Women and AIDS
3) The Jackalope Conspiracy
4) Lacuna Inc.
5) Cholesterol Information
6) All About Explorers
7) Robots of the Victorian Era
8) Feline Reactions to Bearded Men (scroll down to bottom of the page to view content)
9) The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide and the truth about this web page
10) WhiteHouse.gov VS WhiteHouse.net VS WhiteHouse.org (and also whitehouse.com)
11) Pregnant Women Can Drink Safely in Moderation
12) Illegal Immigration
13) Bunny Survival Tests
14) Easily Distracted
15) Attention Deficit Disorder & Hyperactivity Success
16) NY1 VS NY1
17) The First Male Pregnancy
18) Driver's License Search
19) Beef Nutrition
20) Puppy Tips
21) Anne Frank

Photofakery Resources:

John Kerry doctored photo from Election '04
John Kerry original photo from 1971

Museum of Hoaxes Photo Gallery, incl. quiz:
http://museumofhoaxes.com/photos/photos.html

Can Digital Photos be Trusted? (good examples)
http://popsci.com/popsci/technology/generaltechnology/
d6002684e4646010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Detecting Photofakery:
http://spie.org/x16032.xml?highlight=x2410&ArticleID=x16032

Altering of Scientific Images:
http://nytimes.com/2006/01/24/science/24frau.html

Questions to Ask Yourself While Viewing a Web Site:
1) What is the purpose of the site? Why do you think it exists?
2) What about the site looks legitimate?
3) Is an author or organization credited with creating the site?
4) Is it a personal web page or professionally designed?
5) Is there anything about the site that raises questions for you: obviously erroneous information, misspellings, etc.
6) Is there a clearly-marked place on the page to find out more about the web page creator(s) or organization it represents?
7) What is the web address? What does the site suffix (.org/.edu, etc.) tell you about this site?
8) What links are on the page? Where do they lead you?
9) If there are ads on the page, are they clearly separate from the page content?
10) Do I feel confident about allowing students to view this web page or do I still need to find out more?

Articles & Evaluation Resources:

• Teaching Activity for Evaluating Web Sites
  
• Understanding URLs
  
• "Teaching Zack to Think," by Alan November
  
• Information Literacy Quiz & Answer Key
  
• Web Site Evaluation Criteria from UC Berkeley
  
• Kathy Schrock's Evaluation Resources
  
• "How to Read a Web Address" by Alan November
  
• Register.com
  
• WhoIS Web Site Ownership Database
  
• Wayback Machine = Web Site History
  
• Alexa Web Data Information
  
• Google Advanced Search = who is linked to a site
  
• How Much for that Keyword
  
• Internet Hoaxes/Urban Legends Reference Page
  
• A WebQuest About Evaluating Web Sites
  
• Web Site Evaluation Quiz
  
• Annenberg Political Fact Check
  

Portals for High-Quality Resources:

• New York Public Library
• NYPL's On-Lion for Kids
• Librarian's Index to the Internet
• Library of Congress
• Internet Public Library
• Kids Click
• Marco Polo
• NY Learns
• Info Mine
• Google Scholar
• PBS Teacher Source
  

Sandy's Internet Resources for Teachers