Evaluating Web Pages

By PresenterMedia.com
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40% could use multiple search terms

The Need for a Discerning Eye
2% of college students could identify objectivity of a
website

65% could judge authoritativeness

44% could identify what their assignment was

College Study
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Research from a student perspective:
1. Locate on Google
2. Take the first several search results
3. Print out everything
4. Put your name on it
5. Done

If its on the web, it must be true!
If its on the web, it is free for us to copy and use!

WRONG!!!!
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Each year the world produces 800 MB of data per person. It
would take approximately 30 feet of shelf space to hold that
amount of information in books.
Some Interesting Facts:
The amount of data produced each year would fill 37,000
libraries the size of the Library of Congress.
Each month, the average American adult: Spends 16 hours on the phone
Listens to 90 hours of radio
Watches 131 hours of television
Spends 100 hours per month on the internet (25 at home 75 at work)
(Shead).


With all this information overload, its especially critical that we read
with a discerning eye. Anyone can create a website!
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Information is added each minute at an alarming rate.
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Information serves as the basis for beliefs, decisions,
choices, and understanding our world. If we make a
decision based on wrong or unreliable information, we do
not have power--we have defeat(Harris).


Websites are searched based on the number and location
of certain words as well as the number of links to it.
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Consider This:
"I'd like to make contact with the
person who did thisnot to get him
or her into trouble, but because it's
a lot of fun and it is a good job,"
Maxwell said. "However, I must
make clear that I would not like to
see this happen to one of my
photographs again. It is wrong to
take images from a Web site
without permission (Danielson and
Braun).


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Indicators of Lack of credibility:
anonymous authorship, bad grammar/misspelled
words, tone/style is biased in nature.
So how do I evaluate a website?
Author credentials: authors name, education, biographical
material, position of employment, contact information,
organizational affiliations, reputation.
Quality control: information on organizational sites, on-line
journals
Look for CREDIBILITYtaken from Robert Harris Evaluating Internet Research Sources
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Audience & Purpose: For whom is the source intended and for
what purpose? Take bias into consideration.
Next step:

Timeliness: Look at the date the information was created.
Decide what information you need. If you need current
information, check the dates.
Comprehensive: Is the information balanced in views or does
it leave out important facts to deceive/mislead?
Indicators of lack of Accuracy:
No date on document
Generalizations that are vague
Old date on newer information
One sided view that doesnt acknowledge opposing
view


Accuracy
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Is it free of inflammatory language: jerks,
Next step
Is it fair, balanced, objective?
Is it absent of a slanted tone?
Is it free of conflicts of interest?
Are claims backed up with evidence?
REASONABLENESS
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Last step
Are sources listed/ documentation supplied?
Can you find other sources to corroborate it?
Try a link command
http://link:www.-----
Support
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Danielson, Stentor, and David Braun. "Shark Photo of the Year
is email Hoax." National Geographic. 08 MAR 2005:
n. page. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
Citations
Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources."
VirtualSalt. 22 November 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
Shead, Mark. How much information is there? Productivity
501. 2007. 25 Oct 2011.
http://www.productivity501.com