Professional Development

Evaluating Websites

CARE Criteria for Evaluating Websites

Content - age appropriate, content appropriate, format appropriate, up-to-date information, uniqueness, readability, appropriate use of graphics

Authority - who are the authors and what are their credentials, is there bias

Reliability - is the site dependable, will the site stay online for the foreseeable future

Ease of Use - navigation, searchablilty, speed, technologies used

CARE Criteria for Evaluation websites

C-Method for Evaluating New Web Page

Use the shape of the letter C to determine the type and quality of information available on a website.

1. Start at the top of the page.
Start with the web address.
What can you determine by the address? Is the site from a university, a government source, etc. Is the page you are on the root of the site or deeper in the site?

Look for logos, organizational or institutional identifiers. Do you recognize the information provider? Do they have a good reputation?

Look for a navigational menu. What type of content does the site provide. Is there an about us link? If there is and you are not familiar with the information provider, click here and find out who is providing the information. Does the site offer a section for teachers and/or students? Is there a search feature?

2. Look at the left margin of the site.
The left margin is frequently used for additional navigational menus.

3. Look at the bottom of the page.
This is where you will find "fine print" information like privacy policies, copyrights, and contact information. This is also where you may find information about the information provider.

Once you have looked at the top, left, and bottom of a page, you should have a good idea about the kind of information provided by the site.
 

Categorizing a Site

All websites will fall into one of three categories. Expert, Trusted or Questionable.

An expert site provides information about a subject that the sponsoring organization or individual is an acknowledged expert.

A trusted site is a site that you know will have gone to expert sources for its information.

A questionable site is one that you can not verify as either an expert of trusted site.

 

Evaluating websites
There are two purposes to using the Internet in the classroom. The first is to deliver content to students.  The second is to help students develop critical thinking skills when using the Internet. Both purposes should be covered in any Internet-based activity.  The Internet will be one of the prime sources of information, opinion and entertainment for today's student.  Learning how to critically analyze information is an important skill.  When you use the Internet with your students, look for ways to not only deliver curriculum-based content, but also for ways to help your students become better at interpreting, analyzing, and synthesizing information they find on the Internet.  A student's ability to evaluate a website will depend on their age. 

Developmental Stages

Primary Grades

K-2 students will trust all sources of information.  When you are working with this age student, you need to discuss with them where information comes from and encourage students to find information from a variety of sources. You should guide students to credible sources. Students in these grades should be closely supervised. Sites used by the students should be pre-selected and reviewed by the teacher.

Sample Sites:
Zoboomafoo
All About Nature: Animal Printouts
The Great Plant Escape

Elementary Grades

3-6 students are also trust the truth of information they find on the web, but they can begin to analyze information and information sources.  Work with students at this age group in identifying fact and opinion, analyzing information sources, and validating information.  At this age you might have students confirm information found with two separate sources if the original source is not an original or trusted source.  Create a site reporting sheet for students to complete when they gather information from the Internet. 
A sample sheet might include:
Name of Site
Author of Content
Type of Site (commercial, educational, informational .)
If the site is commercial, the students could report on what the site sells.
Date the site was accessed and if possible the date the information was posted or created.
Content found on site
Visit sites with your students and discuss content and why an organization would post that type of information on its site.
Sample Sites:
Astronomy for Kids
NASA Kids
Kids Astronomy

Sample teacher and student rubrics for evaluating websites.
Middle/High School
7-12 students are much more savvy about the content they find on the Internet. They can more closely analyze content and information providers, but will still place trust in online sources if they aren't prompted to question content and sources. Students should continue to refine their ability to separate fact from opinion, they should be required to document multiple sources for information from non-original sources. They should cite all sources used.

Sample Sites:
The American Civil War Homepage
The Civil War Homepage
The Civil War
Avalon Project


Anatomy the Web 

A website is a group of connected pages from a single source. The first page of a website is the home page. All Web pages have a unique address of URL. The URL identifies where the information is located on the Internet.
You can begin to analyze a website by looking at the URL. Take the following address:
https://nhpbs.org/kn 
The first part of an address identifies the type of site you are accessing.
· http - website 
· gopher - gopher site 
· FTP - a FTP site 
· telnet - telnet site 
· news - a newsgroup
The next part of the address identifies the domain name, in this case it is nhptv, the domain name for New Hampshire PBS. The org is the domain extension. The domain extension identifies the type of organization providing the information. 

After the domain extension you will often see forward slashes with text between them. Forward slashed indicate files on the server computer. The address https://nhpbs.org/kn/vs/math.htm for example tells your browser to go to the server for New Hampshire PBS and enter the file named kn, in that file open the vs file and retrieve the document math.htm


US Domain Abbreviations
org non profit
com commercial
net network
gov US government
mil US military
edu educational institution
k12.nh.us k-12 school in NH

Domain identification is a first step in evaluating content. It is not the only step , nor is it infallible. For example,  just because a site has an edu domain, does not mean the information is from a university,. It could be research quality information, it could be student work, or it could be a personal page.

International Domain Abbreviations
.ae United Arab Emirates
.alAlbania
.am Armenia
.ar Argentina
.at Austria
.au Australia
.aw Aruba
.be Belgium
.bg Bulgaria
.bh Bahrain
.bm Bermuda
.bn Brunei Darussalam
.br Brazil
.bs Bahamas
.ca Canada
.ch Switzerland
.cl Chile
.cn China
.co Columbia
.cr Costa Rica
.cy Cyprus
.cz Czech Republic
.de Germany
.dk Denmark
.do Dominican Republic
.ec Ecuador
.ee Estonia
.eg Egypt
.es Spain
.fi Finland
.fo Faroe Islands
.fr France
.gb Great Britain
.ge Georgia
.gl Greenland
.gr Greece
.gt Guatemala
.hk Hong Kong
.hr Croatia
.hu Hungary
.id Indonesia
.ie Ireland
.il Israel
.in India
.is Iceland
.it Italy
.jm Jamaica
.jp Japan
.kr Korea (South)
.kw Kuwait
.lb Lebanon
.lc Saint Lucia
.li Liechtenstein
.lk Sri Lanka
.lt Lithuania
.lu Luxembourg
.lv Latvia
.mc Monaco
.md Moldova
.mo Macau
.mt Malta
.mu Mauritius
.my Malaysia
.mx Mexico
.ni Nicaragua
.nl Netherlands
.no Norway
.nz New Zealand
.pe Peru
.ph Philippines
.pk Pakistan
.pl Poland
.pt Portugal
.ro Romania
.ru Russian Federation
.se Sweden
.sg Singapore
.si Slovenia
.sk Slovakia (Slovak Republic)
.su USSR (former)
.th Thailand
.tr Turkey
.tt Trinidad and Tobago
.tw Taiwan
.uk United Kingdom
.us United States
.uy Uruguay
.ve Venezuela
.yu Yugoslavia
.za South Africa
.zw Zimbabwe
 
Cracking the Code
Web pages are written in a code called HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. This means that they can include links that can be clicked on. A link will take you to another part of the site or another page on the Web. Words that are underlined and in color are usually links. Images are often links. You can tell if something is a link by placing your cursor over the object. If your cursor changes from an arrow to a pointing finger, the object is a link.

Advertising on the Web

More and more sites on the internet with good educational content have advertising on their pages.  Helping your students identify advertising and critique it is an important skill.  Look for ways to build skills in this area.  There are three basic types of advertising: Product Ads, Institutional Ads, and Public Service Ads.

Product ads are advertisements for actual products or services like books or clothing.

Institutional ads are advertisements that are not selling a particular product, but rather an image of a company or organization. For example, Dow Chemicals had an ad campaign a number of years ago with the tag line, "Dow Lets You Do Get Things".  The ad was not selling a product, but rather the idea that Dow was a good company.  Most commercial website sell not only products, but also an image of the company by providing online services, games, and resources.  The idea behind an institutional ad is to build good feeling in the consumer about the company.

Public service ads promote behaviors or ideas for the betterment of society.  For example, ads promoting fire safety or seatbelt use are public service ads.

Student Activities
Who Do They Think I Am?
This activity asks student to look at the products advertised on a site and identify what type of people would be interested in that product. Students could them draw or write a profile of who the advertisers think would be accessing that page.

Is It An Ad or Is It Content?
Visit a variety of sites with your students and predict what links will be content and which links will be advertisement.  This activity can help your students recognize deceptive ads that pose as content.

Why Is It There?
Visit commercial sites and have your students analyze the product being sold and the content provided.  You might visit a site like Dole (http://www.dole.com ), Crayola (http://www.crayola.com ) and visit their kids section and talk about why both companies would post games and activities for kids.