Identifying High-Quality Sites
Post date: Apr 5, 2017 5:36:08 PM
We will explore the idea that anyone can publish on the Internet, so not all sites are equally trustworthy. We need to carefully evaluate the sites we use for research, and then decide which ones we can trust. As a class, we will discuss how print materials (books and newspaper or magazine articles) are published. Then we compare and contrast this process with publishing on the Internet, learning that there are no built-in checks for accuracy or quality on the Internet. Because of this, we must use our own criteria to judge the trustworthiness and usefulness of websites.Let us look over a News article from Huffington Post regarding fake pictures from Hurricane Sandy. "The only problem? It’s not a picture from Hurricane Sandy. The picture, taken by photographer Karin Markert, is actually from September."
Here you can learn More about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
What kind of role do you think the Internet played in helping people learn about Hurricane Sandy?
Staying informed
Help illustrate the impact
Provide news regarding the damage
Update others about how victims are doing.
The impact of fake or misleading information has arguably impacted our 2016 presidential election as people spread news, quotes, and pictures they believe or even want to be true. We have talked in the past our quickly something can spread on the internet and countless people may have seen it before it's been debunked and by then its too late. The debunk message may not reach nearly the number of people.
The photo of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier image was taken out of context and truly doesn't represent the Hurricane. It was taken the month before. It was a good representation of the conditions the soldiers experienced during the Hurricane and the comments people had were authentic even though they had no reason to believe the picture was's true. We don't always want or feel we need to fact check what we read but its an important life skill as a consumer.
Can anyone Be an Author?
How is the process of publishing printed material (newspapers, magazines, books) different from publishing on the Internet?
Although many websites are written by people with expertise on a particular topic, this isn’t always the case throughout the Internet. Sometimes people who create or post on blogs do not have a background in the subject matter, and there is no editor to hold them to a high standard. By contrast, most respected book publishers and newspaper editors look for authors who know a lot about their subjects. They also have skilled editors and fact checkers who review the information in these publications for mistakes.
People who create or post on blogs and other websites are not necessarily experts in the subject. Some don't pretend to be or don't know they aren't. Their “facts” may not be true. They often don’t fix errors when some are found. They may pretend that their opinions are facts. They may even choose to include unkind or harmful statements. Many are good enough to acknowledge a mistake and will correct it. This is why we must remember when we visited a web page when we cite it. While there are generally fewer rules about what can and can’t be published on the Internet, there are a growing number of sites that have high standards for publishing information. Therefore, though it is important to use a critical eye when looking at websites, you shouldn’t automatically assume that online information is incorrect or of lesser quality than information in books or newspapers. With more and more people using the internet for news and information. We now must teach ourselves not to trust it as blindly as we would publish the physical text.Identifying High-Quality Sites Open this and save to Doc Hub. With the people at your table, Choose one of the articles below and fill out the worksheet.
1. Wikipedia: Year-round School
2. PBS NewsHour: Year-Round School Commits to Students from Middle School to Last Day of College
3. About.com Year-Round Education: Pros and Cons
4. Family Education: Year-Round Schooling
5. The National Association of Year-Round Education
7. The New York Times: “Classes the Year Round Pass the Test for Many”
Anyone can publish material of any quality on the Internet. If students’ sources are reliable, then their research projects won’t contain inaccurate information. You should recognize that they can use the Website Test to evaluate the quality of all different kinds of websites, not only ones for school purposes.