The Web can be a great resource for teachers. Everyone with access to the internet also has access to loads of information that they may not find in their local libraries. Where does this information come from? Well, the answer is, anywhere, everywhere and from anyone. It seems today, everyone and their brother have a website. The problem is, the authors of websites can be merely trying to sell you something, or has written their information without proper research or editing.
It’s important to study the pages you want to use to look for things that validate the website’s accuracy. A teacher could check if the site is an original source or just copied from someone else’s work. It is also important to see if the article/webpage is published by a reliable company. Teachers should also look at when pages have been updated and if the site is dated at all. You don’t want to supply your students with outdated data! In general, the sites you use should have other links, documentation, author(s), dates/updates and lack of advertisements.
So, be sure to check these things or you may be feeding your students some bogus scrap.
8 months ago
I actually experienced many websites that were not that reliable as I searched for examples of activities to introduce technology to elementary through high school aged students. I had to spend a few extra minutes to click on some links within the pages and read what the page had to offer to see if it was relevant to my search. Luckily I knew up front that this might be the case, but students who are new to searching the Internet may not have the knowledge about how to review a site and see if it is reliable.
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