Web Literacy

Get REAL: Steps for Evaluating Websites

R= Read the URL
Do you recognize the domain name?
What is the extension in the domain name?
Are you on a personal page?

Extension Guide
.edu
Higher education (most U.S. colleges)
.k12
U.S. school site (not all U.S. schools use this)
.sch
Schools in the United Kingdom (not all U.K. schools use this)
.ac
Academic institution (outside of U.S.)
.com
Commercial
.co
Company (usually used with a country code: e.g., co.uk)
.org
Any organization
.gov
Government agency
.net
Network
.mil
U.S. military

A domain name is the web address.

A search engine collects information about World Wide Web content by using programs called robots or spiders. These programs are automated browsers that roam the Web and collect information such as text, titles of pages, and meta-tags from documents.

A blog is an interactive Web page where individuals can post entries, articles, links, and pictures, and ask others to join into conversations.

Truncating the URL cuts the web address from right to left up to the forward slash (/). This reveals the home page.

Activity 1: Truncating a URL
Visit the following Web sites:
Site 1: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
1.      What do you think of this Web site?

2.      What do you notice about the “media” section?

Site 2: Bureau of Sasquatch Affairs  http://zapatopi.net/bsa/
1.      What do you notice about this Web site?

2.      What happens when you click on some of the links?

3.      Do new pages open in a new Internet browser or do they remain in the same window?

4.      Are these two sites related?

E= Examine the Content
Is the information on the site helpful?
Does the site have more resources and links? Do the links work?
Is the site up to date? Can you tell when it was last updated?
Is the information correct?
Are the facts different from information you have found elsewhere?

Activity 2: Evaluating Website Content
Use the above questions to evaluate the following Web sites:

A= Ask About the Author or Owner
Is the author’s name on the site?
Is there a contact person or e-mail address?
Is there any information about the author?
Does the author know the topic well? Is he or she an expert?

Activity 3: Find the Author
For each website answer the above questions about the author:
California Velcro Crop under Challenge http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html

L= Look at the Links
A forward link is the name given to a link from your Web site to a page on someone else’s Web site.
1.      What are the URLs of the forward links? Be suspicious if every forward link contains the same domain name as the home page. If it’s an academic source, it should have forward links to universities, museums, or government research sites.
2.      Do the domain names change? It is important to look at the URLs of forward links to see who has written them. If the same domain name appears again and again in the forward links, this pattern might suggest bias.
 
What are the URLs of the forward links?
Do the domain names change?
Is the information biased? 

A back link is the name given to a link from someone else’s Web site to a page on your Web site. A look to see who has linked to a site gives you perspective about the quality of information.
1.      Who is linked to the Web site? Look to see what other groups or individuals have linked to it. Are they schools or commercial sites? Are there any patterns in the types of sites?
2.      Why are they linked? What is the purpose of the link? Why have groups or individuals chosen to create a link to this site?
3.      What do other sites say about the material on the site? Gain perspective about a site by reading what another site tells you about it. Cross-reference information and look for hidden bias.
 
Who is linked to the Web site?
Why are they linked?
What do other sites say about the information on the site?

Activity 4: Analyzing the Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Site
Visit the following Web site:
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
Select several forward links. Answer the following questions:
1.       Are there any links on this site to trustworthy sources that prove that the tree octopus exists?

2.       What are they?

3.       What makes these sites trustworthy in your eyes?
 
Activity 5: Generate a list of Back Links
Here’s a bogus Web site dedicated to showing the harmful effects of dihydrogen monoxide (otherwise known as water). http://www.dhmo.org/

1.      Go to AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/

2.      In the search box type link:http://www.dhmo.org/. Be sure to leave no space before or after the colon.

3.      Once you click the Find button, you will see an assortment of sites that have chosen to link to this site. Ask yourself the following questions:
a.       Who is linked to the Web site? Look to see what other groups or individuals have linked to it. Are they schools or commercial sites? Are there any patterns in the types of sites?

b.      Why are they linked? What is the purpose of the link? Why have groups or individuals chosen to create a link to this site?

c.       What do other sites say about the material on the site? Gain perspective about a site by reading what another site tells you about it. Cross-reference information and look for hidden bias.

4.      Can you make any generalizations about this site? What perspectives do you gain after looking at the back links?

5.   Add + host:edu for a more targeted search of back links.

Activity 6: Evaluating Search Engines
Webcrawler
The web’s top search engines spun together

NoodleTools
Search engines for your needs

Conduct a search with four different search engines and record the top five results. Also, count the number of paid listings (ex. sponsored, ads, etc.) per each search.
Answer the following questions:
1.      Compare and contrast the results from the various engines. Can you make any generalizations?

2.      Did some search engines seem to have more paid listings than others? If so, which ones?

3.      Which search engines might you be more likely to use and why?

4.      How might using more than one search engine when researching information help you find better information?

5.      What conclusions can you draw about researching information on the Internet?
 
Activity 7: Search in a Closed Search Environment 
This means you can search for Web sites with only certain extensions such as .gov (this can be done with any extension).
1.      Go to AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/

2.      In the search box type host:gov + “keywords”

3.      Placing quotation marks ensure the words appear together exactly as you have entered them.

Activity 8: Research Scenarios
Country Code

.at
Austria
.ie
Ireland
.au
Australia
.in
India
.ca
Canada
.iq
Iraq
.ch
Switzerland
.it
Italy
.cn
China
.jp
Japan
.de
Germany
.nz
New Zealand
.es
Spain
.pk
Pakistan
.et
Ethiopia
.uk
United Kingdom
.fr
France
.us
United States
.gr
Greece
.za
South Africa


1.      Scenario: You are researching universities in Japan.
Search: host: ____________________

2.      Scenario: You are researching school sites in the United Kingdom that include the word poetry.
Search: host: ____________________

3.      Scenario: You are researching cancer research in U.S. government sites.
Search: host: ____________________

4.      Scenario: You are researching weather patterns in New Zealand.
Search: host: ____________________

5.      Scenario: You are researching birth rates in Ethiopia
Search: host: ____________________

6.      Scenario: You are researching football scores in the United Kingdom
Search: host: ____________________

Reference:
November, Alan C. Web Literacy for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2008. Print.