INTERNET RESEARCH

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

A faculty workshop on detecting & preventing high-tech plagiarism as well as evaluating the internet sources your students use

Endangered Species! The Rare Tree Octopus © 1998-2001 Lyle Zapato, All Rights Reserved

CRITICAL EVALUATION TECHNIQUES ~ or ~ IT MUST BE TRUE I FOUND IT ON THE INTERNET!

 

I.  Why Teach Web Evaluation Skills?

 

  Why do we need to evaluate and cite our sources?  Check out this SHOCKING article!

          The Web -- Teaching Zack to Think

[Online]Available http://www.anovember.com/articles/zack.html
Written by Alan November for the September 1998 for High School Principal Magazine.

 

 

II.  Fun Sites to Show Your Students

 

A lot of websites are just plain fun!  They might be done as a joke, or as a parody.  The parody sites often have something valuable to say about the site they are "spoofing".  Students just need to be aware of the motivations behind the site, and be able to separate fact from fiction or propaganda.  It is important that we teach them these skills.  This became obvious to me when I asked a group of seniors to pick the most objective site from list of web pages about different countries of the world - and the majority of the picked The CIA Factbook. 

 

IMPORTANT! - Take a look at these sites to see why it is important for both you and your students to know  who is presenting the information found online.

   

 Clones-R-Us

[Online] Available http://www.d-b.net/dti/ 
Is this site real or a spoof ?  You decide.

 

"Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!"

[Online] Available http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/hoax/index.htm

 

The Mountain Walrus

[Online] Available http://www.end.com/~jynx/walrus/

 

The Jackalope

[Online] Available http://www.sudftw.com/jackcon.htm

 

Sasquatch

[Online] Available http://zapatopi.net/bsa.html

 

The Tree Octopus

[Online] Available http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html

 

Greenpeas

[Online] Available http://www.greenpeas.org/

 

Dihydrogen Monoxide (a most dangerous chemical compound)

[Online] Available http://www.dhmo.org/

California's Velcro Crop under Challenge (1993)

[Online] Available http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html

The True but Little Known Facts about Women and Aids

[Online] Available http://147.129.1.10/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm

The Museum of Hoaxes

[Online] Available http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

 

Congress Passes "Americans With No Abilities Act"

[Online] Available http://www.theonion.com/onion3324/noabilities.html

Evaluate This! - University of Great Falls
http://206.127.69.152/slee/hoax.html
A list of hoax sites. The RYT Hospital Site is particulary good.

III.  How To Evaluate a Web Site

 

Ten C's For Evaluating Internet Sources

[Online] Available http://www.uwec.edu/library//Guides/tencs.html
"The Ten C's provide criteria to consider in evaluating Internet resources".

Assessing the Validity of Online Information

[Online] Available http://tlt.suny.edu/evaluation.htm

CRITICAL EVALUATION INFORMATION

[Online] Available http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
This form has become a standard evaluation form for web evaluation in elementary, middle schools and high schools.

CyberGuides

[Online] Available http://www.cyberbee.com/guides.html
Karen McLachlan, Library Media Specialist at East Knox High School, Ohio developed these guides to use with teachers and students to evaluate content and graphic design of home pages.

Evaluating Internet Research Sources.

[Online] Available http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

Evaluating Web Pages: A WebQuest

[Online] Available http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html
Lesson plan with web sites to teach web evaluation for secondary school students.

Evaluating Web Resources

[Online] Available http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
A web page on evaluating internet sources. This page is written by a reference librarian from Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University, Chester, PA.

Evaluation Criteria

[Online] Available http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html
This is one of my favorite sites for web evaluation. It is short, simple and includes the rationale for evaluating web sites.

Fact, Fiction, or Opinion? Evaluating Online Information

[Online] Available http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr194.shtml
An article on web site evaluation from Education World.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources

[Online] Available http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html
Covers the many issues of web evaluation. Includes excellent examples of "the good, the bad, and the ugly".

A Modular Approach to Teaching/Learning the World Wide Web

[Online] Available http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/pyramid.htm
An internet course developed for use by the Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University, Chester, PA. This is an excellent comprehensive course for learning the many facets of internet research.

The Quality Information Checklist

[Online] Available http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm
Here are eight ways of checking information on web sites.

SELECTION CRITERIA

[Online] Available http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/criteria.html
Established by the first ALSC Children and Technology Committee, 1997.

Tips for Developing School Web Pages

[Online] Available http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/
A useful site for teachers to learn good Web design. There are links to web evaluation sites as well.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background	Cheating	Paper Mills
Tools for Detecting & Preventing Plagiarism	Teaching Ethics & Determining Consequences
Critical Evaluation Techniques! ~ OR ~ It MUST be true! - I Found It On the Internet