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Become a Net Detective. Tammy Bixler-Zalesinsky 10 December 2006. Investigate this site on Velcro and ask yourself these questions: . Why should I believe this information? Can I defend this site as a credible part of my works cited?. Look at the URL!.
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Become a Net Detective Tammy Bixler-Zalesinsky 10 December 2006
Investigate this site on Velcro and ask yourself these questions: • Why should I believe this information? • Can I defend this site as a credible part of my works cited?
Look at the URL! • Take a look at this URL and decide just from the URL if it is the link to the White House? http://www.whitehouse.net • What would you expect to see?
Which URL endings are restricted? • .edu (educational institution) • .gov (government) • .mil (military) • .jobs • .int (international businesses) • .pro (attorneys, doctors, professionals) • Although the URL ending can be an important first step, a good detective looks deeper!
Look at the website itself. • Are all the links to outside web pages working? • Can you go to other web pages on the site easily?
Is it relevant to today? • Is there a date on the page?
Look at the Information • Does the information seem credible or believable?
Where did the “facts” come from? • Look at the “sources” that are listed and then search for them to see if they exist and actually say what they were quoted as saying.
Take a look at the facts! • For example, let’s take a look at this website’s sources. Then take a look at EBSCOhost through InfOhio to see if the sources really exist. • Take a look at other verified sources.
Purpose • Sites can meet all of the earlier criteria, but if the purpose of the site is to lead you to conclude a certain viewpoint it may still be biased. • What is the mission of the author or organization sponsoring the site? • Are they trying to sell you something?
How can you tell if it is just all made up? • Download and print this evaluation tool to evaluate the next website. • Spanish Version
Try your evaluation tool on this site. • What were your scores? • What made you think this was an authentic site? • What made you begin to question it?
Now create your own search for the good and the bad! • Your research question is: “What percent of our brains do we actually use?” • Search words “percent” + “brain” + “use”
Discussion and Reflection • Where you able to spot any misleading sites just by their URL? • Were you able to weed out any sites by their misleading information? • Were you able to look up the statistics and sources quoted by the site? Were they legitimate? • Where you able to determine the purpose of the site? • Will you use these questions in the future to differentiate credible sites in your search results?
Works Cited College Republicans at Texas. Bush/Cheney 04. 2004. Coll. Repubicans at Texas: U of Texas at Austin 2003-04. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/cr/OLD%20WEBSITES/contact.html>. Google. 2006. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://www.google.com>. Henderson, John R. AIDS Facts. 2005. Ithaca Coll. Lib. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://147.129.226.1/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm>. Herrin, Bill, and Chris Mincer. "The White House." White House.Net. 2006. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://www.whitehouse.net>. McLachlan, Karen. "Cyberguide Ratings for Content Evaluation." Cyberbee. 31 July 2002. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://www.cyberbee.com/content.pdf>. Maloney, Catherine, et al. "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men." Improbable Research. 1999. Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). 24 Nov. 2006<http://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html>. People for the Ethical Treatment of Pumpkins. P. E. T. PU. 2006. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://www.geocities.com/petpu4/>. Umbach, Ken. Californian's Velcro Crop under Challenge. 1996. 24 Nov. 2006 <http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html>. Wey, Tom. Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division. 24 Nov. 2006. 24 Nov. 2006<http://www.dhmo.org>.