Sticking with Good Websites

1. Sticking with Good Websites What LMS 6th Grade Students Should Know by: Mrs. Norland

2. Which website is sticky? Which website is icky? Be Picky ! www.photoshop.com

3. Your Social Studies teacher wants you to learn about Egypt. You choose to research mummies. Where would you start? http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Travel/MiddleEast/GizaPyramids1.jpg

4. The best place to find information would be on reliable websites that you can trust.

5. Typically, LMS students are asked to access information for research through Kan-ED: http://login.learningstation.com/kportal/ Many teachers would expect you to use pre-selected links to websites on their Moodle pages to begin your research.

6. What if you just did a Google search on “mummies” in Safari or Firefox? http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Travel/MiddleEast/GizaPyramids1.jpg

7. How would you know if the information was true? How much time would it take for you to discover if the website was useful or not?

8. Here’s two things to think about when looking for websites you can trust: CONTENT AUTHORITY img.dailymail.co.uk/tutDM2910_468x730.jpg

9. • Can you find the author’s name? • Is there an e-mail address that you can contact the author? • Can you find a clearly stated purpose for this website? • Look at the URL to see if it is connected with any organization. If it is a personal website, look for a ˜ ,% , or people/members/users • Is this author a reliable expert? AUTHORITY

10. •Is this website up to date? (Near the top or bottom of homepage.) •Are the links easy to use, and connect to something useful? •Are there links that connect back to the home page? •Is there a lot of unnecessary images, graphics, or advertisements? •Does the information appear to be factual (not full of opinions), useful, and accurate? •What about good grammar and spelling? CONTENT

11. Now, we will have a look at some “mummies” websites from random Google searches. Let’s see what we can discover about AUTHORITY and CONTENT.

12. URL'S •Which URLshows a personal website (which may not be expert information?) How can you tell? •Which URLis connected to a Commercial site? •Which might be an Educational site? •Do the descriptions help explain a purpose for the site? •How might you narrow down your search by the topic you enter in the subject box? % = personal

13. URL'S •Which URL is associated with an Organization? •Which might be an Educational site? •Which URLis connected to a Commercial site? •Do the descriptions help explain a purpose for the site? •Which sites do you think would provide more factual information? Why?

14. • Can you find the author’s name? • Is there an e-mail address that you can contact the author? • Can you find a clearly stated purpose for this website? • When was the website last updated? (An updated website is generally a good sign.) Is the author an expert?

15. To find out if the website’s author is an expert, who gives accurate and useful information, you could Google his name, or go to www.alexa.com to find out more about the reliability of any website. “Andrew Bayuk has a passion for ancient Egypt. Currently, he is working on his second album which contains songs about various aspects of ancient Egypt. He created and maintains one of the original, largest and most comprehensive ancient Egypt websites called Guardian's Egypt ( http://guardians.net ) and hosts Dr. Zawi Hawass’s websites. It was recently updated in June 2008. Here you can explore the pyramids, tombs, temples of Egypt, breaking news, mummies, hieroglyphs, exhibits and much more.” Dr. Zawi Hawass is a true expert and scientist in the preservation of ancient Egyptian artifacts and historical sites.

16. • This .com site is trying to sell you something. •Can you find the author’s name or contact e-mail? • Is the purpose for this website as clearly stated as the previous page’s website? Look what happened when I clicked on the links at the bottom…

17. •Are the links connecting to something useful? •Are there unnecessary images, graphics, or advertisements? •What about good grammar and spelling? (Did you see the spelling error?) What do you think of the quality of this site, just by these two snapshots?

18. Sticking with Good Websites Authority and Content TOP TEN 6. Website is up to date. 7. Links work and connect to useful information and back to home page. 8. Images and graphics are appropriate to website. 9. Factual, useful and accurate information. 10. Good grammar and spelling. 1. Author’s name provided. 2. E-mail or author contact. 3. Clearly stated purpose. 4. Information from URL. 5. Author is reliable or an expert.

19. YOUR TURN: Go to one of the Social Studies sites on Mrs. Norland’s “Moodle” page. Which of them is better quality, and more reliable, and shows more of the “top ten?” Make a Top Ten checklist 6. Website is up to date. 7. Links work and connect to useful information and back to home page. 8. Images and graphics are appropriate to website. 9. Factual, useful and accurate information. 10. Good grammar and spelling. 1. Author’s name provided. 2. E-mail or author contact. 3. Clearly stated purpose. 4. Information from URL. 5. Author is reliable or an expert.

20. Sources Some other reliable K-12 Websites you may try: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/ More information on evaluating websites can be found on Kathy Schrock’s page: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html THIS POWERPOINT’S INFORMATION ALSO BASED ON: MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY “Evaluating Websites” UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE “Checklist for Web Resources”