Accessing Reliable Internet Sites

Accessing Reliable Internet Sites Please view the following slides in order. Carefully read the text and follow any instructions that are given.

Goals for Tutorial At the completion of this tutorial students will: Access reliable internet sites

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites To properly identify if a website is a reliable source of information, there are 5 main categories of questions you need to ask and find the answer to about the site. These categories are: Relevance to Topic, Authorship, Updates, Professionalism, and Bias. Each of these 5 categories of questions contain even further questions.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Category 1- Relevance to Topic You need to make sure the website you are accessing is relevant to your topic. Using a search engine can bring up information that uses the same wording you entered but may have an entirely different meaning. Asking the questions found on the next slide will help filter out irrelevant sites.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Does this site mention my specific topic or only part of the topic? Is my specific topic the prominent theme for the website? Does my specific topic appear only in text and advertisments found on the website?

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Category 2- Authorship You need to know who is presenting the information found on a website. If the author is unreliable, then so is the information. To test the site for reliable authorship you should, at minimum, know the answer to the questions found on the next slide:

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites • Is the name of the author or authors listed? If is not, you should question the site. • Is the biography or profile of the author available on the site? • Is their bio correct? (a quick ‘Google’ search of the author’s name can help answer these questions)

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Category 3- Updates You need to know when the site was created and when it was last updated. This can be easily checked by looking for said date stamps on the website. If you cannot find the ‘creation date’ or ‘updated date’ then there is a good chance the site is not reliable. A good site is updated regularly. Out dated information can be dangerous while doing research.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Category 4- Professionalism You need to evaluate how professional the website looks, feels, and presents information. This category probably has the most questions and some of the most important. Check the next slides for questions.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites • Does the site have misspelled words our use slang and improper grammar?An educated author will use proper grammar and will properly spell words. At a minimum the text should have been filtered using a word processor. Slang is rarely found in any professional works. • Does the site have a solid technical structure?If the technical aspects (such as navigation and use of graphics) of how the site works and presents information does not work, most likely it was put together in a hasty fashion or has not had any review or revisions.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Does the site speak in generalities or in specifics? If specifics are used, does the author site their sources? Are opinions stated as facts or are they properly offered as opinions? When the grammar used makes it clear that the author is speaking openly and freely about the subject is should be clearly noted as their opinion.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites Category 5- Bias You need to know if the author has a bias opinion about the topic or if they have any hidden motives behind the information they are offering. This can sometimes be noticed when accessing the professionalism of a site.

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites What is the file extension? Different extensions generally mean different things. .com = a commercial site, .edu = a learning institution, .gov = government officiated site, .org = generally non-profit organizations, and .net = can be commercial but is generally more for groups and clubs. This may tip you off to any bias and can help determine professionalism What would the author have to gain from presenting their information? Are there any other opinions about this topic that are vastly different?

Accessing Reliable Web-Sites One last note about the world wide web. It has been said that if you put ten million monkeys in front of ten million keyboards and you gave them years to hack one of them they would eventually type the next great American Novel. It has also been said that thanks to the internet, we know this isn’t true. There is a lot of private information out there that is publicly posted to the internet. Sites like MySpace, YouTube, and even Wikipedia should not be considered reliable as the general public can use these forums to publish their own thoughts. A final note about Wikipedia. While it is not currently considered reliable, there is an effort to filter and professionally review all posted material. It will, however, remain a forum for the public to collectively post information. You should always be careful.

Practice Accessing Reliable Sites Your Topic Is: History of Dragster Racing With this topic in mind access the following sites. After you access these sites, you need to rate the sites from 1 to 10 with 1 being the most reliable and 10 being the least reliable. After you have ranked the sites, please list what information you found that made you rank them the way you did. Use complete sentences www.wikipedia.comwww.nhra.com www.draglist.com/www.garlits.com/ www.nascar.com/www.sportsline.com/autoracing/ www.about.comwww.espn.com www.history.comwww.autoracingdaily.com/

Citing Internet Sources Please view the following slides in order. Carefully read the text and follow any instructions that are given.

Sighting Sources Properly When citing a source from the internet you must first record as much information about the site as possible. You will need the Author/Authors names, date material was published, title of article or publication. You will also need to record the date you accessed this material and the URL it was found on.

Example of Properly Cited Sources from the Internet Author (Date Published). Title of article, Date Retrieved, from URL Gooch C. (2007). Online Research Tutorial, retrieved November 23, 2007, from http://www.tms.matsuk12.us/explore/apptech/capst.html

Accessing Reliable Internet Sites