Evaluating Web Sites A PowerPoint designed to make you think about what you see on the Internet

Today’s Assignment: By the end of class today, you will write down 5 ways that you can decide if a web site is credible or not and answer questions about today’s presentation on the worksheet provided and turn this in for a grade.credible Use complete sentences. Please click the work credible to see it’s definition before going on.

Definition of Credible Believable, offering reasonable grounds for being believable

Fake or Real? Statement about web sites: Sadly, there are people in this world who have created fake web sites, and they do not get in trouble. These web sites have fooled some people. Question to discuss at your table for 2 minutes: How can a person decide if a web site is real or fake?

Report to the class Each table needs to give one intelligent and original answer Next, watch this PowerPoint and write down ways to see if a web site is credible or not. Hopefully some of yours made the Top 5!

Tactic #5 – Look at the address itself If the address contains any of these domain letters, you’ll get a clue as to where the site MAY be from..edu – educational place like a school or university.k12 – definitely a kindergarten thru high school classroom.gov – government.mil - military.com – a commercial business that will be probably selling something.org – a business that is not for profit like the Humane Society or a Library.org – a business that is not for profit like the Humane Society.info – originally a website for providing information – now anyone can use it..info – originally a website for providing information – now anyone can use it..net - no significant meaning – for a personal website sharing information.net - no significant meaning – for a personal website sharing information.jp – a site from Japan. uk – from the United Kingdom NOTE:PEOPLE CAN PURCHASE WEB SITE ADDRESSES THAT HAVE FOREIGN COUNTRY CODES AS WELL AS PURCHASE WEB SITE ADDRESS NAMES THAT THEY MAKE UP THEMSELVES! THE ABOVE RULES ARE GUIDELINES AND DON’T APPLY 100% OF THE TIME.

Tactic #4 - See who created the site How: by scrolling down to bottom of the web page or looking on the page to see something like: About or Contact Us Look for a real phone number or address that you could check in a phone book Try to see what makes the person reliable – are they a doctor, a scientist, a historian, a teacher? Click on the hyperlinked examples below to see good information and answers for questions 1 & 2 on worksheet – when done viewing each site, just close the Internet browser.

Tactic # 3-See when the site was created or last updated Sometimes the information has changed, like an endangered species was added to the protected list or taken off the list – sometimes the date matters Sometimes the date doesn’t matter – like the biography of someone who is dead, like George Washington – however, it would matter for someone like Brett Favre

#2 - Read the information on the site Compare and contrast it to what you already know Does it make sense? Is everything spelled correctly? (Come on, everyone should be able to use spell- check or ask someone to proofread)

Check out the following web sites to see if they are real or fake Answer the question 3& 4 on your worksheet from the website Follow the link to the creature that eats the tree octopus – check out that website briefly Go to Can you identify who created this web site above?

Jacopo di Poggibonsi Web site info This web site is fake– it is supposed to be about a medieval times artist who made his living by copying the works of other famous artists. Here is a statement by the makers that I only found by putting the professors name in Google. erforgers.htmlhttp:// erforgers.html And now, on to the #1 Tactic to check web site credibility!

Tactic #1 – Check another web site or source! Look in a textbook or encyclopedia to see if the information is the same or different Look up the term or name in a search engine Look up tree octopus in a search engine Click the Google logo to go to Google And try it for yourself! Click here

Now take a look at more fake web sites as time permits Click the tree octopus picture to go to the list