Evaluating Websites Last updated: 9/2014

Objectives By the end of today you will know: Why websites should be evaluated How to evaluate websites

Why Evaluate? All websites are not created equally Example: Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.martinlutherking.org

Google results

http://www.martinlutherking.org Would you use this site?

What do you think about this site?

Sample flyer

Who’s the author of the site? 8 8

What do you think of the author?

So, how will you know if a website is reliable?

How to Evaluate? Start your research using reliable sources Cross reference - find the same information in another source

How to Evaluate? Check Domain names Example, .com, .edu .gov = governmental agency (very reliable!) Example: hawaii.gov Information at .gov sites needs to be approved before posting.

Link check Find out who is linking to the site Example,

Link check results: Used as a Web Credibility Exercise

(Who’s Higa? Teacher? Student? Expert in the field?) URL clues Check the URL or the web address: Does is have a tilde “~”? Indicates a personal website Ex. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~Higa (Who’s Higa? Teacher? Student? Expert in the field?)

Currency Consider your topic… Do you need current, or up-to-date information? Would “old” information be okay?

Authority: Sources listed? Does the author/site include a list of sources used? Where did they get their information from? Can you tell if the sources are credible or not?

Author’s purpose? To share facts versus opinion? Fact = something that is true Opinion = what someone thinks Bias = a preference for a particular belief or idea over other ideas and beliefs

Wikipedia: What do you think?

Wikipedia: Good & Bad

Wikipedia: The Bad Side E.g., A 2007 news article: • 1,662 Wikipedia edits made from Univ. of Hawaii computers • 776 edits made from Dept. of Ed. computers

Wikipedia: The Bad Side Examples: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice died in a Texas bathroom in 2004 Hawaii Congressman Neil Abercrombie has killed more than 5 million wolves (anyone can post information)

Wikipedia: The Good Side You might find great information under External links

Wikipedia Rule of thumb: Might be a good place to start (if it has a list of references) Bad place to end your research.

Let’s Review How can you evaluate a website? Check domain names (.gov is good!) Link check – are others linking to the site and if yes, who? Currency Author’s background and purpose (ex. fact versus opinion)

Thank you for your attention, now you try it!