Real vs. Fake The Reliability of Information on the Internet. By Salamah Adjoua

INTRODUCTION WRONG FACTS! The internet is a great tool for locating information for research, projects and homework assignments. However, due to the openness and vastness of the internet not every website that is find actually has factual information. If you are not careful you can end up with the: WRONG FACTS!

Anyone can put something on the internet. From anywhere in the world. Keep in Mind… Anyone can put something on the internet. From anywhere in the world. They can say anything they like. Leave it there as long as they like. Change it whenever they feel like it.

So how do you know which websites are real and which ones are fake? It is up to you to figure out which websites are reliable and which are not. Let’s explore this subject further.

TASK Explain what is a spoof website. The point of this lesson is to help students understand that everything on the internet is not fact. Information must be verified and verifying information from the web can be difficult. At the end of this WebQuest, students will be able to: Explain what is a spoof website. Compare two websites and identify the fake and real one. Investigate a news story and attempt to verify if it is factual or false. Through discussion, analyze what clues were found that indicated whether the website and/or news story was authentic or phony.

PROCESS and RESOURCES Students will take the hoax photo test and attempt to determine which picture is fake or real. Discussion will follow. Click on the link: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tests/hoaxphototest.html Read the following short definitions of a spoof website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_spoofing http://www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com/fraudtypes/phishing.aspx Look at some examples of spoofed websites. http://www.deadlysins.com/guineaworm/index.htm www.license.shorturl.com http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ http://petalgae.com/

Compare one set of the following websites Compare one set of the following websites. Students will attempt to figure out which site is real and which one is fake? Be prepared to defend your answers. http://www.dowethics.com/index.html http://www.dow.com/ http://gatt.org/ http://www.wto.org/ http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/ http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/ http://www.whirledbank.org/ http://www.worldbank.org/

On your own, explore the following websites On your own, explore the following websites. Choose a news story from one of them. http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/ http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html Discuss some of the stories. State whether you believe the stories are factual or false and explain why. Using the web have each student attempt to find information that verifies the story. Databases such as Newsday, EBSCO Newspaper Source, and Info Trac Custom Newspapers can assist in verifying the story.

Students will create a list of any resources that verified the story Students will create a list of any resources that verified the story. In a one page report, students will discuss what resources they found, how they found them and what makes them believe their story is valid. Discuss how difficult it is to verify information and why all information must be inspected. Students will then have the opportunity to evaluate whether the stories they choose from the website are factual or false. Students will review the following links. http://www.newsoftheweird.com/faqs.html http://darwinawards.com/misc/faq.html#true

CONCLUSION Now we see that information on the internet is not always factual. We must take the time to examine websites and if necessary take steps to verify the information. As we saw, the internet is a great tool for obtaining good information. Some of the sites presented were the real thing. Others were spoof websites which were misleading.

This means that the internet should not be the sole resource we use for information. Books, reference sources, and databases are other reliable resources that should also be consulted. All of these can be found at a library where professional staff can help you find what you need.

References used to create this WebQuest Creating a Rubric for a Given Task http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/rubrics/rubrics.html Museum of Hoaxes http://museumofhoaxes.com Lesson Plans http://www.libraryinstruction.com/weird.html Some Thoughts About WebQuests http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html Fake Websites- Scientific and Commercial http://www.philb.com/fakesites.htm Internet Detective http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/crimescene.html National Educational Technology Standards for Students http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html