Teaching students how to be effective users of Information

Websites The web is becoming the first place many students look for information. Therefore the information on these sites need to be carefully evaluated. There are people who pay lots of money for their sites to be built and maintained while there are some people who build their sites from their basement.

Internet Vocabulary URL- Universal Resource Locator. It is the address for a website. Much the same as 123 Main Street, Flint, MI 48446. It is the address of a physical location. WWW- World Wide Web - A system of millions of interconnected pieces of information that can be brought up on a computer screen for anyone with an Internet connection. Dial-up- A connection to the Internet using a phone line (land-line). There can be many problems connecting to the Internet using dial-up service. These include getting kicked off often and without warning, missing phone calls, and is very slow by today’s standards. DSL- Digital Subscriber Line - A fast connection to the Internet either by phone or video cable. With DSL the phone lines remain open to receive calls and the Internet is always on. HTTP- Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - These are the rules that websites use to transfer information on the Internet. . HTML- Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the code that websites are written in.

Bogus websites Dog Island- http://www.thedogisland.com Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus- http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ Lasik at Home- http://www.lasikathome.com/

With the world wide web (www) there is access to news in all forms different and multiple points of views no editorial board Both expert and novice perspectives on topics

Types of websites Commercial - .com Not for profit organization - .org Educational - .edu. (Is it a k-12 or college page? Was it written by a student or a professor?) Government - .gov Military - .mil Network service provider - .net

We have to teach kids to evaluate each site for Credibility – 'About us' tells about the author and what he/she does. Reliability – How relevant is the author's opinion on subject. Is it a medical doctor talking about medical issues or someone with a PhD in literature? Bias – Is the site set up by or for a special interest group? Relevance – Does the site actually talk about the subject? Up to date ness – when was the site last updated? When was it created? Sources – What are the sources of the information on the page? Your work is only as good as your sources. Links – do links work? Who links to the page? Scope and purpose – why was the site established?

Good research involves a balance of varied sources Good research involves a balance of varied sources. Because of the amount of time and effort put into publishing a book we find out that print sources can never be replaced. Students still have to use the information in print sources to corroborate the information they get on the web.