1. Evaluating Web Sites Believe it or not

2. Differences between a web site and a book or journal Anyone, including prisoners and kids under the age of 8, can create a web site Books and magazines have editors to decide what is printed No editors on the internet

3. Be Strong Web sites can grab more of your senses than a book or magazine Beware of fancy graphics, sound bites, animated clipart, etc.

4. Some things to consider What is the URL? Who is the author? Why was it created? When last updated? Any footnotes or bibliography?

5. What’s the URL? Uniform Resource Locator is the web address, usually beginning with http:// Most important part is before the first / e.g. http://www.yahoo.net/fish/index.htmlhttp://www.yahoo.net/fish/index.html Everything after first / is just folders and file names

6. Top Level Domains The words before the first / indicate the server name and end in a domain name that defines the type of site. Some common TLDs are:.gov.org.com.mil.edu.net

7. Top Level Domains Some newly defined TLDs are:.firm.store.web.arts.rec.info.nom

8. Who’s the author? Author identified? Did the author create the web site? Credentials? Written anything outside the web?

9. Why created? Advocacy Entertainment Business Reference News Personal Page School Assignment

10. Other supportive features Date updated? Diagrams, charts, tables, photos with footnotes? Links to other pages? Bibliography?

11. Be an informed web consumer Be a critical thinker Be strong Ask: where, who, why, when Use your common sense Look for a supporting opinion from a known source Check up with print material