Evaluating Web Sites

1
Evaluating Web Sites

• Mrs. Gibbs
• TICA Lesson 27

2
What We Will Do Today

• Review keyword strategies
• Discuss evaluation of Web sources for your
  project
• Find two reliable and useful Web sites that you
  can use in your newspaper article on the Dust
  Bowl
• Take notes from these two Web sites

3
Reviewing Keyword Strategies

• Be sure you have a good question!
• Use the topic focus keyword strategy!
• To narrow your results, use Boolean operators,
  such as
• Plus sign () Dust Bowl Bam White
• Minus sign (-) Dust Bowl Allergies
• To keep your key words together in the search,
  use quotes around the key words Black Sunday

4
On Your Worksheet

• My Question ____________________________________
  _
• My Keywords _____________________________________
  _
• _________________________________
• _______________________________________
• My Search Engine ________________________________
  ____

What were the major causes of the Great
Depression?
Great Depression Causes
Great Depression Causes
Great Depression Causes
Google
5
Evaluating Web Sites

• First look at the USEFULNESS of the information
• Is it easy to read?
• Does it answer your question?
• Is it easy to find what you need?
• If the information is not useful, you might as
  well go back to your search results and look for
  a new site!

6
Evaluating Web Sites

• Then consider AUTHORITY
• Does the site have an author?
• Is the author qualified to talk about the
  subject?
• Does the site have a sponsor?
• Are there ads on the page that try to sell you
  stuff?
• If the page does not have an author or a sponsor,
  is there any way to tell who made it?

7
Evaluating Web Sites

• If you cant find out who made the site, look at
  the end of the URL
• com- commercial
• edu- education
• gov- government
• org- organization
• net- network
• mil-military
• Special note If you see a someone at the end
  of a site, that means it is someones personal
  site!

8
Evaluating Web Sites

• Consider ACCURACY are there misspelled words or
  mistakes?
• Consider OBJECTIVITY is the information free
  from BIAS?
• Consider CURRENCY is the site published
  recently? When was it last updated?