2001-10-12national agency for education check the source! - web evaluation...
TRANSCRIPT
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Why Source Criticism?
• Information is rarely neutral
• All information needs to be evaluated - printed as well as web pages
• The ability to critically evaluate
information is essential
in the information age
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
What is Source Criticism?
• To critically check and interpreta document, an image or a statement
• To find out if the source is accurate
• To find out what is true, or at least probable
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Traditional Evaluation Criteria
• Accuracy - Is the source verified?• Authorship - Who is the author?• Objectivity - Is the information biased?• Currency - Is the content up-to-date?• Coverage - What topics are
included?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Before you accept information
• Ask who posted/ published this information!
• Ask what is the purpose/ intent of this information!
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Evalute Books and Articles
• Who is the author?
• Who is the editor?
• When was it edited?
• Is the content reliable?
• Is the content appropriate to and does it cover your topic?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Why is Web Evaluation so difficult?
• Anyone can publish on the net
• Mixture of advertising and information
• The hyperlink and frame-system can be confusing
• Web pages ‘disappear’
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Evaluating Web Pages
• Start with the Internet address (URL) of the document
• The URL can say something about the publisher of the Web site
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Return to the home page
• Search engines often retrieve pages out of context
• Try to return to the homepage to determine the source of the information
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Understand and decode the URL
http://www.skolverket.se/skolnet/kolla/index.html
• http:// transfer protocol• www.skolverket.se server name.domain• .se country code• /skolnet/ directory• /kolla/ subdirectory• index.html filename.filetype
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Internet Domains
• Domain is the institution, organisation or enterprise where you can find the computer hosting the actual website
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Two types of Top Level Domains
• National - two-lettered country codes for example .se .ie Find more at:http://www.ur.se/nyhetsjournalistik/31an.html
• International - type of organisation for example .com .org .gov .edu .mil
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Check Domain Name
• Websites to help you do this:
• http://www.allwhois.com/
• http://speednames.com/
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Check IP-addresses
• IP= Internet Protocol
• All internet computers have unique IP addresses
• Check them athttp://www.ripe.net/perl/whois
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Who is the author?
• Who created the web site?
• Is the author well-known? If not, look for the author’s name in an encyclopedia!
• Is the author affiliated to an organisation?
• Is the author’s email included?
• Don’t use anonymous material!
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Recognise personal Websites
• The URL often includes a directory like /users/ or /people/ followed by a personal name
• The URL often has a tilde /~for example /~john
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
What more can you find out?
• Is there an ‘about’ button?
• Is there a content list or an index?
• Is there a sitemap for better navigation?
• Is the purpose of the site clearly stated?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Check the content
• What is the purpose of the Web site?
• Is the purpose to inform, to persuade, to sell or to entertain?
• Are there editors and fact checkers?
• Is the content suited to and useful for your purpose?
• Is the text free from errors?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
List of references or links
• Is a bibliography included?
• Is there any links to other resources about the topic?
• Are the links up-to-date?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Who has linked to the Website?
• Are there links to the author’s web page from another document that you trust?
• To find out, you can type:link: actual URL of web page in some search engines eg AltaVista
• Be careful, good web pages canlink to bad ones! And vice versa!
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Currency
• Is there a date included that tells you when the page was created?
• Is there a date of the last update?
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Citing Internet Resources
• Author
• Title of page
• Date of posting/revision
• Date of access
• URL (Web address)
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Don’t forget
• to compare with other sources
• to use many sources
2001-10-12 NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
Read more...
Check the Source - the webpagehttp://www.skolverket.se/skolnet/english/e_check.html