Relevancy
Is the website relevant? (Filter the information)
Before you begin to investigate the content of a website, the first thing to ask is, “Does it answer the essential questions?” Students need to use similar skills that they would use when reading print material and practice using the following resources to help them quickly determine is a site is worth investigating.
1. Skim the content by reading topic sentences.
- If you see a word or words that seems relevant to the essential question, go back and read for more detail.
- If you don’t see the information you need, are there terms that would help you refine your search?
2. Comprehension- Do you understand the information on the website?
- Do you need to reread it more carefully for better comprehension?
- Do you need to find additional information to help you understand the concept?
3. Synthesize- Can you put the information you are reading into your own words?
- Do you understand it enough for it to be useful or do you need to continue to research to find more or better resources?
Activate prior knowledge by looking at key points. Does the information on the website align with what you already know to be true?
- Who is the author or publisher of the website
- Look at the web address. Is it a personal website? Does it contain a person’s name?
- Read around the perimeter of the website. At the very bottom of the first page of a website (often called the index page), you should find a link that says ABOUT THIS SITE, ABOUT US, PHILOSOPHY, BACKGROUND, etc.
- Truncate back the URL. Ex.http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/msexcel2004/Welcome.html
- Looks to be educational
- Has a person’s name in the title
- No author on site
- Truncate web address back to staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us and look for someone who could be roethkda
- Is the author’s contact information posted?
- Is the web page sponsored by a business, an educational institution, a government site? Use the domain of the URL to help determine the site publisher or the country of origin.
- .edu- college or university
- .gov- government site
- .co- county site
- .com, .net, .biz- commercial
- .org- organization but can also be commreical
- .k12.statename.us- K12 school
- country names are also included in domain- uk, au, etc.
- What links are coming in to this website? What pages, organizations, companies are linking to the webpage you are viewing? Does this validate the site? View a video on how to use info: in Google to help you find out who is linking to a webpage and where the webpage links out to.
2.Demonstrate: Click here to view a video on using info:website name in Google search bar to find lots of information about a site. Scroll down on the Accuracy and Reliability page to view the video.
Video Demonstrate: Use a resource like EASYWHOIS to determine the website owner/publisher.
[qt:http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/easywhoisweb.mov http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/easywhoisweb.mov 640 480]
