Telling the Real Stuff From the Fluff

I believe that teaching students and teachers to evaluate websites is extremely beneficial. With today’s modern technology, anyone can literally post anything on the Internet. This may pose a dangerous situation, that is why we need to be aware of the “fluff” that is out there. I thought it was interesting to evaluate the three websites I chose using Kathy Schrock’s checklists. It really enabled me to pay attention to things I wouldn’t have normally noticed, such as the date the website was updated and the author of the site. This is so important because data is constantly being updated, and you want to be sure you are reading current information. Out of the three websites, I chose to evaluate one teacher website, Time for Kids, and two student websites, The Underground Railroad and Civil War for Kids. I plan on using both of these websites in my classroom. Though the teacher evaluation checklist was more intense than the elementary checklist, it really made me think about content and pedagogy. I especially like the section at the end of the elementary checklist that asks students to write a paragraph telling why the website is helpful (or not helpful) for a certain project they are researching. I would like to incorporate this checklist into my classroom because I believe it provides the opportunity for students to synthesize the content on the checklist and make an educated decision as to whether or not that website is suitable for their purpose.
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html