subject: A research experience for students [print this page] Internet research is booming in schoolsInternet research is booming in schools. Students spend hours on the Internet doing research for school projects. Students did a school projects on Election on 21st August, 2010 with the Web as her/him main source of information. She/he simply did a search on Yahoo and went through a few websites recommended there. Although they use it heavily for research, few students seem aware that the Internet is full of websites that may provide bogus information. But there is a way to find out if a website is reliable. A simple rule of thumb is to double check online facts. M-Net is a non-profit organization that is trying to create Web and media literacy. Students should be encouraged to view the Internet with healthy scepticism and know what questions to ask in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. Some students however, do know the basic, especially those who belong to ICT clubs and are more Net savvy. Students double checks every piece of Web information for authenticity before using it in a project. Students usually look at .gov or .edu sites , which be more reliable and belonging to an educational institution. In both these types of sites , the authors are accountable for the accuracy of the information they provide. Whereas, Geocities, on the hand, is a service from Yahoo that allows people to build their own homepages. Some Geocities packages are free.
Is a Websites for real?
( 1 ) Who is the author of the site? Run a Google search to see what more you can find out on the Internet about the reliability of the author or the Website.
( 2 ) When was the site posted and when was it last updated? A genuine and active site would have new information added regularly.
( 3 ) Why do i think this site is a credible source of information?
( 4 ) How do I know that?
Visit www.media-awareness.ca for more details on how to verify online information.
