As a teacher, you will constantly be using and/or recommending web
sites. Websites for your students learn. Websites for parents to use at
home. Websites to find information about a topic. Websites to find
lesson plans and ideas. This assignment will help you explore some
decision making scenarios that need to be considered in order to
‘trust’ web site.
Your assignment…
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Find one web site that represents each of the following
categories
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An elementary school web site
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A web site that provides lesson ideas for teachers
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An informational web site that gives basic information about an
elementary level topic
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An interactive web site that allows students to practice a specific
skill or knowledge concerning an elementary level topic.
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Choose and print out an appropriate web site evaluation matrix from
one of the following locations... (you may use different forms for
different web sites)
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Complete an evaluation form for each web site.
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Complete a blog entry about web site evaluation. Information you
could share includes…
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What form(s) did you like/dislike? Why?
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Were there any hidden secrets about a website you discovered by
using an evaluation form?
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What is the value of using a web site evaluation process?
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Are there times you would/would not use a formal evaluation
A note of interest:
I was asked "why does it matter if you dont know who the author is?"
Good question. My response...
Knowing who wrote the webpage can be useful and informative. A web
page may be bias if it is written by someone with a high stake interest
in it and/or an 'enemy.'
For example #1...
A website talks about how wonderful, attractive, and safe City X is.
If that website is written by the main tourist hotel in City X, is it
bias? Have they left out a higher than normal crime rate, the fact City
X may only have 14 days with temps above 58 degrees, or only 1
restaurant in town?
Example #2...
A website talks about how great a teacher Professor Y is.
Unfortunately it was all created and written by Professor Y. Another
site talks about how horrible Professor Y is. Unfortunately it was
created by a disgruntled student who failed a class taught by Professor
Y.
What is the true nature of Professor Y, good or bad?
I hope this gives you the general idea of why knowing who wrote the
site can make a difference.
Citation:
Johnson, K., admin. (2008, September 16). Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved January 07, 2011, from Free Online Course Materials — USU OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.usu.edu/instructional-technology-learning-sciences/principles-and-practices-of-technology/web-site-evaluation.html.
Copyright 2008,
by the Contributing Authors.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.