Website Creditability

Determining the creditability of a website is something that every person should know how to do, especially since the use of Internet is so prevalent in our society today. Throughout my years of schooling, several people have told and showed me how to evaluate websites to see if the information they are providing is credible. I did some research on my own and found a few tips when looking at websites (ehow.com). The first clue is to look at the URL address of the site. If it ends in .gov, .us, or a state abbreviation it is reliable. We must be careful with the other endings such as .com and .org. The next thing I would tell students is to look for the ~ symbol. This means that the website was created by an individual. Sites created by individuals can sometimes contain false information so we need to be careful with this type. One of the big things to check when searching on the web is the date the website was published. If the information is really old, it probably won't be as accurate as a newer site. Another thing to check is the contact information listed. Sites that are credible usually contain some type of contact and resources. A question I would tell students to ask themselves is "what is the purpose of the site?" Is it asking for money or just providing information? The final recommendation is to read the information provided and see if it is some one's opinion or if they are actually giving factual information. Overall, once people become familiar with a proper website, the overall feel and look will also give hints to the credibility (we still need to be careful when they "look good").

A good way for students to practice determining the credibility of a website is by looking at websites themselves with the intention of finding out if it is a good resource for information. For example, I could use sites such as The First Human Male Pregnancy and Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division as examples of non realistic websites to use. Clearly, males do not get pregnant so that is our first clue that the website is not credible. At first glance, DihydrogenMonoxide Research Division might look somewhat decent, but in the top right hand corner it asks for monetary donations. However, it does have a contact link that sends you directly to the congress site. In my opinion, this website is not credible, however it could be tricky to tell for some people. As I started to look at the other websites on the list, I thought some of them looked fairly credible. However, as I explored the sites, I found that all of them had flaws or false facts.

Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination clearly has some content issues. I believe it is a racist site judged by the content I saw. If you click on the Rap Lyrics section, you would be appalled at the things written. I was skeptical about Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and Dog Island Free Fever from the moment I clicked on the site. I'm not even really sure what the site is because I've never heard of the Northwest Tree Octopus. The URL address also looked a little weird. Have you ever wished there was an island where your dogs could go and live free and wild? If so, Dog Island Free Forever has what you are looking for. On this site, I would encourage students to look for the purpose. Once they begin looking, they will hopefully find that this is not a real place and the information is not reliable. The final site I reviewed, All About Explorers, had me fooled for a few minutes. It looked very professional and credible from the looks of the home page. I started to explore the site and clicked on Explorers A to Z and then clicked on Christopher Columbus. The very first sentence said he was born in 1951 which is very false. This site might include some factual information, but there is also a mixture of false facts.

All About Explorers would be a good site to use when trying to teach students how to determine the credibility of a site. I could have them look through the pages to see if they found anything wrong. The first time they look, they might not notice some of the small flaws. Therefore it would be a good teaching opportunity to show them that we have to be really careful even when the source looks nice and presentable.
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