Website Evaluation

The internet is a wonderful tool for teachers to utilize in their classrooms. There is so much information out there that a teacher would be doing themselves and their students a disservice if they did not try to incorporate it into their lessons and assignments. It can sometimes be difficult for a teacher to sift through all the sites out there to find some that are suitable for their students. Kathy Schrock's website on how to evaluate websites is a very good resource for teachers to use when trying to find sites that are pertinent and valid for use in a classroom.

Content is really the most important thing to look at when evaluating websites for use. It has to have pertinent, true information that will be useful for a student. Besides content some other things to look for in a website is ease of use, author bias, spelling and grammatical errors, ads/popups etc. An easy to navigate website is not essential (let's face it kids these days will be able to make their way around a site better than a lot of us) but it is always nice, especially if working with younger students. A teacher needs to ask whether or not a site seems to have a particular bias or agenda as well. Sites used for class should be more factual than opinion based so that the student can make their own opinion based on the info. Spelling/grammar is an easy way to tell how legitimate a site is, especially with the ease and quickness of using a spell checker (this doesn't apply as much if the author does not have a solid grasp of the English language, as long as the content is there!). Ads/popups are not only annoying but can be vulgar and many of them children should not see. Teachers need to be aware of what kind of ads/popups exist on a page before having their students explore it.

Kathy Schrock suggests that a great way to look at a website is to apply the five W's to it and see how it holds up. Who is the author of the site and are they an expert in that field? What does the author state as the purpose of the site (if they state any purpose at all)? When was the site created/last updated? Where has the information come from (reliable sources or opinion)? Why do I need this information and how can it benefit me?