Evaluating Web Sites 

 

1.     JUST FOR FUN....

 

Check out a few of these web sites and try to figure out why they are NOT good sources of information.

*       Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies

*       Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide

*       Boilerplate: Mechanical Marvel of the 19th Century

*       Buy an Ancestor Online

*       California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge

*       Feline Reactions to Bearded Men

*       Google Technology

*       MoonBeam Enterprises and Lunar Travel Agency

*       History of the Fisher-Price Airplane

*       OvaPrima Foundation

*       Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

*       Taxonomy of Barney

 

 2.   TIPS FOR EVALUATING WEB SITES

 

All of the following web sites have excellent tips on how to evaluate web sites. Check them all out, and then choose a favorite as your guide. 

*       Quality Information Checklist: 8 QUICK ways to check information on web sites

*       The Five W’s of Web Site Evaluation

*       Ten C’s for Evaluating Internet Sources 

 

3.   ASSIGNMENT

 

Choose THREE of the following topics. Take a brief look at all of the sites in each of your chosen topics. Then choose TWO of the sites in each topic to evaluate according to the criteria on the Web Site Evaluation Form. Altogether, you will have SIX Web Site Evaluation Forms completed. 

 

 

*       A. Smoking and Tobacco

*       The Role of the Media in Tobacco Control

*       Health Hazards of Tobacco: Some Facts

*       Secondhand Smoke: The Big Lie

*       Forces International

*       OncoLink: The Web’s First Cancer Resource

 

*       B. HIV/AIDS

*       Gender and HIV/AIDS

*       A Former Aids Researcher Has Second Thoughts

*       The True But Little Known Facts About Women and AIDS

 

*       C. Immigration

*       The Greening of the Anti-Immigrant Agenda

*       Operation Gatekeeper: New Resources, Enhanced Results

*       Illegal Immigration Is a Crime

 

*       D. Drugs, Hormones, and Human Tissue

*       Human Growth Hormone Stimulation: The Anti-Aging and Longevity Program

*       Human Test Subjects

*       Snow Job

 

*        E. The Oil Crisis

*       U.S. Refining Industry: A System Stretched to the Limit

*       The Energy Crisis Real or Artificial?

*       The End of the Age of Oil

*       Internal Memos Show Oil Companies Intentionally Limited Refining Capacity To Drive Up Gasoline Prices

*       Running on Empty

*       The Silent Oil Crisis

 

*       F. Eggs and Cholesterol

*       Cholesterol Conscious Cooking

*       Why Not Eat Eggs??!!

*       Eggs

*       Eggs and Cholesterol

*       Eggs Come Full Circle

*       Dr. Cholesterol Love, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Egg

 

*       G. The Mayan Calendar

*       Research on the Mayan “Calendar”

*       Maya Calendar and Cosmology

*       Mayan Prophecies and Calendar

*       Dreamspell Calendar

*       Mystery of the Maya

*       Portals of Destiny

 

 

4.   RESOURCES:

 

*       http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm

*       http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html

*       http://www.infosearcher.com/infosearcher/articles/evaluatingweb1.pdf

*       http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

*       http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think7.html