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	4 hours

07.3 Practice Evaluation

This section of the course will help you determine the reliability and validity of the information you find on the Internet. Whether or not it is also appropriate for your classroom depends on the characteristics, knowledge, skills, grade level, and learning styles of your learners.

When evaluating information on the Internet, it is helpful to have a list of questions in mind to guide your thinking.

Read the Top Ten Evaluation Tips (the list appears partway down the page as Evaluating Web sites as potential resources) were created to encourage critical thinking skills. Those tips evolved into the Evaluation Form previously examined.

Not all tips will be important in every case, but they help you conduct a thorough job of evaluating almost any web site you may encounter.

Practice Evaluation

1. Go to the Wikipedia web site at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Wikipedia declares itself to be "a Web-based, multi-lingual, 'copyleft' encyclopedia designed to be read and changed by anyone. It is collaboratively edited and maintained by thousands of users via the wiki software, an opensource program first started by Ward Cunningham, and it is hosted and supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. In addition to typical encyclopedia entries, Wikipedia includes information more often associated with almanacs, gazetteers, and specialist magazines, as well as coverage of current events." (quoted from the Wikipedia page cited above)
2. Browse a few articles and choose one to evaluate. Note that there are very current events included in Wikipedia. Since Wikipedia is not peer-reviewed prior to publication, it may contain information this is not fouind anywhere else and the quality of the content may be inconsistent, biased and questionable. On the other hand, articles may be entirely trustworthy. That is for you to decide. (This may also inform your decision whether to allow students to cite information from Wikipedia.)
3. Open the Evaluation Form in a new window (it will do so automatically) so that you have two browser windows open at the same time. Resize the windows so they fit side-by-side. You will be reading and researching information on the web site in the original window while writing your evaluation in the Evaluation Form window.
4. Complete the comment boxes for each of the Ten Tips listed in the left-hand panel. Type your response in the box on the page for each of the ten pages of evaluation questions. (You may skip irrelevant items later, but do all ten this time just for practice.)
5. Look for arguments containing answers to the criteria questions:
   • Seek depth of understanding through the combination of divergent perspectives;
   • Dig into any related sites to check on facts;
   • Back opinions stated with validated facts;
   • Provide a rationale for the criteria you record in the comment boxes.
6. When you have finished you may see the results by clicking on the word Summary.

You may not feel all evaluation questions are necessary, but humor us just for this lesson. Okay?

-- OR -- If you prefer not to search in Wikipedia for an article to evaluate, here's a combination search and evaluation challenge on the topic of Hurricane Katrina and U.S. weaknesses. Be forewarned: try to remain objective.

Click here to view a sample site evaluation.

Copy and paste the Summary of your evaluation into the 07. 4 Forum. If you must complete the evaluation in sections at different times, you may revise your posting. However, notice that the Evaluation form may erase your comments if you leave the Evaluation Form and go to another URL with that browser window. It will definitely lose your comments if you shut down the computer and return later. Please be sure you mark the answers with the corresponding question number or title. Copying and pasting from the form works very well.