Week 3: Overview: Evaluating Web Resources With a Skeptical Eye.
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Objectives:

• Read the IMSA 10 Tips for Website Evaluation.
• Apply the IMSA 10 Tips for Website Evaluation to discredit hoax websites.
• Review alignment to National Standards.
• Try an online learning module.
• Reflect on your online experience to date. (Midterm Discussion.)

Overview: Evaluating Web Resources with a Skeptical Eye.

“ There’s a sucker born every minute.” – Erroneously attributed to Phineas Taylor Barnum

Barnum would have loved the Internet. It is an amazing tool that is used daily to both inform and fool the user. Part of our challenge is to create a skeptical, and inquiring mindset in our students that prepares them as consumers of information. Specifically teaching evaluation skills will help students distinguish the gold from the garbage.

Let's start by examining our own dispositions. What do you see in your first look at a webpage? How do you determine the accuracy, and authority of a source? Does the presence or absence of pop up ads, professional web design, pleasing colors, or fast loading multimedia sway you? As literate consumers of information we develop an internal checklist—a quick reference that allows us to determine the value of a web resource. During this unit we ask you to apply both common sense and technical evaluation criteria to ‘questionable’ websites that prove you can't judge a webpage by its cover!

Let's start with this week's Activities!

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