{"id":621,"date":"2013-11-20T19:31:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T01:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kristendembroski.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2013-12-27T23:10:27","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T05:10:27","slug":"website-credibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kristendembroski.com\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"Website Credibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, as we work on our Argumentative Writing Unit<\/a>, we are currently preparing to locate evidence on the Internet. Before we can find appropriate evidence, we need to learn how to determine which websites are credible and reliable.<\/p>\n

As a pretest, I gave all of my students a handout of Google search results screenshot. I asked them which links they would click on, given our specific topic and purpose. A large percentage of the students chose the first link simply because it was the first link – not considering that the 2nd or 3rd link were actually a better fit. Then, I sent my students to a website and asked them if it was a credible website. The majority of them wrote something like, “yes, because it has good information and facts.” It was then that I knew we needed a conversation on determining the credibility of websites.<\/p>\n

Through our class discussion, I heard the same ideas over and over again – blogs and wikipedia are bad news<\/em>. I fundamentally disagree with these statements, and I have been working on deconstructing this illogic and convincing my students otherwise. Wikipedia used to be considered a highly unreliable source. However, each page now has a list of references and self-appointed curators who monitor the page. While I would not<\/span> use Wikipedia as a direct source in a paper, I would use it as a starting point to familiarize myself with a topic, then follow the source\/links at the bottom for more direct information. Blogs can also be reliable, if written by an expert in the field and\/or if it includes credible citations and resources. UN-teaching these Internet myths has been a real challenge with my students.<\/p>\n

Below is a list of ideas we generated as a class to decide if a website is credible. There is never a clear black\/white answer. It is best to consider all of these ideas together, then make an educated guess as to whether a site is trustworthy enough to include references in your writing.<\/p>\n

If you’d like your own copy, you can download the FREE poster here<\/a>. If you have any comments on this poster – ideas for improvement, or ideas we forgot – please add your thoughts in the comments! Thanks!<\/p>\n

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