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Dr. Christie's Internet Safety Guide: Evaluating Web Sites

What Sites Are Appropriate for K-12 Students? How Do Teachers and Parents Evaluate Web Sites?

Pitfalls and Perils

Most Internet sites are well organized, informative, written by a trustworty author, unbiased, and can be confirmed on other sites. However, there are a number of sites that are unsuitable for use in K-12 classrooms. Unlike books and journals, there are no editors, proofreaders, or reviewers monitoring the Internet. So, before using an Internet site, evaluate it for suitability in your classroom.

Train your mind to think critically, even suspiciously, by asking a series of questions that will help you decide how much a web page is to be trusted. Use many of the evaluation techniques and checklists listed below to help you with this process.

Potentials

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluate Internet sites using a variety of questions and criteria listed below:

• The CARS Method (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support)
• The Quick Method (QUality Information ChecKlist)
• UC Berkeley: Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
• State University of New York: Evaluating Web Content
• Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources by Susan Beck
• Evaluation of Information Sources by Alastair Smith

Criteria Used by Librarians to Evaluate Reference Web Sites

• Quality, depth and usefulness of content
• Clear statement of the content, including any intended biases
• Appropriate links to other Web sites
• Attention to detail; absence of grammatical and spelling errors
  
• Uniqueness of content
• Currency of content
• Up-to-date links
  
• Update frequency is appropriate for the subject matter
• Authority of producer
• Clear purpose and organization
• Ease of Use
  • User-friendly design
  • Easy navigation
  • Good search engine
• Attractive graphic design
• Easy output (downloading or printing)
• Contacts are responsive; e-mail addresses readily available
• Graphics load quickly
• Required plug-ins are available for easy download
• Hosted on realiable, speedy server
• Appropriate use of the Web as a medium
• Well integrated components (audio, video, text, and so on)

(Adapted from Best Free Reference Web Sites, Reference & User Services Quarterly Vol. 45, #1, Fall 2005, p. 39)