Saturday 17 January 2009

Evaluating Internet sites

Here's the place to:

1. Write about the aspects you would use to evaluate Internet sites.

2. Is this step important before you start designing a web-based lesson? Why?

14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. After checking that the content is appropriate both to the age and level of my students, I'd evaluate it taking into account:
    * Coverage
    * Accuracy
    * Authority
    * Objectivity
    * Currency

    In my opinion, this step is really important before designing a web based lesson, since you have to provide your students with the appropriate material - and we can't always trust on what we find on the Internet!

    Dora

    ReplyDelete
  3. My priority will be:
    1. Authorship. When the author is clear, then it is ok.
    2. Currency. I will not take a site that publishes outdated information, especially when dealing with data or statistics.

    BTW, how can we check whether the info from the site is accurate or not?

    To me, all the points made by Geekyteacher are absolutely correct. What we need is then a priority.
    Thanks.

    Agus
    http://agusdepe.staff.uns.ac.id/

    ReplyDelete
  4. OOPS! My comment disappared! will have to do it over again...
    My criteria for site evaluation are:
    authority
    currency
    That is, the source I'm using should be respectful and trustworthy and constantly updated.
    As for objectivity - I doubt whether anything absolutely objective exists... Everything we read is to a certain degree biased... However, it depends on whose bias it is - if the sourse is aknowledged - see authority.
    As for accuracy - I'm lucky enough not to have met any sites with grammar mistakes ( except for forums)
    I do consider evaluation important in web-based lesson planning, as all the links in the resourses you give should work and all the info must be reliable and relevant. Otherwise, you are ruining your prestige in the eyes of your students.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A short note about accuracy - in my prevous post I meant grammar accuracy. If we understand it as the use of references - it is very important, of course. Not many sites have those, which makes it difficult to quote them

    ReplyDelete
  6. For this partcicular project, I would consider them in this order, because I want the students to focus/evaluate objectivity.

    * Coverage
    * Accuracy
    * Authority
    * Currency
    * Objectivity

    This step is essential before you start designing a web-based lesson because you cannot direct your students to just any site. You need to evaluate if it is appropriate for your lesson aims.

    Vicky

    ReplyDelete
  7. Evaluating sites is very important to enhance lesson success. The aspects to take into account will depend on the types of sites and/or lessons but, in general, I think that the most important are:

    Authority: To be sure of the origin of the information and be able to cite it properly.
    Coverage/Audience: Both criteria are closely related depending one on the other.
    Currency: If the content is informative, it will be essential.
    Objectivity: To avoid critical thinking being manipulated.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like all five criteria but am aware that they cannot be equally important when designing a web-based lesson focusing on language.

    For example, I don't think that Currency is very important for language issues. It depends on the content how much or if at all this criterion is critical.

    I have some doubts about Objectivity but not as a criterion itself. In my opinion, a teacher with 30 years of experiences owns some patterns and chooses the organization of information depending on his/her experiences, likes and dislikes. It seems that a subjective element governs this criterion and I don't think it is wrong.

    On the other hand I miss the sixth criterion: Organization. The site needs to be organized so that the users can find basic and additional information and differentiate between them. After evaluating 'The Truth', I found a strong argument for my comment.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Evaluating web sites is a very important step before starting to using it since you have to provide the relevant material to your students. There are various standard criteria which can be used. The aspects I usually take into account are:
    • Accuracy
    • Currency
    • Content
    • Functionality

    Maria Laura Garcia from Argentina

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think I would consider :
    - Accuracy
    -Authority
    -Currency
    -Objective

    This would be important before starting a lesson with websites so we can check the material before working with students
    Isabel Teixeira

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello again!
    I would consider:

    1.age(very important in my case)
    2.currency
    3.authority
    4.accuracy
    5.objectivity

    It is interesting that the tasks were assigned to us first to do the reasearch and then to learn about the do's and dont's. After doing the research and finding what I thought would be most useful, now I find myself wondering "Did I miss something from these evaluating steps?" Which I'm pretty sure I did.
    :) Thank you teachers... I'm learning... :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I would take into account:

    - Authority
    - Audience
    - Coverage
    - Currency
    - Objectivity.

    I'm not sure whether objectivity is relevant to EFL teaching. As regards the others, I believe that it is a must to make sure that the source is trustworthy, and also, to have our audience into account. In my opinion, these criteria are all closely related and the success of our lessons will depend on them all.
    Bye for now, Luján from Argentina.

    ReplyDelete
  13. When choosing Web sources to work with I always have in mind the following:
    authority
    objectivity
    relevance to subject/project
    currency
    and appropriacy for the age and level of my students

    ReplyDelete
  14. 1. I think the most important aspects of website evaluation are
    1) authority (whether the author is trustworthy and competent enough)
    2) currency (it is important in case of news, scientific reports, etc. If the site deals with, say, English grammar, this criterion is far less important)
    3) bias/ objectivity (sometimes biased resources can be very interesting and useful to analyze, but we should clearly understand the author’s point of view and take their bias into account)
    4) audience (the language of the site depends on its target audience, so this criterion is also important for language teaching).

    2. Teachers should be very careful while choosing web-sites for their students, as web resources rarely have editors or academic reviewers, so it is the teachers themselves who are to filter the information they offer to their students.

    ReplyDelete