EDGE Institute 2014

Untangling the WebWendy Sarino

Agenda

• Domain & Guiding Question

• Objectives & Success Criteria

• Determining Authority & Accuracy of

Websites

• Continuing Support & Next Steps

Session Domain and Guiding Question

Student EngagementWhat strategies help students take ownership and independence in their own learning?

• SE3 Engagement Strategies: High cognitive demand.

• SE1 Intellectual Work: Quality of questioning.

• SE2 Intellectual Work: Ownership of learning

Session Objectives and Success Criteria

• Objective– Participants will understand the necessary steps

to determining authority and accuracy of a website

• Success Criteria– Truncate URLs– Filter websites by domains– Locate author information– Triangulate (different sources that agree on the

same point through Google search tools)

Web Literacy

Web literacy goes beyond reading the content of the web. It is:• Becoming knowledgeable in the grammar

of the internet (URLs & domains)• Finding out who published a website• Determining the accuracy of the

information posted on a website• Becoming a skillful web researcher

Understanding URLs

Grammar of the Internet

Foreword

Keywords: The more you use, the more results you get.

Truncating URLs

• Place your cursor in the address bar of Explorer

• Use the backspace key to move backwards one section at a time

• Delete the parts of the address separated by the "/" and click the Enter key (sometimes you may need to take the "/" off as well)

Author or Publisher Credentials

• About Us• Contact Us• Email address associated with URL, domain

name, organization/company name– Beware of email addresses from common email

providers • Gmail• Yahoo• Hotmail

Behind the Scenes

Use www.whois.sc to find out who registered for the domain name of a website.

Web Extension/Domain Suffix

.com Commercial site. The information provided contains commercial interests and generally will promote or put a positive spin on the idea(s) or information being posted. While the information might not necessarily be false, you might only be getting one side/perspective of the story.

.edu Educational Institution. These sites are often colleges & universities. The information is generally considered credible, as many professors post information from their own research or areas of study or expertise. Be sure to examine if the information was posted by a student! Often students will post their work to .edu sites. Also, check the background of professors to determine possible biases.

.gov Government site. The information posted is from a state or federal government. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. The information posted is gathered from the government’s own collection of statistics, data, reports, and court rulings. The information is considered a credible source.

.org Organization. The information is typically gathered and posted by a non-profit organization. The information posted is generally unbiased and credible; however, it must be carefully evaluated, as organizations do not always have the best interests of all people and exist because of a special interest.

Browse by Domain Suffix

• www.yippy.com

Checking for Accuracy #1

• Look for(s): Bibliography, Reference, Works Cited

Checking for Accuracy #2

• Highlight & Copy

• Paste

Google Search Tools

Student Engagement• What strategies help students take ownership and

independence in their own learning?• SE3 Engagement Strategies: High cognitive

demand Analysis & evalution.• SE1 Intellectual Work: Quality of questioning.

Asking to justify authenticity & reliability of a source.• SE2 Intellectual Work: Ownership of learning

Students use own methods of searching for information on the web. (Keywords, search engines)

Continuing Support

Watch a tutorial through Atomic Learning.

Thank You

End of Session