Week 6

Lecture Summary

In today's lecture we learnt about elvauation and authentication of a Web site. We were told about the context of the World Wide Web such as:
Open protocols
This contains swift and convenient information exchange and anyone with access to a computer can create a web content.
Open architecture
This has no enforceable quality control and non-enforced classification and met-tagging system.
Not all sites are created equal and to evaluate the IQ on the WWW there are some principle to consider such as:
Content
Visual Feel
Navigation
ease of use


Information resource exist so it can provide a unique insight into the information so that it can be found. Accuracy helps evaluate the IQ of the WW as anyone can publish anythin gon the Web mand can make the information un-credible or reliable. Authority is an issue aswell as it is often hard to determe a web page's authorship, even if the page is signed, the qualification arent usually given. Objectivity is an issue as frequently the goals of the sponser/authors are not always cleary stated. The currency's issues is that publication or revision dates are not always provided and may have various meaning. The coverage issues is that the web coverage often differs from print coverage and is frequently difficult to determine the exten of coverage as sometimes web information is just-for-fun.
Some things to consider with authentication is where is the site, is it a personal hompage of offical sanction. Try to find a name, position and credentials to see who wrote the text. Other considerations is the sources of information, validation of information and references.
Some tips are to look at the URL before you click to view the page. Look to see if it is a personal site, is the domain name appropriate for the content and if the text is published by an entity that makes sense.
We were then told about a group assignmnet that we will be doing of a production of an easy to use guide on how to evaluate, validate and authenticate web-bases information and resources.


Workshop1
In today's workshop i was asked to read an ICYouSee critical thinking page. http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html this page contains stratagies for evaluating the information found in websites. A stratagie i learnt, is to make sure you are in the right place, this tells me that you can not find everything on the internet. But to make sure you are in the right site is to check if the site addresses the topic you are researching and if the page is worth visiting.

The next stratagie i learnt was to look for ambiguity, manipulative, reasoning and bias to check if the information is credible as anyone can put information on the net. Question the authority of all the web sources and do not just accept an authors word without checking for supportive evidence.

The next stratagie i learnt was to consider the source. Try and find out who wrote or created the web pages, not just from their names but from something that indicates they are a good source. Some pages usually provide an 'about the author'.
Another stratagie is to identify why the web page was created. Is the purpose to inform, persuade or is it to sell you something.
Another stratagie i learnt was to check for grammer and correct spelling, this will show me if the page is authentic as a person who has written it for a purpose would have better skills and put more effort into their presentation.
The last stratagie i learnt was to distinguish web pages from pages found on the web, you can do this by deciding if the page was originally an article and not the for the purpose of the internet.


Workshop 2
I now have to read two more articles and compare it to the previous article i just talked about to see if there is anything else i can learn.

The second article i read is called Evaluating Internet Source at http://www.taftcollege.edu/newTC/Academic/INCO48/sec6-4.htm. From this site I have learnt that when you find a an article from a electronic source in a library, then the chances are that it is a reliable source as the librarian has previously evaluated the article and has found it acceptable. But if you use an article of the internet no one has elvaluated it and may be un reliable. I also learnt is to see when the page was lat updated, if the page was has not been updated recently then the laws or facts could of change by now making the information un-credible.


Workshop 3

The next part of the workshop i had to click on a link http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think60.html and complete the excersise required. I have to choose two of the attached five links about the sixties and evaluate the websites. The first article i chose to evaluate is American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969. To me this site does look as credible source. This is because at the bottom of the page it shows the date it was created, the copyright sign, statistics of the sixties, a hyperlink of the writer, the designer of the web page, when it was last updated and the logo of Lone Star College Kingwood Library. This shows me that the website contains actual information that may be correct and has been reasearch, another page that goes to information about the author, the fact that it came from a libray database meaning it has been evaluated previously and that it has been previously updated.

The second web page I decided to evaluate was sixties project Sixties Project. To me this site is not as credible as the one i just evaluted. This is because it does not go directly to the information about the sixties. The webpage was last updated in 1999 this shows me that the information may not be as credible as it is not recent, there is no information about the person/people that created the web page but only has an email and address. This could be seen as a credible source but does not have as much information as the others. The page does have some design but to me this would not be as effective as the other becuase it dosnt get straight to the point.