Friday, July 17, 2015

Blogging Assignment 3: Search Engines and Website Evaluation

Search Engines
            In many cases, certain tools are required for carrying out particular tasks. When it comes to finding quality information, search engines are extremely useful tools. Search engines make it extremely easy to narrow the information that is being searched which allows the user to find quality information with ease.

Website Evaluation
            Here is a video outlining how to properly evaluate a given website in terms of providing credible information…

When it comes to history, the credibility of resources is absolutely essential. This video will be relevant to my history class because it will show students how to find legitimate, historic information.

Favorite Web Site 1
When it comes to the criteria of evaluating website design, NPR is extremely easy to navigate. The home page has a wall of headlines that reflect the top trending stories and tabs are also available at the top of the page for other news. NPR also has a large breadth of news topics that contain follow up and less bias reporting. This would be beneficial to students in a history class setting due to keeping up with current events. NPR can provide students with a large amount of credible information to reflect on and discuss in class.

Favorite Web Site 2

            The strength of this online wiki relating to the evaluation criteria is definitely good structure and organization. There is a menu to the left side of the page that contains links labeled as certain areas of history (EX. Ancient Civilizations, Geography, etc.). After clicking on the desired link, there is a wiki page where people post resources and information relating to the particular concentration of history. This wiki is similar to one I may use in my class due to its concentration of information. Having all of my resources in one, organized spot can definitely be beneficial in terms of organization and efficiency when it comes to learning.  

3 comments:

  1. NPR is a great suggestion for an online resource. It's a wonderful example of teaching students about original content, plagiarism and properly crediting sources (Robyler & Doering, 216).

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  2. Joey,
    I took a look at NPR. I like to know a site is really good before I go searching around. I received a virus and lost about a years worth of information last October. After looking at NPR I have no fear of downloading a virus from NPR. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss precautions against viruses and reputable sites in figure 7.1 (p.216).

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  3. I agree that evaluating webpages is an important skill for someone in the history profession. There is plenty of information out there that is false, so being able to make sure that a page is legitimate is a valuable skill. Not only that, but making sure the website has text that is easy to read, as sites on history are sure to contain plenty of information to read. Roblyer and Doering (2012) agree that sites should be "designed for good readability and aesthetics" (p. 255).

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