1 Lesson 15 Evaluating Electronic Information Computer Concepts BASICS 4 th Edition Wells

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 22 Objectives Identify reasons for evaluating Internet resources Identify criteria for evaluating electronic information Describe software piracy Identify Internet resources Understand the rules of copyright

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 33 Objectives (continued) Identify false information, including hoaxes and urban legends Cite Internet resources appropriately Explore other legal and ethical issues concerning information students obtain from the Internet

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 44 Vocabulary copyright currency hoax identity theft navigation patent plagiarism public domain

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 55 Vocabulary (continued) shareware software license software piracy sponsored site trademark urban legends

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 66 Criteria for Evaluating Electronic Resources Anyone, anywhere, can put anything on the Internet Determining Authorship: – A well-developed resource identifies its author – You can search the Internet to find out more about the originator of information – The domain portion of the Web site address can provide information, i.e..gov is for government

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 77 Criteria for Evaluating Electronic Resources (continued) Relevance and Reliability: – Do not accept information presented on the Internet at face value – Is the site trying to sell a product or service? – You can also check similar resources at the school library Timely Content: – Currency refers to the age of the information. – Check to see how often the site is updated

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 88 Criteria for Evaluating Electronic Resources (continued) Validity and Bias: – A site is valid if it is objective and unbiased – Check resources that contain similar information – Check for spelling and grammatical errors Site Navigation: – Navigation is the ability to use links to move through a site – All links should be: easy to identify, grouped logically, and pertinent to the subject of the original page

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 99 Types of Internet Resources There is a vast array of electronic resources on the Internet including magazines, newspapers, journals, , blogs, and videos Search Engines – Search engines are programs written to query and retrieve information stored in a database – A sponsored site is a site that has paid the search engine a fee in exchange for being listed in the "Sponsored Sites" section on many of their pages

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS Types of Internet Resources (continued) Sponsored sites in a Google search for Web site evaluation 10

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 11 Web Sites and Copyright Rules Copyright is the exclusive right, granted by law for a certain number of years, to make and dispose of literary, musical, or artistic work A trademark is similar to a copyright but relates specifically to visual or commercial images Processes and business methods may be protected by patents If copyright protection has lapsed, then the work is deemed to be in the public domain and is available for anyone to copy

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 12 Software Piracy Software piracy is the unauthorized copying of software When a user purchases a software program, they are purchasing a software license to use the program Shareware is software distributed on an honor system. – Most shareware is free for an evaluation period but requires payment if you continue to use it beyond the evaluation period

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 13 Citing Internet Resources Internet resources used in reports must be cited General guidelines for citing electronic sources can be found in: – MLA Handbook for Writer of Research Papers, published by the Modern Language Association – The Chicago Manual of Style is another source for this information

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 14 Hoaxes, Urban Legends, and other False Information A hoax is an attempt to deceive an audience into believing that something false is real Urban legends are stories that at one time could have been partially true, but have grown from constant retelling into a mythical yarn Warning signs of a virus include an that is: – A warning message about a virus – Wordy or in capital letters – Urges you to share the information – Describes the virus in technical terms – Comes with an attachment from an unknown source

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS Hoaxes, Urban Legends, and other False Information (continued) Hoaxes, myths, urban legends page 15

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 16 Other Legal and Ethical Issues Information obtained from an Internet site and claimed as one's own, even non-copyrighted information, is plagiarism If you publish information about another person and it is not true, you can be sued Identity theft is when criminals gather personal information, acquire credit, and conduct transactions using false identities Pranks and hoaxes may not be against the law, but they can still cause harm to innocent people

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS 17 Evaluation Survey You can use the information in this lesson to construct a survey to evaluate electronic resources Survey form

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS Summary In this lesson, you learned: The criteria for evaluating Internet resources include authorship, content, copyright information, navigation, and quality. The Internet contains various types of resources, including electronic journals, magazines, newspapers, Web sites, and messages. Internet publications and Web site content can claim the same legal protection as books, newspapers, CDs, movies, and other forms that are protected by copyright law. 18

Lesson 15 WellsComputer Concepts BASICS Summary (continued) You must cite any information that you use from the Internet. The MLA style is widely used for citing electronic resources. Internet hoaxes, urban legends, and false information continue to increase because of the Internet. Using the Internet introduces legal and ethical issues such as plagiarism, which is copying information from another source and claiming it is your own, even if the information is not copyrighted. Another growing problem is identity theft, which occurs when criminals gather personal information, acquire credit, and conduct transactions using false identities. 19