How to Teach Social Studies Without a Textbook: Web Literacy and the Social Studies Classroom

Source of Information Alan November

Grammar of a Web page Web addresses are read left to right Unlike in books, there are no page numbers. The way you find a specific page on a site is to have the right address that points to the one page you are looking for. There are no spaces in URLs. Slashes are always forward (/).

What is in a name? thibautconsulting.weebly.com/ Sub-domain Component Two Component One Top Level

Common Extensions.K12Schools in the US.eduEducational organizations (most US colleges).acAcademic institutions (outside US).comCommercial.orgAny organization.govGovernment agency.netNetwork.milMilitary institution (In US)

Grammar of a Web page

Country Codes If navigating to a site that is hosted in another country there will be an additional extension, called a county code. Examples: Sahistory.org.za (South Africa) Kiwirecovery.org.nz (New Zealand) Culture.gr (Greece) tv-tokyo.co.jp (Japan) –

Frame Your Searches for Better Results: How do Search Engines Work Anyone with deep pockets can get to the top of a results list by purchasing key search terms. Avoid sponsored results Different Search Engines work differently. Select the engine based on you needs: – NoodleTools mation/5locate/adviceengine.html mation/5locate/adviceengine.html Will help you choose the best search engines for your needs – Technorati – searches only within blogs – Podscope – searches for audio and video

L The REAL Thing R E A L Read URL Examine the content Ask about the author and owner Links

Read URL You should ask three basic questions when reading a URL: 1.Do you recognize the domain name? 2.What is the extension in the domain name? 3.Are you a on a personal page? Here are a few hints to identify personal pages A name Tilde (~) Percent sign (%) The words users, people, or members

Examine the content Here are a list of guiding questions for judging the content of a Web site. 1.Is the information on the Web site useful for your topic? 2.Are additional resources and links provided? Do the links work? 3.Is the site current? Do you know when it was last updated? 4.Do you think the information is accurate? 5.Does the information contradict information you have found elsewhere?

Ask about the author and owner Ask yourself these questions: 1.Is the author’s name provided? 2.Is there a contact person or an address provided? 3.Is there biographical information provided about the author? 4.Does the author seem knowledgeable? Is he or she an expert in the field? 5. What kinds of results do you see when you do a search on the author’s name? If there is no information about the author, students should be careful about wholly trusting the information on the Web page. They may need to validate more. is a site directory that collects information from the Internet to tack who owns and is responsible for a domain name.

Links When looking at forward links ask these guiding questions: – 1. What are the URLs of the forward links? – 2. Do the domain names change? When searching for back links ask three guiding questions: – 1. Who is linked to the Web site? – 2. Why are they linked? – 3. What do other sites say about the material on the site? To generate a list of back links use with the link: command

In Conclusion It is not only about validating information; it’s about finding quality resources that are “safe” and bypassing unwanted materials on the Web. −Alan November

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