21 st Century Learners

Who What When Where Why EQ: How can I choose good websites for my research? Kathy Schrock’s Five W’s of Web Site Evaluation, 2011 Using the 5 W’s

Who?  Who is the author? Are they an expert about the topic?  Is there information listed about the author’s background/expertise?  Where can you find out additional information about the author?

What?  What is the purpose of the web site?  What information is available? -Is the information the same or different from other resources? - Is the information biased?

When?  When was the site created? (check the very bottom of the web page)  When was the site updated last?

Where?  Where did the author get his/her information?  Does the author cite reliable sources?  Where can you find more information about who sponsors the site?  Where do the links present on the site take you? Are they reliable? Working?

Why?  Why should I use this web page?  Why is this information useful?  Why is this resource better than another?

A Uniform Resource Locator is the address of a web page. It starts with and then has a domain name. In the URLs are clues to what kind of site it is:.com.org.edu.gov.net From Get Ready for a Winning Science Project by Sandra Buczynski Reading URLs

.com  commercial sites  primary purpose is to sell something  unrestricted – anyone can create one  information from.coms should be checked for accuracy by finding the information in another source

.org  claims to be created by an organization  may be a non-profit or for-profit group  unrestricted – anyone can create one  information from most.orgs should be checked for accuracy by finding the information in another source

.edu .edu stands for educational  reserved for educational institutions such as universities  usually good resources for factual information

.gov  governments web sites  sponsored by government agencies  Good sources for reliable information

.net .net stands for network  not specific to one user  unrestricted – anyone can create them  information obtained should be double- checked

Evaluate these sites the same way you would evaluate other kinds of web sites. Blogs and Wikis

Blogs  online journals  often contain the opinions of the author

Wikis  think of them as a chalkboard/whiteboard  different people can change or modify information  some may let only certain users change information

Which website is best? Adapted from Get Ready for a Winning Science Project, by Sandra Buczynski If you were completing a research project on hissing cockroaches, which web site would be the best source? html /bugs/madagascar-hissing-cockroach/

Is this a reliable web site?  nk.html nk.html  

Works Cited Buczynski, Sandra. Super Smart Information Strategies. ; Get Ready for a Winning Science Project. Cherry Lake, Schrock, Kathy. "The Five W's of Web Site Evaluation." Web. 5 Dec