Come, Watson, Come!  The Game is Afoot
Evaluting Net-based Information

MACUL 2000
Grand Rapids, Michigan
3-10-00

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Sorry for the delay in installing these online handouts.  I had some fairly serious problems with my computer and literally lost the handout pages, so I am having to rebuild them from scratch.  If there is anything that I said would be part of these handouts that aren't, please e-mail me and I will insert it.  Thanks for your patience!

Presented by
David Warlick
Technology Educator & Author
Raleigh, North Carolina
919-571-3292
david@landmark-project.com
http://landmark-project.com/dfw

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Report broken links to david@landmark-project.com

Evaluting Net-based Information

I just learned of this web site through Kathy Schrock's SOS service.  It is mostly aimed at legal professionals, but there it much here that would be helpful for educators. The URL is:

http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/index.html

The Problems

  • Reliability
    Is the information true -- and under what conditions will it remain true?  The research must analyze the goals of his or her task and use those goals to judge the reliability of the information resource.
  • Credibility
    Who has published the information and are the sufficiently authoritative to have published it -- or did they have access to the information that would logically lead to the conclusions they have reported in their web resources?
  • Perspective
    Who is the author and the publishing organization, and what do they have to gain by publishing the information?  Is there any logical reason to suspect that they are reporting the information from a bias?

Investigative Techniques

  • Contact the Author & Publishing Organization
    Send an e-mail message to the author.  If he or she publishing the information on the net, then they should be willing to support it over the net.
  • Research the Author & Publishing Organization
    Use the very same search engine that produced the reference to research the author and publishing organization.  What else have they said over the net and what are other people saying about them.  Go to DejaNews (http://www.dejanews.com) and see what the author has had to say on newsgroups and mailing lists.
  • Back Tracking
    From the web page that you are considering, place the cursor at the end of the page URL and back up to the first forward slash and press <ENTER>.  This will produce the parent page of the information.  If this does not give you the supporting information that you seek, then back up to the next forward slash and hit <ENTER>.   Continue this process, examining the parent pages until you have found the information about the informations publisher.
  • Looking for endorsements and detractors
    Look for other sites that are linking to the information that you are considering.   Go to AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com), and type in the search box "link:" and the URL of the page you are looking at.  Be sure not to include the "http://".  Alta Vista will produce a list of web sites that link to the page you are considering.  Look at the context within which some of these sites link to your information.  You will get tips here as to how others consider the information.
  • Goals-based Approach
    Avoid considering all net-based information by the same criteria.  Your criteria for evaluating information should be based on the goals you have for your task.   If the information helps you achieve your goal, then use it.

Evaluating Infomration Resources: A Goals-based Approach, by David Warlick -- Copyright © 1998 by the author.