Website Evaluation

When it comes to choosing appropriate websites for use in a K-12 classroom, I initially felt that I had all of the tools to make wise decisions. Going through the process of evaluating websites for reliability and usability was such a useful process.  This really helped me take a closer look at what information is imperative for classroom use. Most importantly, it helped me see how this can impact students when this crucial information is lacking.

Up until this exercise, I hadn't put much thought into checking when the information was published or updated. In such a fast moving and quickly changing age it is extremely important that we are exposing students to the most up to date information available. In addition to this, another aspect I find easy to overlook, as it is often hidden or hard to put together, is the potential bias of the material. Checking the publishing body of the site or funding will help you get an idea if the material is objective or not.

Now that I've had this experience of really analyzing and thinking about the information I'm given on the web I feel much more prepared when it comes to choosing websites for use in the classroom.  In the future, when I'm encouraging a child to use the web as a resource I will know what to recommend, or look for ahead of time.