“Getting information from the internet is like getting a drink of water from a fire hydrant.”

Mitchell Kapor, Former CEO, Lotus Development Corp.

1. Read the URL

*What is the domain name & what does it tell you?*Is it a personal page?

2. On authorship… who or what? area of expertise?

3. How current is the information?

4. How accurate is the information?

Is this a personal page? Look for a personal name following a tilde ( ~ ) a percent sign ( % ) or question mark (?) the words users, members, or people.

Examples:www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/romeo.html www.hometown.aol.co.uk/mt.ssp?c=9011000 www.silcom.com/~vikman/isles/scriptorium/firearm/match.html

What type of domain does it come from ?.what

• Government

• Educational

• Non-Profit

• For-Profit and more….

What kind of domain is most reliable for your topic?

US Government sites: .gov .mil .us

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/dictionary.html - US gov’t

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts - US military

http://www.ci.broomfield.co.us/ - city of

Sites from other countries: .nz .jp .uk .de .mx .cn .th

www.equineworld.co.uk

www.psychnet.jp.com/dsm_iv/cerebral_palsy.htm

www.uhc.edu.mx

Nonprofit organizations: .org Maybe NOT

www.FeedTheChildren.org  http://www.hopkinsmedicine.orghttp://www.laptop.org

Educational sites: .edu

www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics

blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2009/03/~michele_b

www.qacps.k12.md.us/mms/george/GreekMythology.htm (k thru 12th school district in ?state.US)

For Profit or Free Sites

.com or .net

http://www.bigredhair.com

www.livingbeyondreality.com/HockeySnacks.html

www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/index.htm

the bad news about domain names….

SEVEN new international domains were recently approved by ICANN :.aero .biz .coop .info .museum .name .pro

…so difficult to keep up!

SEVEN new international domains were recently approved by ICANN :.aero .biz .coop .info .museum .name .pro

…so difficult to keep up!

Currently these three domain names are available to anyone without exception:.com .net .org

From: www.igoldrush.com 2008

Every country was assigned a domain name.

Those who don’t need theirs can sell it.Some you may run into:

.tv belongs to the country of Tuvalu (in South Pacific) .fm belongs to Federated States of Micronesia (S.

Pacific) .me belongs to Montenegro .cd belongs to Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa) .vg belongs to British Virgin Islands (in Caribbean)

1. What can you learn from the URL?*What is the domain name & what does it tell you?

2. On authorship… who or what wrote it? area of expertise?

3. How current is the information?

4. How accurate is the information?

Those four things again…

1. Look for “about us” or author name*Google the author to find out area of expertise.

2. Cut back the URL to the .whatever*What is the parent page? Is it credible?

Example: www.silcom.com/~vikman/isles/scriptorium/firearm/match.html www.silcom.comwww.usemb.se/HOLIDAYS/Celebrate/independ.htmlwww.usemb.se

2. Authorship – info from who?

*Find the date the site was last updated.- often at the bottom of the parent page.

- Don’t be fooled by the auto-update feature

Examples:

Reviewed by: Barbara P. Homeier, MD, and Cecilia DiPentima, MDDate reviewed: March 2006

Copyright © 1999-2008 American Academy of Family Physicians

3. Currency – how new is the info?

Look for: Mistpellings and poor grammer Links that dont work Common cense Does the infomation here AGREE with other sourses?

Original artwork by S. Monique Craig

4. Check for accuracy

Use the snopes site to find out if something is real or fake. They do the research, you find out before you pass it on.

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”

Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November, Corwin Press, 2008.

“Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask.”

UC Berkeley Library. 2007. 27 Sept 2007

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html.

“Evaluating Sources of Information. Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/printable/553/