Online Information Literacy 1206046725957460 5

Online Information Literacy (or, how to make sure you get good stuff off of the Internet for your papers and projects)

What? You mean not everything on the Internet is true?
No! Anyone can write anything they want on the Internet. The trick is to learn which websites are most likely to have good, accurate information.

Which websites should I use?
Just because a website looks professional doesn’t mean that it has good information.
Sometimes fancy websites are created by people who want to sell you something, so they will try to convince you to believe what they believe so you will buy their product.
There are a few tricks to make sure that you get the best information off of the Internet.

Web Address
When you look at this web address, what do you see?
http://www (you’re looking at something on the World Wide Web)
broward (the page comes from Broward County)
.org (the page was created by an organization)
/library (the page is about the libraries)

Extensions
The first thing that you should look at in a web address is the extension (the three letters that come after the last dot)
.org = organization
http://www.broward.org/library = Broward County Libraries
http://www.redcross.org = the American Red Cross.

Extensions
“ Safe” Extensions
.edu = education (a school)
.org (an organization)
.gov (the US government)
.us (a state government)

Extensions
Questionable Extensions
.com = commercial (a company or an individual)
.net (a company or an individual)
.info (a company or an individual)
.ws (a company or an individual)
.tv (a company or an individual)
.name (a company or an individual)

So, where are the good sites?
You can use a variety of search engines to find good websites. My favorite one is google.com. If used correctly, it can be a way to find tons of information that you can trust.

Finding Good Sites
See the link on the right that says “Advanced Search?”
Click on that link to bring up the Advanced Search page.

Finding Good Sites
About halfway down, you’ll see an option to choose a specific extension (domain).
In the empty box, type: .org, .edu., .gov, .us

Finding Good Sites
At the top, type in your search terms, like “ice cream” or “Agatha Christie”.
Now, click on the Google Search button. The only results you’ll get are pages that end in .org, .edu, .gov., and .us.

But I can’t find a .edu, .gov, .org, or .us page that tells me what I need!
Ask yourself these questions:
Who created this webpage?
Who was the page made for?
Does the author have any reason to make me believe something that may not be true?
Is the author an expert on this topic?

Finding Good Sites
Or even better…
Ask your librarian or
school media specialist!
Unless your teacher tells you that you have to use information from the Internet, you can use a wide variety of resources to make your report or project the most accurate and informative that it can be.

The Problem with Wikipedia
It ends in .org, so it must be okay…right?
Wikipedia is a great website. It’s probably the largest encyclopedia either online or offline.
Unfortunately, it’s what makes Wikipedia so special that makes it not appropriate to use for school assignments.

Go to http://www.wikipedia.org
In the search box, enter Broward County Library and press the > symbol.

What comes up is the Wikipedia page about the Broward County library system.
Notice at the top, the tab that says “edit this page.”

On this page you’ll see the box where users can input information to update or change this page.
On the first line, where it says “The Broward County Library was established in 1973…”, change 1973 to 9999 .
Scroll down, and click “ Save page .”

The Problem with Wikipedia This isn’t right!

It’s not true, but that’s what Wikipedia says.
Anyone can change the information on Wikipedia to anything they want. It’s true that Wikipedia has people who check to make sure that bad information gets thrown out, but that takes awhile.

The Bottom Line
If you have any doubts about whether or not the website you’re using has good information…ask!
A parent
A teacher
A media specialist
A librarian

Online Information Literacy 1206046725957460 5

by menerando on Apr 15, 2008

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