Website Credibility

Personally, I didn’t learn a lot about source credibility until I was in high school. Of course I was always told to “check your sources” but usually I just took that as “make sure you have a source.” Now that I have used many sources I realize that there are sources that are giving the readers real, factual, and non bias information and then there are those sources that give that are feeding people pure opinion and half true information.  Take for instance the website Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination , which we were asked to look at in class, the website looks pretty informative and well put together.  If you look at the website again and it creators, it was created by a white supremacist making the information extremely bias.  Now that the use of technology in the classroom is increasing I can see why it is so important for student to know how to weed out non-credible sites for credible sites.

When it comes to teaching students about credibility of websites I think it changes from age group. I think for grades 3^rd  and younger it might be a good idea to give them a list of websites and go through them with the students.  Older student are more depended and can figure out more on their own. When teaching about credibility I would start off by going through a checklist of things the students should check in their resources.  First, I would have them look at the website URL because that gives them a basic idea about the website.  For example, if the website is .edu then it is more likely to be educational and if it is .org it is from an organization and may have a bias. Second, I would have them check the creators/ authors of the site because as seen in the Martin Luther King Jr. website it can change the reliability of the website.  Third, I would have the student check the dates in the websites because some websites are outdated making the information unreliable. If the website’s information is more current the more correct it may be.  Lastly, I would have the students read the content and judge for themselves because some statements may just seem off.  I also think it would be a good exercise to give the students a list of websites and ask them to find out if they are credible or not and then explain why.