One Step Further (ICT Integration)

ICT resources for maths teachers

The purpose of a web site

The purpose of a site is the reason for the information being there - the aim of the site. One has to ask oneself, "Why did this person publish this information?". Not all web sites have a clear statement telling you about their aims. You may need to look for other clues, such as:

Are they trying to convince us about something, for example, to buy something or to believe something?
Is it a government information site or a university site (these are normally quite reliable sources of information and their purpose is to share the information)? However some government sites may present a particular political perspective.

Advertising on Web sites is a common phenomenon. Advertising is not necessarily a bad thing on a Web site. People managing Web sites that you can access free on the Internet, make use advertising to pay for the costs of running the site.

When you use the Internet, read the newspaper or watch television it is important to distinguish the advertising from the other content.

Whereas assessing the accuracy of the site, detecting bias and finding out who the authors are may sometimes be quite simple tasks, trying to find out the purpose of the site is often something you have to infer, deduce or even guess.

Credibility

Credibility refers to whether something is believable and trustworthy. When you look at Internet information, you want to know the basis of the author's authority. You need to know how to look for information and clues to decide whether the author or the writer is really qualified to say the things he/she is saying. Assessing credibility means that you have to examine the sources of the information i.e.

Who wrote the information?
Who are they (whether individuals, groups, or institutions)?
What experience or qualifications do they hold relative to the material they are providing?
What interests do they have in promoting certain information and points of view?

Once you have found the names of the authors, look to see if there is some way of contacting them. This is usually found at the bottom of the page. There should be some kind of contact information.

The authority of the author is often related to the legitimacy of the sponsoring organization. A credible sponsoring organisation is not likely to host information by non-credible authors. Look at the web site address and the logo on the page to see if you can establish something about the organisation that hosts the site. For example if the web site ends in edu, it is likely to be a university, but if the web site has k12 or school in it, this is a school. Government sites often have gov in the web site address.

The use of a ~ in a web site address e.g. http://www.linfield.edu/~pswanso/ (online) indicates that the information appears on a personal web page. This normally means that the information on that page (Peter Swanson's site in this case) may not carry the same credibility as the sponsoring organization (which is an edu address in this case - an educational institution).

Accuracy and depth of information

If the author of a site includes a source bibliography, you or the learners can consult these sources to find additional information about the topic and compare the author's content with other works. Other questions that you can ask yourself are:

Are the references clear enough to follow up?
Are the sources used of good standing?
Are the links contained in the web site connected to well respected/valid resources?
Is the information correct? Can the information be checked?

Bias

Bias is information that expresses a particular, one-sided opinion or belief about something. This means that the information may not be accurate. It is important, when evaluating information, to ask yourself: Does this Web site present a particular bias in the information it offers?

One of the things you would have noticed in the section on Purpose, is that it is sometimes the purpose of the publisher of the site to offer you a one-sided viewpoint on an issue. Sites promoting social biases (gender, racial, religious, or other types) rather than enlarging the views of the reader should only be considered useful if you are specifically looking for that kind of information.

If you are looking for balanced viewpoints, you may want to see a range of different perspectives reflected in the information. You might also look for other viewpoints in other web sites. Bias is not necessarily bad, but if you want to develop an informed opinion you have to read the opinions of a range of people or organisations.