Evaluating Web Pages

All About Explorers

In evaluating the 'All About Explorers' web page, I found a site designed specifically to teach middleschool students that not all information on the internet is reliable. Although it ended with '.com', it was not commercial at all. This web page includes a webquest, lesson plans for teachers, and information about the qualifications of the authors and contributors to the site. By researching genuine explorers, students are given false resources (created by the authors) and legitimate resources to compare differences. Students are given topics to research along with an evaluation rubric. They are instructed to work in groups, organize and analyze their information, and prepare a power point presentation regarding the reliability and unreliability of internet web sites. I believe this site is informative, geared appropriately to the age level, and would be a great way to include this in the curriculum.

The only thing I didn't see on the webquest was the cso's that this webquest met. While the site was recently updated(withing the past few months), several of the websites students were directed to, did not work. Overall, I thought Mr. Aungst (Curriculum Specialist) and Ms. Zucker (Research & Content Specialist) created a reliable and useful site to help students locate good information and evaluate web sites.

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Web 2.0 Educational Technologies

One of my first Web 2.0 bookmarks is for a well known resource called Teacher Tube. This website has lots of video's, presentations, and other resources that are used to present a lesson. For example, if I need to prepare a lesson on bullying, there are videos available (for various grade levels) that can be used as a starting point to introduce the topic. With additional activities / written assignments, etc., Teacher Tube can help me round out the lesson. It's also a great place to go for ideas about how to present a topic. As a teacher, I would use this as a resource and is one of my top choices as a bookmark on Delicious.