The Best and the Worst on the Web

For fun and games and pretty pictures, the Internet is a great tool. But can you always believe everything you see on the web?

When you look at a web site, you should think about the 5 W's.

The Five W’s of Web Site Evaluation

WHO

Who wrote the pages and are they an expert?

Is a biography of the author included?

How can you find out more about the author?

WHAT

What does the author say is the purpose of the site?

What else might the author have in mind for the site?

What makes the site easy to use?

WHEN

When was the site created?

When was the site last updated?

WHERE

Where does the information come from?

Where can I look to find out more about the producer/sponsor?

WHY

Why is this information useful for my purpose?

Why should I use this information?

Why is this page better than another?

Always ask yourself if the author is telling the truth or giving you all of the facts.

You can check out web sites for clues that tell you whether a web site is a good one, an O.K. one, or a poor one. Good web sites are interesting and useful. They stay up-to-date and add new things often. A good web site has information you can trust. You can look for clues about who wrote the information on the web site. A good web site also works the way it should without broken links or games that don’t even load. It should also be fun to explore and easy to find your way around. Awesome web sites are the ones that are good in all these things.

Imagine that you are going to do a report on cocker spaniels. Which of these web sites would be the best for you to use for your report? Print out the evaluation sheet from CyberSmart (or a copy from here). Rate each web site using the evaluation sheet. (For this lesson, only look at the first page of the web site.)

Which web site would give you the best information for your report? Why?

It is important to compare sites when doing research because not all sites are equally useful.

True or False?

Cyber Security