Thursday, November 26, 2009

How do you determine the value of the website you are looking at?

So as a viewer, how do you determine the value of the website you are looking at? Many groups are coming out with guidelines on how to distinguish a reliable source of information from and unreliable source. For example, the American Library Association has an entire page devoted to it.

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesforkids/greatwebsites.cfm

Another site advises that


"Even the best researchers can be fooled by websites. If there is any doubt in your mind as to the reliability of a website, assume that it is not reliable."

http://www.ehow.com/how_4905241_out-certain-website-reliable.html


Even Wikipedia is not always reliable, as anyone can post or edit previous posts. As with all things these days, take what you read on the net with a grain of salt.

The beauty of the web is that it allows for freedom of speech and thought. As a viewer we need to be able to distinguish the difference between opinions and facts. Quality Assurance Literacy means, in my opinion, that there needs to be an acceptable standard for information provided on the internet. Feel free to express your opinion, but it should not be misrepresented as facts.
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1 comment:

  1. KellyNovember 26, 2009 at 1:22 PM

    One of the things that I have found frustrating when surfing, is that sometimes you can't even find the name of the publisher. How can you trust the information when you can't verify the source. The old saying "believe nothing that you hear and half of what you see" is attributed to Ben Franklin on "thinkexist.com"... but did he really say it?

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