Website Evaluation 2

From Library Instruction Wiki

While I was preparing for a teaching interview I developed this idea about how to tell students about Website evaluation. It’s designed to work as a kind of group project and works well if you can tailor the activity around basic life interests of the group. I like to structure it around purchasing a car because I feel like most people have had that experience.

Here’s how it works:

1. Set up a scenario or narrative wherein the class is purchasing a hybrid car. They have done some searching and like the idea of buying a particular car. However, they just want to verify a few facts.

2. Tell the students that they need to evaluate this car on several levels to see if they really want to purchase it. They have an opportunity to speak with three people: a guy in a bar who just bought this car, a car dealer, and a scientist who does research on hybrid engines.

3. The students, through class discussion, decide why each conversation might prove useful in making their decision. (Brief, less than seven minutes, fewer if you have less than an hour…you have to go with the flow of your class.)

4. At the end of the discussion present three different websites: one is someone’s personal site about the joys of owning the car, another is the car’s promotional website, and the final is a technical page about how the car works. (I did this with the Prius and was able to find all three sites fairly easily). *Note: I find it works better if the class can chime in with me, and I like to do this in a computer lab rather than as a presentation so that people can be hands on about going to the site with me.

5. Now you can extend the metaphor, each website is like the conversation that the students were just talking about. You can use the discussion to help find common ground between the points of website evaluation and how we weigh people’s opinions when we talk to them.

This is a pretty nifty way of working with people who are a little afraid of the internet. Most people have had a lot of practice judging if the person in front of them is a reliable source of information, so this exercise draws a parallel between picking reliable personal contacts and searching for information on the Web.

Carrie West--Marylhurst University--Portland, OR