Week Eight, Evaluation & Authentication, 18th September 2007

Lecture

The lecture explains the quality of getting information from the web by giving us some hints such as Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage. The lecture also introduces us what to look out for when identifying a website. Also a brief introduction on the IQ Context was also mentioned.

Reading

The reading mostly on how to evaulate a web page using tips and strategies and what to look out for in doing an evaluation for a web page. Each readings have different methods of approach and by combining these strategie I can evaluate a web page using these strategies.

Workshop

The workshop had me evaluating webpages and checking for their authentication also a summary of the strategies of researching.

When using the web as research tool one must be careful. By using these strategies one can get the right information on the right topic. Make sure you are looking at the right place since the web is a massive information based system any information can placed in the web. Since almost anyone can use the web read research materials and look for ambiguity, manipulative reasoning, and bias. Examine assumptions, including and perhaps especially, your own. Try to find out who wrote the source such as the name of the author or the agency and something that indicates they are a good author. Try to identify why the wenpage was created and it's reason probably to persuade you or sell something. Look for internal clues such as spelling and grammar also take note of the depth of material covered. See if any data or statistics are placed and are actual data not made up ones.

The next activity had evaluating two sites:

The link from American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969

The website was plain and had no design but the research material covered was in depth as it talk about the cultural history of america in the 60's such as fashion, lifestyle, sport etc. Each material covered were reference from books. This webpage was probably made to show the reader of how people lived in the 60's.

The link from the Almost Great Society: The 1960's

Although the website had a design to kook like a notebook, the research material covered were in depth but showed no evidence of reference or where the author obtain the information the only thing he referenced were pictures. Although it looks accurate the material might be made up since no real evidence shows such as reference. The purpose of this was probably to show someone the about the history of the Civil War in America.