Introduction
Imagine this: you're standing the middle of Jurassic Park, surrounded by dinosaurs. How do you know which of them are harmless and which are planning to have you for lunch? Can you tell just by looking?
Of course not.!
The same is true of information on the Internet and the World Wide Web. You are surrounded by sites. Some of them have information you can trust. But some are outdated, inaccurate, biased, or misleading. Can you tell which is which just by looking? Not necessarily. A Web site that looks good may have bad information, and a Web site that looks bad may contain very valuable information. In this Web Quest, you will examine ways to judge the quality of a Web site. By the time you finish, you'll have some valuable skills in judging the quality of information not only on a Web site, but also in books, magazines, on the radio and on television.
The task in detail
After the disaster at Jurassic Park, Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler have to find another way to fund their research in Montana. Ellie talked Grant into setting up a Web site, which will educate the public about dinosaurs. They have hired you as a research assistant.
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Watch this trailer CLICK HERE |
Since Grant still hates computers, your job is to find the Web sites that Dinosaurs.com will link to. You discovered that there are thousands of sites about dinosaurs. Now you need to narrow it down. You are looking for the best sites about specific dinosaurs.
VERY IMPORTANT - Create a folder inside your ICT folder called "Project2 Jurassic" and save all the work relating to this project in here.
Task 1 Why do web sites exist?
Watch this PowerPoint show - can you work out if the site is trying to
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Inform
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Educate
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Illustrate
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Advertise
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Shock
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Entertain
Task 2 Evaluating web sites - what should we consider?
Watch this PowerPoint show about how you evaluate web sites. In evaluating web sites, you would normally consider the following:
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Is it attractive?
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Is there enough white space or is it too busy?
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Is the eye drawn first towards the most important information?
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Is the text legible easy to read?
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Do the images enhance or distract?
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Does the design meet the needs of the intended audience?
Task 3 Evaluating the dinosaur web sites
Thinking about the ideas in task 2 we will now look at the web sites Dr Grant and Dr Sattler are interested in.
Using the web site comparison table evaluate the Web sites listed below. Are they good enough for Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler to include at Dinosaurs.com? Is the information probably reliable from a scientist's point of view?
You can use one of this template for writing up your evaluations.
After you complete your evaluations go to task 4.
Task 4 Conducting Online Research
Now that you can tell the difference between a good site and a poor one, it's time to do some online research. But before we do, first look at this presentation about thinking about what information you use from the Internet and how you can get information more easily.
Choose one of the animals listed below and use a search engine and good searching techniques to find five sites that you are sure provide accurate information. Then write a memo to Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler, listing the sites and explaining why you think they are good enough for links to Dinosaurs.com.
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Part A: Use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo to find the information. Type the name of the animal you are researching into the box, then hit "enter" or click on the "search" button. Be careful -- spelling counts!
Part B: Read each site and use your web site comparison table to evaluate it. You are looking for five scientific sites on dinosaurs. You will need five copies of your web site comparison table to do this.
Part C: Consider whether the data or information is primary or secondary. Read this page to help you decide.
Task 5 A memo to Dr Grant
On a separate paper, write a memo to Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler. In the memo, list the five sites your research found and explain why you believe each site is reliable. Include the title and URL (The URL starts with http:// ) with each site you mention. Mention whether the information available on each site is primary, secondary or mixed.
Click here to see how to lay out a memo in MS Word
When complete, write an evaluation of your work. Click here to download a copy of the template.
What level have you achieved?
Look at examples of work to check your level!
At the end
of this unit
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You should be working at level 5 if you can : I can decide how to choose which is the a better web site when deciding which site to use information from. I can write a brief memo summarizing why a web site is best, describe three examples of primary data and three examples of secondary data
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You may be working at level 4 if you : I understand how to decide of a web site is reliable and what a well designed web site might contain. I can write a memo, Understand that data can be collected or someone else can give you the data
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You may be working at level 6 if you can: I can list some key features about a web site that make it a better site than ones about the same subject. I can use this as a ‘checklist’ to decide of the information on one site is more reliable than that on another web site. I can write a clear memo giving a summary of why a web site is better than another. Say why primary or secondary data/information is best to use in certain situations