The Internet is an awesome source
of data. Pictures, video, music, text, and up to the minute news
reports are always just a click away. Users of the net, however, need
to realize that an unfortunate part of the Internet's design, is the
reality that there can be just as many false or misleading websites as
honest and well researched pages. Web PI is designed to help
students learn to evaluate the reliability of Internet based websites.
For assistance in evaluating Websites, select the About
PI page and look through the many excellent links on website evaluation.
Student Assignment:
Your teacher will give you a random topic such as my favorite,
"chocolate."
First step, use a web search engine such as
Google to find a webpage based on your
assigned subject.
Next, sum up the data found into a small 40-50 word summary.
Try to find two or more different sources to compare with your site.
(You might consider using a non-Internet based source.)
Summarize the obvious differences between the sources.
Complete the Web Evaluation form and give a personal evaluation of the
reliability of the site.
First Name:
Teacher:
Website Name:
Page was last updated
Website URL:
Brief Summary of Website:
Which search engine
was used for locating
the page?
Summary of Comparison Source #1
Comparison Source #1
Name:
URL or Source Citation:
Type of Media
Summary of Comparison Source #2
Comparison Source #2
Name:
URL or Source Citation:
Type of Media
Website Evaluation
Criteria
Opinion
Short, Descriptive Answer
This is not a simple
Yes or
No
Question
Authority
Who wrote the page and can the author(s) be verified?
Purpose
Is this site designed to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain?
Bias
Can you detect how the author feels about the subject?
Even Handed Presentation
Do you feel that the author of the site is trying to convince
you to one side of an opinion. How equal is the presentation?
Links and/or associated pages
How valuable are the other links included on this webpage?
Presentation
Is the site fun? Is it simple and easy to understand?
Does it provide simple navigation tools for finding information?
Content or site information
Describe the value of the site's content or information.
In one sentence, do you
recommend this site?
This form's data will be deleted. Clicking the
Submit button produces a summary form. You
will need to print your data before exiting.
