Search Engines
Educators try to guide students toward scholarly sources, but that is sometime hard to determine using the internet. Search engines, by their very name, search for information and allow the researcher to determine the validity of the sources. I personally use metacrawlers to search for information, "These programs use more than one search engine at the same time to locate things" (Roblyer & Doering 2012, p.219). The volumes of links provided by search engines may lead to confusion. Decipher the parts of the URL (uniform resource locator), and scholarly resources are a bit easier to find. Roblyer and Doering (2012) provide the explanations of the parts of a URL in Figure 7.3 (p.217).
Website Evaluation Video
Website Favorites
Favorite Website #1
National Archives
This repository of historical data is amazing. Yes, this does make me someone who loves history, but just try it and I think you might agree. If it is U.S. history you are looking for this is the place. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss the necessity of easy navigation, and I feel it is extremely easy to navigate (p.255). I would use this website to have students research both people and events in U.S. history. Look for Theodore Roosevelt to get a better idea of the website. Love this site.
Library of Congress
This website has videos, pictures, and so much other information an educator really just has to pick a topic. I value this as a great starting point for research, and the stock photos are incredible. The webpages are visually designed quite well, and the website it is very well organized. There is a multitude of authors (library), and there is specifically a tab in the toolbar for education materials. Please try this one as well. The Library of Congress works for teachers covering just about any topic.
Favorite Websites #2
Chicago Public Schoolhttps://cpssocialscienceinstruction.wikispaces.com/
This is the perfect wiki for K-10. Resources and guidelines for teaching designed in association with the Department of Literacy. This wiki is for teaching Social Science. The site is well organized and is intended for educators.
References
David L. Rice Library, (2010, January 15). Evaluating Websites.wmv [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/14KFEJIEUrM
Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.
I like your choice for your first website. Using archives.gov allows students to get directly to the source of legitimate, primary resources. This reliable website prevents student from using information that may be "incomplete, inaccurate, and/or out of date." (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, 255).
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to refer students to .gov resources. These government sites are usually free of ads and sales pitches that can distract or lure students into bad choices (Robyler & Doering, 215).
ReplyDeleteThe National Archives looks like a great resource for those in the history profession, and the site is clean and appears to be easy to access. For such a large database, having a site that is easy to get around is important. The fact that it is .gov also lets students and teachers know that it is safe. As Roblyer and Doering (2012) say, "only a few years ago, only the domain designator differentiated the website for our national Executive Branch, from a pornography site" (p. 214). Having a safe domain will ensure that a mistake like that won't happen!
ReplyDelete