Food for thought: Is it a good website?

Websites can become our ally when teaching and looking for novelty or adding variety to our daily practices, but being assertive on our choices is not something that comes out naturally and  out of the blue. One should be mindful, and foremost important, to be as critical as possible and to browse deeply through it to find any information that may come handy and give us a hint of its credibility and reliability.

This may seem a piece-of-cake-kind-of-task, but it is definitely not. It is time-consuming and also requires our undivided attention, if we want to do it properly. On the other hand, it is highly rewarding and it may be an interesting complement to introduce variety, to shake up routines and it serves as further practice on a particular topic that the teacher wishes to enlarge on, or to extend its practice.

As a complementary part of our subjet ECO, I have been analyzing websites based on a specific criteria, and believe me when I say it is worth every bit of our time. I must confess that I wouldn't have payed attention to the analysis of websites before, in fact, choosing a website for me was something instinctive and directionless; I only cared for the attractiveness of the activities proposed there. After having the chance of revising key features within sites, I have come to the conclusion that we should be consciencious before choosing to work with one.

Some criteria that may be useful to apply:

Accuracy: make sure the athor provides e-mail or contact address/phone number and the institution that published the page.

Authority: If your page lists the author credentials and check URL domain. The ones preferred are: .edu, .gov, .org, or .net.

Objectivity: If your page provides accurate information with limited advertising and it is objective in presenting the information.

Currency:  If your page is current and updated regularly and also if the links (if any) are also up-to-date. Pay attention if the page is outdated or to the amount of dead links present.

Coverage: If you can view the information properly and it is not limited to fees, browser technology, or software requirement, otherwise you will be loosing the opportunity of making the most out of it if you do not have the required sofware to view the information.

 If you use this guideline as a framework for your decision, then you won't run the risk of choosing an invaluable website.

The above criteria also applies to our learners. The internet can become a trap for some children if they do not have a steady direction to follow. It is our duty as teachers to create awareness on this issue and to deliver trustworthy information about it. It is pretty common to see very young children in front of the computer, clicking thousands of webpages every day; then, it is worth asking ourselves: how many of these kids are able to distinguish a safe webpage from a crappy one? the answer is alarming. Consequently, helping them to utilice this magnificent tool is our number one priority and should not be procrastinated. This is the only way of showing them that not all information out there is valuable and that a careful selection of the material existent in the web is needed.

 I leave you this quote which I think should be reminded constantly when in panic!

 "There is no reason to fear the Internet. When used properly with the right precautions educates, positively influences, and provides a creative outlet for today's kids."