Overview
Before you can introduce web-based resources to your students, it is critical that you have some means of evaluating those materials effectively. The following questions are designed to assist you in examining web sites critically. While there are far more topics which can and should be addressed, this is a good list with which to begin your inquiries.
Audience
For whom is the site written?
What level of expertise - content-based or technical - is implied?
Engagement
How actively can users interact with the materials?
How active is the learning process for users?
What motivating factors are there to encourage users to utilize the site?
Exploration
Who controls encounters with the materials?
Is this learner-driven to any extent?
Is the website easy to navigate?
Does the very navigation of the site provide the user with any important context-based lessons (e.g. pedagogical strategies)?
Authority
How does the site represent "truth" or a narrative story?
Whose "truth" or narrative, is it?
What information are you given about the author(s) of the site?
Evidence
How are arguments laid out or supported?
Is the user left to come to his own conclusions?
Or is the user led to specific conclusions?
Pedagogy
Is there a pedagogical underpinning for the site?
How evident/useful is it?
Additional Online Resources
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, Kathy Schrock , Technology Coordinator, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District (http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/)
Kathy Schrock has developed an large, well-organized, annotated, and nationally recognized guide to assist teachers interested in using the World Wide Web in their classrooms and in their curriculum development work. Her work with website evaluation techniques is used in teacher workshops throughout New England.
Resources compiled and annotated by Beth Terhune, University of Massachusetts, 5/27/99
