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Evaluating Information

Why Evaluate What You Find on the Web?

• Anyone can put up a web page • Many pages are not kept up-to-date • There is no quality control of the web • So…

Use the Who, What and When technique to evaluate…

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Who?

• • • • Can you tell who wrote it ?

Is it a reputable organization, institution or agency that you recognise?

What are their credentials for the subject matter ? Look for links to: “About us”; “Philosophy”; “Background”; or “Biography” If no links or other clues truncate the URL

Before you click to view the page...

• Look at the URL – is it a personal page or site ? • Is the domain name appropriate for the content ?

edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, etc.

• Is it published by an entity that makes sense ? •

News from its source?

• www.nytimes.com

Advice from valid agency?

www.nih.gov/ www.nlm.nih.gov/ www.nimh.nih.gov/ Slide 4

What?

• Where has the information come from- are the sources documented?

• Does it have links to other resources?

• Is it bias or does it present a balanced viewpoint?

• Is it appropriate for your purpose?

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When?

• When was it written?

• Was it written as a one off or is it frequently updated?

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Developing a checklist

• Work in groups of 4-5 • Use Handout 1 to develop a checklist for evaluating information Slide 7

Evaluating sources on Climate Change

• In your groups, look at the sources on climate change and discuss: – Are they bias or balanced?

– Are they easy to understand?

– Can you rely on the facts and figures quoted?

– Which would be suitable sources of information for a policy maker?

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• • • • This presentation is based in part on a presentation produced by the University of California Berkely Library and on the Science on the Internet etutorial.

The presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to modify and use this presentation for non-commercial purposes providing you retain the attribution of all images and credit INASP.

For further information please contact [email protected]

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