Website Evaluation

This week we searched for math websites online under a bit of a high pressure game. The rules of the game were that we needed to post five math websites to our class' discussion board without repeating websites that other students had posted. Had the task been to merely post five relevant math websites for teachers/students I would have seen no problem. However, as students began posting sites I noticed that all of the sites I used were already being posted. Now I had to go find new websites, and as quickly as possible determine whether it was worth posting to the discussion board or not.

After reading the website evaluation articles given to us in class I realize that there is much more to "glancing over" a website to determine whether or not it would be relevant or useful for fellow math teachers. While I have noticed the date websites were last updated before, I do not find myself searching for that information when I am browsing websites. Usually if I linked to it through google, or heard of the site through a friend and feel that the interface is user friendly I have no problem with the website at all. Now I find out that I'm supposed to be questioning who made the website, and where the information came from to name a few. And I thought research on the web was supposed to easier.

In some regards doing research on the web is easier, but when did you ever hear of people thirty years ago doing research at the library wondering if a book was a legitimate resource or not? Now I'm supposed to decide based on information provided to me on a website, whether or not it is credible? Well how do I know if the person who created the website is actually telling the truth about their background if I cannot find any other information about them on the internet. There are no laws that say you can't lie about yourself on your own website. So this process of evaluating websites is becoming more complex than I had ever realized before...