Monday, June 22, 2009

Teaching Elementary Children to Evaluate Websites


Well, this is a cop-out; I actually have nothing to add; but I discovered that Kathy Schrock has created a great Evaluation Guide, for teaching elementary kids how to evaluate websites: Kathy Schrock's Guide

I want to pass on Schrock's Evaluation Form, that was created for elementary children to complete. I like the way that her evaluation begins by having the child list the name of the site and by copy-pasting the URL. Children in elementary school are learning things from the most basic level; and they need to be taught how to identify the most basic of information.

The child is then asked to determine the following [these are paraphrased and loosely interpreted]:
  • How fast do the pages load?
  • How big are the images and what is the quality of the images?
  • Are there sounds? What quality are the sounds?
  • Is the spelling correct?
  • Is the author's name and contact info on the site?
  • Is there a date, telling when the site was created [updated?]
  • Do the pages have titles?
  • Does the author say things that you disagree with?
  • Could you have gotten more and/or better info from an encyclopedia?
  • Are there links to other, useful sites?
  • Did you learn from the site?

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