Accuracy and Validity of Information

Summary: The World Wide Web offers a variety of resources that enhance education; however, not everything on the web is safe for our students. To ensure that web resources are beneficial to the educational process the following should be reviewed for each site: the content, the site layout, the site author/sponsors, and how current is the information as suggested by http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm. Another resource states five similar areas to be addressed concerning validity and accuracy:http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html suggests that accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage be considered.

Overview: Within our organization we hope to demonstrate to school districts just how cutting edge we are regarding technology. One way for our teachers to prove that we are providing top of the line education that incorporates technology is for our teachers to use sites that follow appropriate validity and accuracy. For example, when parents and district supervisors observe our classrooms we want them to witness beneficial and trust worthy use of Internet resources. We strive to have students sharing sites at home that demonstrate a high quality reference.

Option 1: Provide teachers with training on how to determine if sites are valid and accurate.

• pros: students would be learning reliable/accurate information and not be misguided by outdated texts/resources, teachers could teach students how to evaluate a site's worthiness, parents and districts would see the value in using accurate sites and the value in our teachers who find and utilize these sites, a training could be short and low cost, teachers could be provided with a site they could reference if they had questions concerning validity and accuracy
  
• cons: teachers may think of it as another "thing" to do, unless training is held during required work time teachers may not attend, it may be difficult to find time to incorporate training
  

Option 2: Provide students and parents with a hand-out or website to reference that discusses the important details to check for to determine sites' validity and accuracy.

• pros: low cost, could be a link on district website to allow for easy access, puts everyone on the same page, would not require much time
  
• cons: families and students may forget about it or not see the value in it
  

References:

http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html