Do you trust all the websites you visit? Are they reliable or not? It is highly important to be aware of certain aspects to analyze at the moment of looking for information online.
After a detailed analysis we did of two useful websites for teachers (http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish and http://www.eslkidstuff.com/) we consider that among the criteria the British Council suggests to follow when selecting websites, there are four of them which are the most important ones (images taken from eslkidstuff website):
After a detailed analysis we did of two useful websites for teachers (http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish and http://www.eslkidstuff.com/) we consider that among the criteria the British Council suggests to follow when selecting websites, there are four of them which are the most important ones (images taken from eslkidstuff website):
- Reliability: it refers to the
authors of the websites. Information about who they are, what they do, their
experiences and a way to get in contact with them. This information will tell
you how serious and reliable the web could be.
- Currency: up-to-date information is
a key factor when evaluating a website. Looking for dates when any new link or
content was uploaded will make sure you are working with the latest
information.
- Clarity: the information presented
should be clear. The texts should be legible and well formatted for easy
reading and graphics have to be related to them. There should not be mistakes in spelling and
word usage. This will tell you that authors pay attention to the texts or any
other written or spoken information they share in the website.
- Purpose: if you want a web page with
an educational purpose, look for those which make an explicit reference to it
and evaluate if the content is coherent with it.
Hoaxes present a major challenge for evaluating information of websites
so you have to be very careful!
We hope these tips help you to
avoid using fake web sites.
Camila and
Ma. Laura
