Criteria for Evaluating Information on the Internet (PDF)

Searching the Web and Understanding Search Engines
AltaVista
Search the Internet for Web pages; news; and audio, video or image files.
Google
Search the Internet for Web pages; news; and audio, video or image files.
Alltheweb
Search the Internet for Web pages; news; and audio, video or image files.
VeriSign WHOIS
Find out who has registered a domain name.
SearchEngineWatch
Access tips on searching the Web and an analysis of the search engine industry.
Wayback Machine
Access a digital library and archive of the Internet.
Search Engine Positioning
Service providing search engine optimization for clients.

Hoaxes and Urban Legends
HoaxBusters
Information about hoaxes, chain letters, urban myths and other bogus information being routed around the Internet.
Urban Legends and Folklore
Articles about urban legends.
Museum of Hoaxes
Promotes knowledge about the phenomenon of hoaxes.

Fake Sites
Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
List of More Hoax Sites
The White House
California Velcro Crop

Decoding URLs and Other Technical Strategies
John Hopkins University Library URL Decoder
Tips on understanding and decoding URLs.
UC Berkely Glossary of Internet and Web Jargon
Help with understanding and decoding URLs.
Psalms Scroll
Good site to practice truncating the URL.
Wildlife Trails Education Project
Good site to practice identifying frames and where are you on the Web.
link:http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~abutz/index.html in AltaVista
Good site to practice investigating who links to a particular site.

Articles on Internet Credibility
Teaching Zack to Think
An article by Alan November about a student writing a paper about how the Holocaust never happened.
Grammar of the Internet
How to evaluate information on the Internet by Alan November.
Whales in the Minnesota River?
New York Times article arguing that skepticism is necessary when navigating the Web.

Teaching Web Evaluation
Evaluating Web Resources
Many links, including to sites with activities, pages to examine, and sites with strong bias.
IC You See Guide the the World Wide Web
A guide to critical thinking about what you see on the Web.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Examples and criteria that explain why it is a good idea to evaluate Web sources.
John Hopkins University Library
Article titled "Evaluating Information Found on the Web"
UC Berkeley Library Teaching Tutorial
Techniques to apply and questions to ask when evaluating Web pages.
Kathy Schrock's ABC's of Web Site Evaluation
Handouts and lesson plans for teaching Web site evaluation.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators at Discovery School
Tools for helping students critically evaluate a Web page, including surveys for elementary, middle and secondary school students.

Lesson Plan Ideas
Web Saavy Student Curriculum
New York Times Education Section Daily Lesson Plan
Education World Curriculum Article
Media Awareness Web Awareness for Teachers overview