Evaluating Internet Information Resources
Information available on the Internet is not checked for quality, accuracy, and actuality and we as Internet users need to know how to evaluate the available resources. Digital literacy means not only the ability to use and interpret the information but also analyze relevancy and reliability of information.
How educational institutions and private companies from different parts of the world address the issue of quality of Internet resources?
There are certain criteria which are commonly used to evaluate the quality of available information:
- Authority – credibility of the author(s), their profile and public image;
- Motives behind posting – clear indication if the intension is to teach, to sell, to explain, etc.
- Objectivity - important to understand if information represents facts, opinion, or propaganda;
- Accuracy – availability of references to verify the information;
- Timeliness – if information is regularly updated.
Many authors have also mentioned such criteria as:
- Aesthetic - pleasant to view, easy to read, well-structured and presented;
- Feedback option – which helps to contact authors, initiate discussion, and ask questions.
The number of Internet users is growing every year, and we are expecting to reach 5 billion users in few years’ time. It means the volumes of Internet resources will be growing as well.
I think that we need more advanced approaches to help us with information evaluation than we have today. I’d be happy to have a toolbox which can automatically evaluate the specific resource from different perspectives by applying set of selected criteria.
Recent Comments
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This is a very well put together article. I have read through it twice I wanted it to sync in :)
Thank you for your kind feedback. The issue is really very important and I think we should have very intelligent tools available for ordinary users to work effectively with Internet resources.
Nice. I will keep these in mind.
There are some sites that easily fail these criteria.
Then there are sites that are hard to evaluate and we must do our due diligence when evaluating content.
Thank you for stopping by my post. The reliability of Internet resources is a big topic. But we should have a solution which will help us to sort out resources and be sure that we are using the right ones.
Thank you for your input into discussion.
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Totally agreed...
Not sure however poetry will pass the test...
Hm... Good point. I am not good at poetry...
It is a gift
yes, I know... unfortunately... not me...
You have other extraordinary binary gifts...
You made my day! I love the term "binary gifts...".
Lol ... BIG ONEs