Teaching & Website Evaluation

We have previously learned that websites need to be evaluated prior to any classroom introduction. How teachers need to evaluate websites for use in their classroom is to check EVERYTHING! Primarily, they need to decide whether or not this website is appropriate and/or relevant. The teacher needs to go to this website and evaluate it. I would recommend taking time out to click on everything and re-read the site! Refrain from just glancing at it and assuming it is okay! It is not alright to use the average way of evaluating websites that WE use! A quick glance and a few clicks does no justice, because there may be many things overlooked and possibly hidden within the main part of the site. If any references are listed, those should also be checked to make sure they too are appropriate, relevant and real. If you are using a website in the classroom, there will be well over a dozen different people utilizing the site. This means that even the slightest slip-up could cause disruption. Teachers should make sure that the site is fair in regards to religion, race, color, sexuality, etc. With a diverse student population and the world we live in today, we can never be too careful, ESPECIALLY on computers. By evaluating the site first, not only are we helping to ensure safe and appropriate use, but we are also becoming educated about the site through kinesthetic learning.

Why teachers need to evaluate websites for use in the classroom is primarily for safety. For example, we viewed a website in class that looked like it was an appropriate site for Martin Luther King; only to be quite the opposite. It was a site dedicated to racism, explicit wording and slandering. The site LOOKED like any other site, but once we clicked on links and slowly viewed the site with critical thinking, it was obvious that this site was an explicit fraud. Now if that kind of assumption that it LOOKED legitimate were done prior to a lesson in class, the kids would have been exposed to extremely explicit material and depending on what age, could have been fully aware of what was shown or just learning for the first time; NOT the kind of outcome we would desire!!! Also, I know from experience that some administrators require things, such as web-use and movies to be approved or denied prior to classroom introduction. Imagine going to the administration with a website that is irrelevant, fake, inappropriate and/or explicit!? Now THAT is certainly not something we would hope to experience. The bottom line is that the internet is a WONDERFUL tool, but has to be monitored very carefully when being used as an educational tool.