Reflection on Website Evaluation Activity

Prompt:

How did this activity assist you (or not) in meeting the learning objectives associated with the evaluation of websites to use in your classroom?

Reflection:

The activity sheet presented important criteria that should be considered when evaluating a website for use in an academic classroom. The worksheet sought to evaluate the website with objective criteria in order to create a quality judgement related to the beneficial use of the website. This is an excellent starting point, but some websites provide more subjective benefits that cannot be easily measured. Wikipedia, for example, is not the strongest website for academic use per the criteria presented on the evaluation sheet; however, I believe that wikipedia has many benefits. It compiles current and well-referenced information from many sources, yet many academics will not allow it to be cited as a reference. There is, of course, value that that decision as quality-control is questionable, but definitely improving. Whether wikipedia can be cited or not, it provides an excellent beginning to research with an overview of the topic and references that the student can follow and cite. Additionally, wikipedia is becoming an ever-more popular website that many people use each day for their own "personal" research. I expect it to become more popular in time.

Deaf Culture Wiki