I came across a good post on another blog recently and, stupidly, I didn’t bookmark it or make any other attempt to remember what it was. I quite distinctly remember how I found it … I Googled the term ‘eLearning advances’ and started reading.
Guess what (some of you may even be ahead of me by now, but bear with the rest of us slow ones)? I re-typed it into Google and got a completely different set of results. How annoying!
This does, however, raise a few questions. Can we rely on a search engine to help us research/read around the subject? Can we (or should I say ‘should we’) rely on getting the best results from a search engine?
As we all know, the Internet is not subject to any control. As well as there being a wealth of valid information readily available, there are also many ‘dodgy’ sites. So what do you look for to see if a source is authoritative or reliable?
When using print media, you look to see if it is published by a reliable source, and if papers are peer reviewed, edited by well-known people in the field. Web pages don’t go through the same kind of review. However, here are some things you can look at.
- The domain name and URL. These can give you clues:
.ac, .edu – academic or educational institutions
.co, .com – commercial organisations or private websites
.gov - government organisations
.org - non-governmental, non-profit making organisations - The Header or Title
This may sound obvious, but is it a name you know, or has been mentioned somewhere else. Many websites use names which are similar to well known ones e.g. Harverd University (as opposed to Harvard University) - Correct Bibliographic information
The site should contain the correct bibliographic information – who wrote and published the resource. Look for:
- Author’s/Organisation’s name
- Contact details
- An About Us section
- Whether the information is presented with a minimum of bias (political, ideological or other) - A respectable site should say when the resource was published. Look for:
- A publication date – when the resource was originally produced
- A last updated date at the foot of the page
- Common pitfalls
- Do not solely rely on Internet resources; use a variety of materials to be thorough in your research.
- Pages which are linked to are not always as reliable as the one you’ve come from and must also be evaluated
- Don’t always expect to find everything you are looking for on the Internet – use other resources as well.
- Cite your references clearly just as you would printed items.
- Many sites are emotive – they may tell the truth but not the whole truth. Are they selling something or is it someone’s personal soapbox?
- Don’t forget that appearances (and addresses) can be deceptive – think about the reasoning behind sites.
- Don’t lose track of valuable sites – keep track of your favourite sites using “Bookmarks” or “Favourites” – and print out your Link
So … can Google help me? Honestly, I believe it can, but you have to be so very careful with making sure the information is both trustworthy and reliable.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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