Blog Reflection #5

MAPping Activity: 

To complete the MAPping activity I chose to dissect the structure of the URL http://www.allaboutexplorers.com. Based on the domain name allaboutexplorers.com I could tell that the site was about explorers, but it did not provide me with much to go on for the credibility of the website. The extension of the website, .com for company, however led me to infer that the credibility of the website is not very high for academic information because this domain can be purchased by anybody. I then used the link command to find the external links pointing to the website, and I only found one website pointing to this site and it was on the homework page of a classroom blog. This did not increase the credibility of the website as it was just linked by one person, and it was for students to complete the webquest on the site. I then conducted a search for the main topic of this website on altavista.com, google.com, and infoseek.com.  I found Alta vista and info seek to be set up the same with the way the information is sorted and both had advertisements. When I searched on Google there were more academic sites that came up with the extensions .k12 or .edu and there were no advertisements. After reading search engine watch I found out that Google was the number one site, Alta vista has fallen on the list, and info seek did not even make the cut. After doing this part of the activity I believe that Google is the best search engine for conducting a search. Then I did the easywhois activity to find that the author of the site is a man named Gerald August from Pennsylvania. This did not increase the credibility of the website because it is a personal page. Finally, I viewed the website’s history to find that the website was created in 2004, and the purpose of the website was to teach students about internet searches and how all information they find on the internet is not reliable. The site was designed to look like a great source to find information on the various explorers, but all information posted about each explorer was fictionalized deliberately. This is just fascinating because if I were still in elementary or middle school and I had to do research on an explorer and came across this website I would have just used the information I found. I would not have even realized that the information was unreliable and basically useless.

After MAPping:

Once I completed the MAPping information activity I was intrigued by what I learned. I am most definitely guilty of taking the first website that comes up when I do a Google search, but now I will dissect the structure of the URL before I select a website. I will also look into the history of and the purpose of the website. Now that I have gone this in-depth to determine the credibility of just one website about explorers, and I found with each step that I took the credibility of the site just depreciated it makes me less confident in information I have used in the past. I know when I conducted research project for schools or various assignments I would conduct a Google search for my information. I would typically select from the first three links operating under the assumption they were the best sites because they were the top 3 on the list. I will now be more cautious about selecting websites to view for information thanks to this activity.

Future Implications:

The implications of us not teaching the students the skills they need to search for information will be that the students will use information from the first site they find when conducting a search. They will also have a difficult time finding information if they do not know the appropriate terms to type in when conducting a search. This will lead to the students having a difficult time finding information as well as finding unreliable information. The students will learn the information they find, and they will learn incorrect information if they choose the wrong source. They will do this in our work we assign them now, and their college work in the future if they are not taught the correct way. This will be counterproductive to our teaching and goals for your students, so it would be advantageous of us to take the time to teach the students how to correctly conduct internet searches.

Advantages of Delicious:

I have begun organizing my favorite and most utilized sites onto delicious at https://delicious.com/aspencer05. I see advantages to using this site and Google Reader as well because I can access my saved links from any computer. All my information can be easily organized in one place, and I do not have to be on my own personal computer to access it. I think I can use these tools with my colleagues at work. We can all save links to useful resources we can utilize in our classroom, and we can share them with one another through this tool. I can also use this with my students. My students can access links to information and activities that I save on my account for them to view. They can also share links with one another to useful websites or sites they enjoy through my discretion of course. This is a really neat tool, and I am definitely going to continue to use my delicious account and share it with my coworkers.