Website Evaluation

The process of evaluating websites requires close detective work and sifting through the site to see what it has to offer and what it is lacking. Before this evaluation I knew what a good website was supposed to be and what made a website reliable as a good source of information. I did not know the process or steps that were necessary to go through to make sure the website you want to use is one that is pure about its intentions as a source of information. I learned that it is important to first check the author or organization of the website to make sure that it is updated often and with current information. I also learned that there are many things that make a website valuable to a wide range of people and their needs or uses for the website.

It was interesting to go through the evaluation process and note how or why someone might need to use the website. That is a very important thing to be determined. If a website is for a specific area of content is not fulfilling in the ways that it should be surrounding that content area, then the website is obviously not going to be as beneficial or helpful to someone as a website about the same content area that can provide many different links or ways to utilize the website for information. The key thing I learned is that websites can appear to look great, have lots of information, but not be true or very reliable to the user. This can backfire.

It was really eye opening to go through the process of evaluating a website and focus on the things that make a website really valuable, rather than just looking at the website and seeing only its outer shell. The structure and content of a website must be evaluated before we, as educator, proceed in sharing them with our students or using them in projects or lesson plans. I plan to use several educational/artistic websites in my classroom to help aid me in teaching my students about the world of the arts. These websites can be great for me to help show my students visuals of the art that has been created, is being created, and will be created. It is so important to have tools or resources such as these websites where I can present the outside world to them in a safe and fun environment. Using websites about art will help me show them art and connect them to artists that we cannot see or learn from first hand because of geographical separations or time.