The Credibility of Websites

Everything in the World Wide Web is not as credible as some people thing, especially students.  I am pretty sure that in the past I probable took some information from some non-credible sources.  It is not like the past when you could only look at published books for information.  The internet is a lot different place because anyone can make a website and put things on there.  The first thing I would talk to my students about when beginning the discussion on whether a website is credible or not, is the meaning of credibility.  Or ask them what makes someone or something a credible source.  I would than tell them that there are a lot of websites that are not credible because non-credible people made them up.  One main step that I would tell them to watch out for that all of my teachers in the past mentioned to me is that .com or .net are not very credible sites.  .gov or .org are usually more credible sites but not all the time.  It can be a helpful hint to keep in mind because .gov is usually from the government and .org can be from a credible organization but, is could also be from a non-credible organization.  I would then tell them to look on the website and try to see if there is a get to know the author or a link that tells them who made this site and why.  Most credible websites have this link and you can see their credentials on there.  Usually websites where the government has made them are the most credible.  If a popular organization made the website and you have heard of them then they are most likely credible.  If the website doesn’t have any about us and they are giving important information than it is most likely not credible.  A quick way to see if a website is not good to use would be to look at the spelling and grammar of the website.  If the website is very poorly put together with a lot of words spelled wrong than it is not credible.  Another thing to look for is if you can edit the page yourself.  If anyone can edit the page it is definitely not a credible site.  I am not saying that what the people are putting down is 100% wrong, I am just saying that it is not a good site to get information from.  Anyone could just put whatever they want on that site and not care.  Also anything that has Wiki in it is not a credible site.  Again some of the information might be correct but you have to watch what you are looking at.  I would definitely check other sites and verify that information is repeated in other places.  The more sources from other sites make the credibility of the information more powerful and backed up.  You have to watch out and be careful when you are looking at websites on the internet.  There are a lot of non-credible websites out there.