Site Mistaken Identities and How to Avoid the Mishaps

As stated in previous posts, although the internet can be a useful tool, it can be dangerous as well. When teaching a class about the internet, it is very important to make it clear to your students that anyone can use the internet and create websites. Websites are not screened for credibility before they are put out into the worldwide web. This can cause confusion when trying to get to certain websites. Some people follow certain rules when looking for credibility such as "if it has .org at the end, it's credible." But that is not always true you see. As I read in 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web, I learned about some key tips to look for when trying to decide if a website is credible or not. It is important for example to pay attention to the host name or the place where the website resides. This is the first part of a website. For example, for the link of this page: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7378417695609754806, the host name is blogger. As you notice, there are several other components of the link, but the area where this post is held is at blogger.com. It is important to look up that host name to see if it is credible. If you google "blogger" for example, you learn that blogger is a free weblog publishing tool from Google for sharing text, photos and video.

Now, lets use this knowledge to try out other sites for credibility. We will start by testing: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ The site looks believable, it will tell you lots of facts about the endangered Tree Octopus. Yet how do we tell if the Tree Octopus exists? Let's check. The host name of this site is zapatopi. If you search zapatopi, you find that the description is: Website of Lyle Zapato: creator of MindGuard, maker of icons, scourge of the forces of mind control and humble servant of Lord Kelvin. Now I don't about you, but I'm pretty sure that if that is the source that is information is coming from, this information is NOT credible.

Interesting discovery? I think yes. Make sure to double check by searching the host name to see what you learn about it. Sometimes, though, sites can get sneaky and not provide a lot about their host name. So it is important to also look for FAQs or things About the Site. These can usually be found on the web home page or at the bottom of the page. If they are not even listed, they probably also aren't credible. This site: http://martinlutherking.org/ looks credible, yet when you try to look up information on where the information for the site came from, it is nowhere to be found. Another site that looks credible from the outside is: http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/, yet when you look at the About This Site you learn that this site was made by teachers to test if their students were using credible sources.

Make sure to use these tips when testing internet sites! You never know what someone might put out there on the internet!