research on the web – Page 3 – Media! Tech! Parenting!

Back-to-school digital reading, digital parenting, digital world reading habits, homework, parents and technology, research on the web, web research

Digital Reading: How Much Does Your Child Trust Search Links?

Posted on October 31, 2010October 31, 2010 by Marti Weston

If you enjoy this post, check out my August 2010 post about using online databases, Staying Ahead With Online Resources, about online data.

The next time you watch your child begin a web search for a school project or other academic activity, take a few minutes to observe more closely how he or she selects web resources. In Trust Online: Young Adults’ Evaluation of Web Content (this abstract site leads to a free PDF of the article), professor Eszter Hargittai and colleagues form the Web Use Project at Northwestern University, describe how students tend to place huge amounts of trust in the initial hits retrieved by search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

With first year students in a required writing course at the University of Illinois Chicago (chosen because of its highly diverse student body) researchers conducted a written survey of 1060 students enrolled in the classes. Next researchers selected a stratified random sample of 192 students to observe in person as each student performed 12 specific web-based tasks. Learn more about a stratified random sample.

Interesting Observations

To complete a web-based task, students usually went to a search engine.
After search engines presented links, students tended to follow the first few links, apparently assuming that the first links in a search were reliable resources to pursue.
When they looked at a list of provided links, some had difficulty knowing the difference between regular links and sponsored links.
As they followed these links, students did not appear concerned about who authored the sites that they found (only 10 percent of the students commented about a site’s authors or the credentials presented).
To complete tasks students relied on brand names, and corporate brands dominated.
SparkNotes, an online version of Cliff Notes, dominated.
For credible sources many students favored .gov and .edu sites as more credible sites.
Many expressed trust in .org, because they are all not-for-profit sites, although these days just about anyone can get a .org web address.
To verify information, less than half of the observed students consulted a second website.

digital parenting, online databases, parents and technology, research on the web

Do You Know What Makes a Good Website? Does Your Child Know?

Posted on October 19, 2010March 1, 2015 by Marti Weston

If the information in this post is helpful, you may also want to read my post Staying Ahead With Digital Research.

How can one determine whether or not a website is reliable?

Obviously if the website is part of library resources, students and parents can usually be assured of its quality. However, when a child sits down at a personal home computer, makes a general search on a topic for a school assignment, and begins clicking through results, understanding the characteristics that make a website reliable is critical.

Questions to Help Parents and Children Determine if a Website is Reliable …

Is the site visually interesting with an organized layout?
Does it balance writing with helpful illustrations?
Is the writer qualified to be writing on the subject? How do you know?
Can you identify facts and information about your topic that you already know are accurate
Are the fonts simple, easy to read, and uncluttered?
Is the site updated on a regular basis? How do you know?
Are there irritating pop-ups and/or other distractions. (However be aware that newspapers do have these pop-up windows.)

Internet Public Library — Bookmark It!

Posted on October 9, 2010February 28, 2015 by Marti Weston

Parents and teachers are always on the hunt for a reliable Internet site that children can visit time after time and be certain of the quality and reliability of the content. The Internet Public Library (ipl2) fits the bill, a resource that is just as good for adults as it is for children. With a motto of “Information You Can Trust” the IPL2 is a searchable, subject-categorized directory of authoritative websites with links to online texts, newspapers, and other resources. Librarians review everything in the collection.

What to Check Out at the Internet Public Library Continue reading “Internet Public Library — Bookmark It!” →

digital parenting, generating content, parents and technology, research on the web, resources to read

Parents (and Teachers) Ask Why Wikipedia?

Posted on September 23, 2010February 28, 2015 by Marti Weston

“Why use Wikipedia?” adults often ask. What they are really asking is, “Should my kids use Wikipedia, and is it a real reference?” For adults who grew up in the age of multiple volumes of well-documented references, it’s hard to wrap our minds around Wikipedia — and even harder to use it.

Digital natives, however, consult Wikipedia all the time, and the number of users and the content is increasing. According to a 2006 review in School Library Journal, “The popular online encyclopedia, whose entries are written and edited by any user, may inspire trepidation, even fear, yet the behemoth is impossible to ignore.” So just who is writing for Wikipedia? A March 2010 MSNBC article Who Writes Wikipedia, describes a research project that aimed to develop profiles of writers who contribute content.