Click here for internet access Handout.odt

Handout for internet access.odt

How to access and identify different kinds of websites?

1. Information (Newspapers, TV Channels, Web Dunia, Maps, Weather, Search engines)

• www.prajavani.net
• www.SAMACHAR.com
• www.deccanherald.com
• Search for two more newspaper websites

2. Community (eg,Teachers' Association website)

• www.nsta.org
• Identify one more community website

3.Resource repositories

• NROER (WWW.NROER.GOV.IN NCERT
• vidyaonline.net
• WWW.KARNATAKAEDUCATION.ORG.IN/KOER
• Identify two more resource websites

4.Video downloads / photograph sharing (youtube, teacher tube, geogebratube )

• www.youtube.com
• www.geogebratube.org
• Find out one more

5.Public services websites (IRCTC)

• www.irctc.co.in
• www.bangaloretelecom.com

6. Banking and e-commerce websites (Internet banking, booking my movie tickets)

• www.onlinesbi.co.in
• Identify two more such e-commerce websites

7. Collaborative websites (Discussion forums, Hardware software forums, Wikipedia)

• www.ubuntuforums.org
• Find out one more forum

8. Vendor websites (product based, service-based)

• www.flipkart.com
• www.dell.com

9. Massively Open Online Courses

• Identify the online web courses

10 Social networking websites

• List the networking sites you know

11. Email groups

• mathssciencestf (professional networking)
• List any other email group

12. Personal/ Institutional websites

• www.iisc.ernet.in
• www.dsert.kar.nic.in
• www.mit.edu

Some guidelines for accessing Internet based resources

We often access the internet for information on many issues. While books and libraries remain important sources of information, the increased availability of resources on the internet makes it a more preferred choice for information access. Just like we verify the correctness of any other information, we need to verify the correctness of the information on the Internet as well. On the Internet, we need to remember that there is not a library-like classification which says “this kind of website for this subject”. We should therefore, be more careful in identifying and using app

There are two very important aspects to consider in the usefulness of web resources – one is the usefulness of the page itself and the second is how do we search for information for a topic.

1. Assessing the quality of a web page There are a few things we need to consider when we look at the usefulness of the information on any website.

1. Source of the website. Issues have many sides and it is important to know about the source of the information. This will help us have an idea of which perspective is being presented.
2. Use of multiple websites: This will also help us get to the idea of multiple perspectives. For factual instances, it will be easy to identify errors when we look at multiple websites.
3. Relevance: This has a few aspects.
   1. Keywords/ tags: Often when we search, one page will come up and often time we share with others also. But it is important to really read (atleast quickly) the contents of the page. This is because of the way a search engine works. Any web page will have key words (called tags) and sometimes, keywords will be added even if the word (and associated issue) is discussed very very briefly. So, sorting for relevance is important.
   2. Context: Relevance has another side to it also. While many issues in learning can be common across societies, many are also contextual. A web page written about rainfall and lifestyle and crops will be different for different places. It may still be useful for learning; but we need to examine how we can use it.
   3. Time: Many times, information has a validity. What may have been used earlier as a technology for some process may not be used now. Therefore we need to check the time and test for appropriateness. The content is not wrong but a changed scenario, changed society may make the content less relevant.

4. Features of a website: How useful a website is depends on how many different ways we can access the information and use it and view it. Can it be used by teachers, students, general public? The understanding of this will also help us determine how much we can use the content.

2. How to search for information

The second aspect of using a website relates to how we search for information. What words we use, how we phrase the question for search are all important features in deciding the quality of search results. For example try these different searches - Giraffe, Evolution and Evolution of giraffe

You will notice that the pages that come up are all different. What we also need to keep in mind is who is the user, what is the use etc. How we use the search terms determines what results see and how relevant they are.

Checklist for evaluating a website

General

1. Whose website?
2. What kind of wesbite - commercial, educational, etc
3. What kind of resources? Is the information reliable - always check more than one website
4. Does it allow for a discussion or comment
5. Does it have transaction - like e-commerce websites
6. Is it easy to navigate?
7. Free/ Paid/ Subscription
8. Copyright
9. Navigation - Internal and External weblinks
10. How to contact the website?

For teaching-learning resources

In addition to the above

1. What is the website about?
2. Is the information reliable - always check more than one website
3. Who made it?
4. What it has?
5. Is it for teachers?
6. Or for children?
7. How to use in class?

Summarize the websites based on attached template.