Reading and Activity #2

When evaluating information the first thing I take into consideration is the website. If the website does not seem legit or is not well known, I do not use it. The next thing I look at is the URL. Honestly, after those two things I really do not look into much of anything like a works cited or where the author obtained his/her information. I guess this is because I think the URL and website are enough?

I think it is safe to say along with every other student, we all know Wikipedia is not a credible source. Teachers have been telling students this since high school. It is not a credible source mainly because anybody can be an editor on a topic’s webpage. It is so hard not being able to use this source when writing papers for school especially when it is listed as #1 if not top three in the search engine. Lucky for us, the Britannica encyclopedia has become viral. Instead of editions being updated by new scholars and experts every 10-15 years, the web version is updated continuously and is more expansive. This is a great source to use when writing research projects. Can these accelerations of revisions within minutes be bad for credibility? The article states that in doing so, the Britannica can become more of a current event like website. The question we need to ask is, ‘Does the web carry authority over the books?’

While many of us rely on Google and Wikipedia, it is important for students to know how to access credible databases. Every student, whether in high school or in college, has had the librarians teach them how to use and access certain databases available to them. In this article they predict that information seeking will soon become simpler and I agree 100%. The Internet is constantly upgrading itself along with every other piece of technology. Some librarians are even anticipating there will be no more tests given in school. Instead it will be mainly research papers, projects, power points, etc. Personally I would love this because I am a horrible test taker and would learn much more from writing a paper and digging up the information myself.