Awesome Web Sites:
How to Find and Use Them
Ruth V. Small and Marilyn P. Arnone
Do your students believe that all Web sites are created equal? Do they frequently take the first items on the list of their search results rather than the best ones to use in their homework assignments or research projects? More and more students are turning to the Web for information to use in homework assignments and class projects and to satisfy personal interests. When faced with an overwhelming list of search results, students are typically indiscriminate when selecting sources to use. As a result, they often rely on poor-quality resources to meet their learning needs. In addition to learning better searching skills, the ability to evaluate Web resources has become an essential information literacy skill for students of the twenty-first century.
Web Site Evaluation
The Web presents information in ways that have never been possible with other media. Users can access video, text, audio, graphics, interactive components, links to other Web resources, and even live camera action. As a result, the evaluation of networked information resources requires a broader concept of evaluation thanthat of other media.
Currently there are dozens of Web-evaluation instruments designed to help educators judge the suitability of a Web site for their instructional needs. Some emphasize content validity issues (whether the information is accurate or current), while others target functionality issues (such as whether links are active or buttons work). However, we believe that Web site assessment requires different types of evaluation instruments that represent a broader perspective on evaluation. This perspective encompasses both content validity and functionality issues but in the context of another, often ignored, aspect of Web site evaluation -- something we call motivational quality.1
Motivational Quality
Motivational quality refers to those factors that affect whether a person: (1) is attracted to a Web site; (2) decides to explore a Web site; and (3) returns to a Web site.2 We define motivational quality in terms of "Vrooms" well-known motivation theory that has been applied previously to motivation in the workplace and in classroom environments. The expectancy-value theory of motivation states that a person's motivation is based on his or her perception that there is something of value in a task and that he or she has an expectancy for the successful accomplishment of that task.3 Applying this to the Web environment, a site that stimulates the interest and curiosity of the user and provides meaningful content and activities may be considered a valuable Web site. Further, a Web site that provides an organized sequence and placement of content and is easy-to-use should promote a positive expectancy for success. The degree to which these qualities are present comprises the motivational quality of that Web site.
The Web Site Motivational Analysis Checklist
Based on the components of expectancy-value theory, we developed a set of evaluation instruments that are intended for use by educators and students from grade one through college to assess the Web sites they use for teaching and learning. The Web Site Motivational Analysis Checklist (WebMAC) is a set of eight instruments, six of which were designed for use in educational contexts; the remaining two were created for use in business contexts. WebMAC Professional is designed for educators to evaluate the sites they use in their teaching or assign to students.
There are also five instruments designed for students: WebMAC Senior (grade nine through college); WebMAC Middle (grades six through eight); WebMAC Junior (grades one through five); WebMAC Junior 2000; and WebSite Investigator. The latter two are variations of WebMAC Junior. The WebMAC instruments differ from other Web site evaluation instruments because they are user centered; are theoretically based; have been tested and validated with more than eight hundred students and educators around the world; and allow instant visual feedback using a variety of scoring mechanisms and grid templates. The WebMAC instruments may be used to identify areas for improvement of an existing Web site, provide guidance for the design of a new Web site, or allow comparison of multiple Web sites.
Using WebMAC with students helps them learn to be critical consumers of the Web resources they find for learning or fun. For example, one elementary classroom teacher-school library media specialist (SLMS) team uses WebMAC Junior to teach evaluation skills to more than 175 fifth-grade students in Tallahassee, Florida. After practicing the process with students, they have students evaluate the Web sites on the school's home page and then progress to the evaluation of their own school Web site. The results are shared with the Web designer, who uses the students' feedback to improve the site. This increases the relevance of the assignment for students; they feel empowered because their efforts have made a real impact. In another example, a high school music teacher-SLMS team in central New York state used WebMAC Senior to evaluate Web sites on rock stars that would soon be coming to the Woodstock concert, held just a few miles from their community. Since many of them were planning to attend the concert, students found the assignment to be not only fun but also highly relevant.
This interactive presentation introduces participants to easy-to-use tools and activities to help them teach students to be critical consumers of the electronic resources they find on the Web. Participants will examine a variety of Web sites from bogus to award-winning and learn tools, techniques, and activities to teach students to evaluate quality.
Ruth V. Small is Professor and Director of the School Media Program in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse (N.Y.) University. Marilyn Arnone is President of Creative Media Solutions, Philadelphia, Pa.
References
1 Marilyn P. Arnone and Ruth V. Small, WWW Motivation Mining: Finding Treasures for Teaching Evaluation Skills (Gr. 1-6). (Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publ., 1999).
2 Ruth V. Small and Marilyn P. Arnone, WWW Motivation Mining: Finding Treasures for Teaching Evaluation Skills (Gr. 7-12). (Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publ., 1999)
3 Victor H. Vroom, Work and Motivation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995).
|
