How and Why Teachers Need to Evaluate Websites for Use in the Classroom

During the time that students are with their teacher, the teacher is acting in the capacity of a guardian authority, and as such, has the responsibility to make sure that all material that students use is age and content appropriate. For elementary students, the teacher can do this by pre-selecting the websites that the students will use, checking for age and source of information. All links in the selected websites should also be checked for the same information. Students also need to be taught, starting at a young age, how to evaluate websites for themselves. They have to be taught healthy skepticism, so that they question the validity of information. The teacher should model for the students the process of evaluating websites and what to look for. Then students can be provided with a checklist that they can use when doing projects that details each item they need to check for. The students first project could be practicing this process alone, before they have to do a research project. When doing more detailed projects, this checklist should be turned in with the project so that the teacher knows the student followed the procedure, and is learning the process. This could be an item graded on the rubric for the project.