评估网络内容：规则、策略、基本概念-英文版.doc

Evaluating Content on the Web: Rules, Strategies, and Foundational Concepts Abstract In this paper I will outline the beginnings of a general method for evaluating Web sites and their content. The method of evaluation is presented as part of a simple, interactive question method for learning on the Web. The learning method, in an effort to appeal to the average Web learner, focuses almost exclusively on how to learn and critically evaluate Web sites and content found with conventional search engines. Many useful guides for how to evaluate Web sites and their content have been published by libraries at reputable institutions. This method is offered as a supplemental resource treating some aspects of evaluation that are sometimes overlooked in standard evaluation guides. These aspects include how to approach the evaluation of the truth or plausibility of claims on a Web site as opposed to merely evaluating the ‘credibility’ of the site and how to relate Web site evaluation to the general development of learning and the acquisition of knowledge. Finally, the method will discuss presumptive reasoning as a useful tool for Web evaluation and present some simple examples. Introduction In this paper I will offer a very broad outline of a method for how to evaluate Web sites and their content that, it is hoped, will prove useful to teachers, librarians, students, and perhaps to the average Internet user. But, before we get to that, we should confront the obvious and rather troubling fact that attempting to formulate such a method is, strictly speaking, quite absurd. There is no method that would allow a person to evaluate all Web sites and their content. A more reasonable approach, one might argue, is develop one’s knowledge and critical abilities as best one can, that is, get a good education, learn something about how the Internet works, how to use it, and then get on with learning and the critical evaluation that goes with it. There is wisdom in this advice and it may s