There is tons of stuff out there in cyberspace, but do you know who to trust when gathering information for shcool projects?
The good thing about the Net is that there's a lot out there. The bad thing about the Net is that there's a lot out there.
Sorting through millions of sites to find exactly what you're looking for takes practice and know-how.
You have to take time to develop the skills. The information is there, you just have to mine it out. You have to learn how to avoid distractions and dead ends -and that's just the beginning.
So where do you start? Susan Brannigan-Rampp, an educator and freelance columnist who writes about computers and school, recommends finding a good all-around resource page geared towards students. While search engines like Altavista.com and Lycos.com can find web pages about any topic, they often turn up huge lists that take hours to sort through.
No one has that much time to do it themselves. You do a search about a subject and it gives you hundreds of possibilities.
First she says, try visiting a research site like the Internet Public Library or the International Education and Resource Network.
These sites guide the user through study categories and Web links that help them zero in on the right infromation. And they'll also tend to steer you toward sites that can be trusted, which is particularly useful since the Web, being totally unregulated, isn't always reliable.
Finding Web sites that are authoritative, up-to-date and appropriate can often take some research itself.
A book will usually contain the writer's credentials and the publisher's details - permanent information that establishes its authority.
The Web changes from minute to minute: some articles have no listed author or disappear and reappear with modifications. Some look professional but are not.
The best guideline for using Web-based sources is to use them sparingly and to work with trusted, well-known sites.
You really have to careful, it's a phenomenol tool. But kids have to become aware of who is the source of the information --they have to critically analyse it.
Who was the source of the site, how reliabale was the data, has it been updated recently? It's a whole new study skill set.
When you do find good, reliable information on the internet, you have to be careful about one other thing -- plagiarism.
It's easy to use a computer to grab a passage of text from an online encyclopedia and plank it right into an essay using cut-and-paste. It's also a big fat no-no, unless the material is properly quoted and the source given. Teachers can tell usually just from the writing style.
Finally, don't assume that all of the information you need is lurking out there somewhere on the Net. Spending time searching the Internet about a subject when there's a perfectly good book in the library can be counter-productive.
Just know that it's one tool and not the be-all and end-all. It's not the answer to everything.
www.nic-bnc.ca/canada/ecaninfo.htm
Canadian information By Subject developed by the National Library of Canada to provide links to information about Canada from Internet resources around the world.
www.schoolnet.ca
This Canadian government-sponsored site is part of a project to connect the country's schools and libraries to the Internet. Private comapnies also support the site, It is aimed at both teachers and students.
www.iearn-canada.org
This is a non-profit global telecommunications group of over 5,000 schools and youth organizations in over 90 countries. You must sign up before using the site or joining its newsgroup conferences.
www.studyweb.com
This site, owned by a U.S. company that makes educational software, provided links on a wide variety of common topics on school curriculums. There's also help for everyday schoolwork. Canadian content is very limited.
www.tceplus.com
The Canadian Encyclopedia. Not the full encyclopedia, which is available on CD-ROM, but samples.
www.jasonproject.org
The Jason Project site, a year-round scientific expedition designed to engage students in science and technology.
www.sciam.com/askexpert
Scientific American's Ask an Expert page.
www.discovery.ca
The Discovery Channel Canada site is very strong on visuals and science, although it is also geared to what is being featured on the cable channel and is not a general reference site. But you might get lucky - maybe they just did a special on your science project.