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Lesson: Evaluating Web sites

Description

The purpose of this lesson is for students to define criteria to evaluate the visual and media aspects of Web sites. In this lesson, students will learn to use a critical eye when looking at Web sites. Students should be familiar with General Web Search Tools, Evaluating Search Tools, and Online Search Techniques.

Learning Outcomes   I   Suggested Procedure   I   Assessment    for this Lesson

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to use a critical eye when looking at a Web site.
Students will be able to identify the purpose of a Web site.
Students will be able to define criteria for looking critically at a Web site.

Set-up

Write the following five Web site titles from the "Jo Cool or Jo Fool" (link) site on a chalkboard, whiteboard or piece of chart paper - CD Rama, FastTalk, TeenMags, Homework Central, and Votingbooth.com.

Create a transparency or handout with the following information.

1. Look:
   What is the look and feel of the site?
   Are the fonts, the background colors and the pictures compatible with the look and feel of the site?
2. Layout:
   How is the site organized?
   Is the organization consistent from page to page?
   Is it easy to read each page?
   Is it easy to find information?
3. Media Elements:
   Does the site have graphics, sound and/or animation?
   What are they?
   How do the media elements enhance the site's message or content?
4. Navigation:
   Is it easy to get around the site?
   Does the first page indicate how the site is organized?
   Is there a site map? Are the links easily identifiable?
   Are there many ways to navigate through the site?
   Do the icons clearly show what they are supposed to represent?

Suggested Procedure

Types of Web sites (Small group practice - 10 - 15 minutes)

Direct students, in groups of three or four, to URL: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/games/joecool_joefool/index.cfm

The Jo Cool or Joe Fool Web site is a tool created by the Media Awareness Network. Its purpose is to provide kids with a space to practice making choices when surfing the Web. To do so, the tool includes abstract versions of "Jo's" favorite Web sites. These versions represent types of Web sites that actually exist. Explain to students that most of the sites consist of only a first page; some have an additional page.

Once students arrive at the Jo Cool or Jo Fool Web site, instruct them to click on Play the Game. Then, direct them to the Main Menu radio button on the bottom of the first page. Instruct students, in groups of three or four, to look carefully at some of Jo's favorite sites that are listed on the chalkboard, whiteboard or chart paper, and decide what kind of site it is supposed to be. Some of the sites will represent the same kind of site, i.e. both CD Rama and SummerDaze are music sites, but the purpose of CD Rama is to sell music and the purpose of SummerDaze is to provide information about an upcoming concert.

Bring the whole class together to find out what they decided. What kind of site is each site supposed to represent? (Possible answers: CD Rama - sells music; FastTalk - offers a service for matching teens to talk online or date; TeenMags - provides information about issues that concern teens, plus gossip; Homework Central - is a means for students to get help with school assignments and research projects; Votingbooth.com - shows the results of polls given to students' peers.)

What's in a Web site? (Small group, paired, or individual practice - 10 minutes)

Instruct each group of students to choose one type of site and brainstorm what would make, for example, a music site that sells CDs, like "CD Rama" a good site in terms of its media and visual aspects.

Instruct students to complete the attached worksheet - What's in a Web site? The purpose of the worksheet is to provide a guide for students to look critically at some of the visual and media elements of a Web site.

After they finish the worksheet, ask them to share some of their answers for questions, #8 - What do you like about the site? - and #9 - If you could make changes to the site, what changes would you make to improve the site?

Defining a set of criteria for looking closely (Large group discussion and presentation 5 - 10 minutes)

Start a whole class discussion by choosing a type of site, such as a site that sells music - "CD Rama" and ask students if they were going to create such a site, "What characteristics would it have?"

Additional prompts: Would it have sound clips that the client could listen to? What would the graphics be? How would you get around the site?

Either by using a transparency or a handout, show students some of the important things to think about, as well as the questions to ask when looking closely at a site.

• Look:
  1. What is the look and feel of the site?
  2. Are the fonts, the background colors and the pictures compatible with the look and feel of the site?
• Layout:
  1. How is the site organized?
  2. Is the organization consistent from page to page?
  3. Is it easy to read each page?
  4. Is it easy to find information?
• Media Elements:
  1. Does the site have graphics, sound and/or animation?
  2. What are they?
  3. How do the media elements enhance the site's message or content?
• Navigation:
  1. Is it easy to get around the site?
  2. Does the first page indicate how the site is organized?
  3. Is there a site map? Are the links easily identifiable?
  4. Are there many ways to navigate through the site?
  5. Do the icons clearly show what they are supposed to represent?

Assessment

Comparing Web sites (Small group practice - 15 - 20 minutes)

Tell students that they, in the same groups of three and four that they were working with at the beginning of the lesson, are going to look critically at the Look, Layout, Media Elements and Navigation of the same type of Web site that they have been working with, but this time, on the Web.

When working with sites on the Web, either instruct students to choose one of Jo's favorite sites and find a site that is similar in terms of type, or provide students with the URL of a similar site.

Some examples are:

1. for CD Rama - http://www.towerrecords.com
2. for FastTalk - http://teenmatches.studentcenter.org
3. for Teenmags - http://www.teenpeople.com
4. for Homework Central - http://www.infoplease.com/homework
5. for Votingbooth.com - http://www.youthvoices.org

Once the students have selected a site with which to work, ask them to compare the Jo site with the first page of the site on the Web in terms of Look, Layout, Media Elements and Navigation in the chart on the worksheet.

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This page was last updated April 25, 2002 This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies. Media Literacy resources were created by Cricket Heinze and Cornelia Brunner.