Last week in History class, we were taught how to use
online resources appropriately. This included how to tell a genuine website
from a fake one, and how to properly use a search engine. There are many details
to consider when doing research, and to get the best results one must take them
all into consideration.
In order to improve upon our search engine-using skills,
the class was assigned to complete an activity called A Google a Day, which can be found here: http://agoogleaday.com/#game=started. A Google a Day is a challenge that Google puts out on a daily basis in which
one is given a question and they must answer it by using Google search. An
example of a question is “The
Indian river basin that includes approximately 25% of the country's area is
bound by what mountain range to the south?” The process of discovering the
answer was both fun and frustrating at times. The fun part was finally being
rewarded with a correct answer, but the frustrating part is not being given
instant gratification with the answer, and having to actually work for it. During
this process, I learned a lot more about how to effectively search Google, such
as using the “-word” tool. For example, if you wanted to research Homer’s The Iliad, but not want anything from The Simpsons coming up in the search
results, you would search “Homer – Simpsons” to eliminate any Simpsons – related search results. Going
along with the theme of unwanted search results, there are several things one
must look for in a website to see whether or not it is genuine; accuracy, authenticity,
and reliability. To know if something is accurate, one should always compare its
information with the information of something that is known to be genuine,
perhaps a college website. In order to make sure that a website is authentic, make
sure that its information is cited and not plagiarized. It is always a good
idea to make sure that someone actually took the time and effort to create
something. It shows that they care about their topic and also know what they’re
talking about. To know if something is reliable or not, a good indicator is the
ending of the website URL. If the URL finishes with “.gov” of “.edu”, the
website is more than likely reliable. If not, it is a good idea to be cautious
about what may lay in store. The information could be completely inaccurate. One
such website is for “The Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus”, which can
be found here: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/. This
website is clearly not genuine just from looking at the title, and it includes
many other flaws which make one think that it is fake. For example, the
websites cover photo is clearly a photo shopped octopus in a tree.
After learning about the
many details that go into using a search engine and finding out whether or not
a website is genuine, I feel much better about finding genuine information, and
I hope you have found this enlightening as well.
The so-called "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus"
really cool
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