Web Site Selection Criteria:
Introduction:
The following criteria were used in the selection of web sites to support the Secondary Social Studies IRP. The purpose of the list was to find the best sources available, which contain the widest possible depth of information, and to provide sites with a Canadian and global focus. The lists are based on the concept of three main components that determine the quality of a web site and they are the following: content, credibility and currency. The following characteristics were considered to determine suitable sites.
Content of the site must match prescribed learning outcomes in the IRP. The method for integrating the material must be left to the classroom teacher to enable each individual to select the materials most appropriate to match their ongoing program.
The sites must contain material appropriate to the time period being studied and therefore any current topic must have up to date statistics while historical topics require primary source documents and graphics appropriate to that time period. In addition, an attempt has been made to incorporate a variety of viewpoints particularly with respect to the study of First Nations peoples so that students can examine the impact of historical events from the viewpoint of explorers as well as the peoples with whom they made contact.
Web sites must contain a variety of links to other materials and the links must be up to date. Some web sites include valuable material but contain a lot of links for which the addresses have been changed. These sites were not included on the list unless most of the hyperlinks effectively linked to the resources that they cited.
Reading level of the material was considered carefully but in some cases the only materials available were appropriate for senior students or undergraduate students. It is therefore up to the discretion of the teacher to modify the material to make it as useful as possible for their students. The author attempted to include award winning sites that are considered the “best of the net” and which were cited in several search engines. Thus, research was conducted in a variety of search engines using an array of descriptors in order to provide the best quality of sites available.
The list was generated to have both a Canadian and global focus to reflect the goals of the new IRP. Students are required to make critical assessments of sources of information as well as to draw conclusions and make comparisons between cultures and historical periods with current Canadian institutions and political structures. Thus, students must be provided with a variety of sources of information from primary and secondary sources as well as educational institutions and commercial services.
The list was created to take advantage of the unique features of the Internet to enable students to view graphics, to take virtual tours and to access virtual libraries so that they were provided with a wide variety of sources for research. Lesson plans and curriculum units from a variety of sources are also cited to provide teachers with materials they can use in their classroom. Therefore, the professional references enable teachers to access materials from Canadian and American social studies associations as well as materials provided by companies such as National Geographic and American Online databases. Government sources provide both archives of primary source documents from museums and libraries as well as current statistics from Statistics Canada so that students can view historical trends when they view census records on topics such as immigration.
The list of sites is designed to enable teachers to access sites from a wide variety of sources so that they can instruct their students on the credibility of sources of information. Thus, a student can examine displays in museums as well as information from sources such as the Hudson’s Bay Company or the Canadian Pacific Railway. By comparing this information with sources in virtual libraries and government documents, students can assess the historically accuracy of the information and look for evidence of bias. For example does the site reflect the goals of the company rather than the actual impact the company had on the people with whom it interacted (e.g. Native people).
Notes - The list is designed so that the general references will include a wide range of materials and the grade level lists will identify the specific sites on required topics for that grade level. Teachers might only use a few of the sites on the list and can start in areas of personal interest. However, it is also important to have students search for their own information by conducting Boolean searches in a variety of search engines in order to develop skills in identifying major components of topics (keywords for searches) and assessing sources of information for content, credibility and currency. The IRP emphasizes processing skills and accessing Internet resources and analyzing them critically can develop these. The grade level lists are not considered to be inclusive of all sites available but rather to give students and teachers starting points for their research. Additions to the list are encouraged and can be emailed to the web master or to the author of the lists. The key to the list is not the material itself but rather the manner in which it is used. Unless the students process the information in meaningful ways and learn strategies to critically evaluate sources of information, there is limited value in simply viewing Internet sites.
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