Classroom Discussion 6/6/12 - Critical Review of Online Sources

Checking for credibility of websites can be a very tricky and confusing thing. In our discussion we outlined quite a few ideas that will help you navigate through the many good and bad websites out there. Using more of a critical approach can be a great help when using the internet for research purposes. Some of the ideas we expressed in our discussion had to deal with using the many tools Google offers to you, such as advanced searches, Google Scholar and Google Books. When you find these sites you can possibly trust, looking for a .gov or .edu can be very helpful in producing a positive outcome. For us being students are Cal State San Marcos, we have a library that has many available tools to help us find relevant and proper research materials. The biggest help that you can do for yourself is just plain investigation about the author and the site you are looking at using. If you just allow yourself to borrow any information out there you are doing yourself a great disservice and possibly providing false information. Being diligent is far and away the best course of action when critically analyzing research materials.