How To Separate The Bulls From The Bearers of Truthfulness (P-2)

IQ (continued)

5. Verify all information: Use search engines to gain perspective on topics and be aware of potentially controversial aspects of the information. Make use watch group alerts. (GROUPS THAT ALERT THE PUBLIC TO INTERNET FRAUD, FANATICISM AND BAD INFORMATION- http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/aler... ) these may be industry wide watchdogs or consumer oriented associations that can heighten your awareness of skewed presentations. They include groups as diverse as Hate Watch, Computer Virus Myths to Internet Fraud.

In addition to evaluating the accuracy of the written material, you also have to be on your toes for Technical Trickery: As the New York Times points out you can be "Trapped in the Web without an exit." Some devious webmasters are employing technology that makes it appear that you cannot close their web site. Each time that you close the site-your browser is taken to an adjunct to the same site. Completely shut down your browser and start again. It would be a good idea to notify your ISP. (Internet Service Provider)

The Virtual Chase is dedicated to awareness and preparation. To prepare the web neophyte researcher the site offers interactive tutorials, webliography and access to other research validation checklists.

Tutorials- The Internet Detective (http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-d... )- comes to us from the United Kingdom and provides an interactive tutorial on evaluating web sources. The tutorial is free, but requires registration and the authors believe that it will take approximately two hours to complete.

Webliography:( http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/more... ) The webliography is quite extensive. It contains references to 12 articles (available online) and is followed by a number of other checklists developed by research and library science professionals.

"Thinking Critically About WWW Sources" (http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/co... ) comes to the site from the library staff at UCLA and is steeped in the critical thinking skills curriculum that is quite popular in the schools.

Research Guides- the site's authors provide an extensive list of reliable research guides, many are devoted to legal profession, but all provides areas for the verification of alleged factual materials.

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