Wow! I can't believe wow much stuff there is on the Internet that is outdated, fictional, or just misleading. It is so easy to copy/plagiarize a web page and skew the information to reflect badly or align readers with your angle. I was amazed at how dooped I was by a page that looked like a real research paper presentation but was actually created by a professor to make the point that anything can be faked and people will fall for it.
In today's world of tabloids and political information-twisting I think is is so important to give students the tools to evaluate the authenticity and reliability of a website. Students want to, and do, believe what they read because they have an emotional response to what they read and fail to understand how to know if it is reasonable or truthful information (and then rumors begin). Giving students the tools to validate a website/source is one way to encourage students to think critically about the world and to be able to justify their actions with facts.
Important resources given in class literature:
http://www.register.com/
http://www.altavista.com/
http://http//www.snopes.com
Sample web pages that could easily mislead:
http://www.martinlutherking.org/
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