How to Determine Information Credibility on the Internet - Article Example

Your full full February 4, How to Determine Information Credibility on the Internet There is alot of information on the Internet including estimations, fallacies and erroneous information. How to evaluate the quality and accuracy of Internet resources? In order to verify the credibility of information found on the internet, there are a number of things that need to be considered. Given below are ten ways to determine information’s veracity in the cyber world. 1. The first thing to be looked at is the URL of the website. It helps find out the source of the information. Websites with root domains like .gov, .org, .edu, .net are created by the government or organizations and are thus reliable. If the URL contains symbols like ~, that means that it has been created solely by somebody and may not be reliable. 2. One must give important consideration to the credentials of the author or owner of information. If he is a layman telling his experiences or general knowledge about the issue, one should leave the website and go for the website where one can find material written by an authenticated person. One can find this information by visiting the about us page. One can also “run the domain name through a registry database to discover the owner” (Levitt and Rosch 20). 3. One must look for the date the information was updated and must consider the currency of the information. Fresh information shows that the provider of the information bothers enough to present up-to-date information to the visitors. “This is known as the timeliness or currency of the information” (Hammett, qtd. in King). 4. If you are not sure whether the information you collected on one website is reliable or not, check the information on other websites if they share the same information. 5. The design and overall feel of the website is also important. An author who does not care about the spellings and grammar may also not be interested in providing accurate information. One must see if the website is logically organized and the arrangement of general and specific parts of the information evidently reveal their interrelationship. 6. If the information does not satisfy the visitor and he is left confused with many questions on his mind, then the website may not contain credible information. The unanticipated breaks in information on the website compelling one to look somewhere else for other sources symbolize unreliable information. 7. One must find out if the primary and secondary sources for the discussed issue are cited noticeably that one can follow the link for those sources and verify them. One must consider “who links to this site” (Greer, Holinga, Kindel and Netznik). 8. A website that presents information which is not research based and tries to convince the visitor to buy their product may not be credible. Such a website may be presenting biased information as its main purpose is merely to sell the product by wrongly convincing the consumer (Harris). 9. The websites that demand the visitor’s personal information may not contain credible information. One must go through the website’s privacy statement to find out if the personal information will be disclosed to others without permission. 10. Last but not the least, one must use one’s own mind and must always look at the information from a critic’s point of view and skepticism to locate any weak area (Levitt and Rosch 25). If none is found, then the information must be credible. Based on the Chambers (2007/2008) article, describe why problem solving is so important in technologically enhanced environments.  According to the Chambers article, our lives are being modified by new technologies with every passing day. We teach our students the latest trends in technology and equip them with the most modern collaborative tools. We teach them how to incorporate technology into their everyday lives so that they optimize their learning process. But the thing that should be considered at the top priority level is that we should teach them excellent problem-solving techniques so as to make them ready to deal with the competitive world. Problem-solving is considerably important because one cannot take full advantage of the technologically enhanced environments without learning how to encounter and solve a problem that might occur. It is impossible to make use of any collaborative tool or work in cyber space without knowing what to do when a problem arises. It is important to make the students of technology learn how to remove errors and how to troubleshoot. Einstein states that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution (qtd. in Passuello). Problem-solving helps us know how to analyze a trouble, how to consider various solutions, how to arrive to the best possible solution, how to apply the solution, and how to merge different troubleshooting techniques so that there are lesser chances of that problem to arise again. It also makes us learn how to bring creativity to the solution of a problem by combining ideas we learn in technology lessons. Problem-solving is a fruitful learning process in the technology education. Collaborative problem-solving requires the students to sort out the problem and solve it by collaboration. In short, it is important to encourage Technology-Enhanced Problem Solving Learning (TE-PBL) in our education system. Based on the Neese and Kong (2007) article, recommend problem-solving techniques your workplace may use to increase productivity and quality. The leadership of the company I work in is wholly responsible for the organized activities of its workforce. The thumb rule that is followed here is that- keep the workforce happy if you want them to make you happy. The management helps the workers perform their jobs efficiently and on-and-off provides benefits, bonuses and compensations for their hard work. The payments, salaries and rewards are delivered punctually and without delay. This encourages the employees to happily participate in the progress of the company. Furthermore, the HR department and the inventory control department manage the human and capital resources of the company quite effectively. The management is strictly instructed to incorporate forethought, scholarly talent and conceptual insight into business procedures and decision-making process. The management and workforce are taught problem-solving techniques to so as to maximize the production without having to face risks and dangers. These decision-making and problem-solving lessons have enabled the management to enhance the quality of production, implement effectual marketing techniques and attract more and more clientele. My workplace definitely believes in the six-sigma standards so as to be able to strive for healthier and enhanced quality. The Japanese Kaizen culture strategies are also applied to create a healthy environment where managers and workers work in collaboration to ensure continuous, improved and increased production. The company follows a disciplined and methodological approach for the determent of possible flaws in the system.  The workforce has to strictly abide by the standard operating procedures (SOPs).Modern technological, administrative and working principles are maintained and steps are taken to improve the existing standards. Works Cited Greer, T., Holinga, D., Kindel, C., and Melissa Netznik. “Methods of Evaluation”. An Educators Guide to Credibility and Web Evaluation. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2010. < http://www2.csusm.edu/ilast/webevalart.htm>. Harris, Robert. Evaluating Internet Research Sources. N.p., 1997. Web. 05 Feb. 2010. King, Jonathan. “Ten Ways to Determine the Credibility of Information on the Internet.” WebUpon. Webupon, 27 Nov. 2009. Web. 05 Feb. 2010. < http://webupon.com/web-talk/ten-ways-to-determine-the-credibility-of-information-on-the-internet>. Levitt, Carole A., and Mark E. Rosch. “Internet Source Credibility Checklist.” The Lawyer’s Guide to Fact Finding on the Internet. United States: American Bar Association, 2006. Passuello, Luciano. Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem-Solving. Litemind, 04 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2010. < http://litemind.com/problem-definition/>. Read More