Skill dot point focussed
9.8.1.3.3 - Analyse information and use available evidence to identify technological advances and resulting new information that have changed scientist opinion about the classification of primates.
The webpage relevant to this dot point is http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/T/Taxonomy.html
This web page has been evaluated using UC Berkley web teaching library resources using the techniques outlined below.
According this technique in order to evaluate a web site there are five questions that need to be answered: -
1. 1. What can the URL tell you?
a. Is this somebody’s personal page? – The word ‘users’ in the URL indicate that it is a site offering personal pages. Personal pages contain valid and useful opinions, links to important resource and significant facts. There is no publisher or domain owner vouching for the information in the page
b. What type of domain does it come from? – The domain name in the above URL is ‘rcn’ which is a commercial ISP. The domain name gives you information on who published a page, made it public by putting on the web.
c. Who published the page? – The publisher is the agency or a person operating the server computer from which the document is issued. The publisher for this page is ‘rcn’ which is a commercial internet provider in the USA similar to Optus in Australia. Its not an educational site provider like National Institute of Health.
2. 2. Scan the parameter of the page, looking for answers to these questions
a. Who wrote the page? – The author of these pages John W Kimball, a retired biology teacher has graduated from Harvard College and received his PhD in 1969. The first edition of Kimball’s General Biology text was published in 1965 and the most recent one in 1999.
b. Is the page dated? – Is it current enough? The page was last updated on 11-May-2011. This means the information in this web pages are updated on a regular basis
3. 3. Look for indicators of quality information
a. Are sources documented with foot notes or links? – The pages represent an online Biology textbook. Hyperlinks are provided within the text to give extra information on the content. Some of the information has been drawn from the 6th edition of Kimball’s Biology text published in 1994.
b. Are permissions to reproduce and copyright information provided? – All the materials in this page is protected by copyright of John W Kimball (Author of this website) and all rights are reserved
c. Do the links to other resources on the topic work? – The links provided in this webpage works when open and they are tagged to reliable sources. The links are well chosen for e.g ‘Link to a phylogenetic tree of living hominoids based on DNA – DNA hybridization”. This link when opened goes to another resource giving evidence to the relationship between living hominoids measured using their T50H values based on DNA-DNA hybridization
4. 4. What do others say?
a. Who links to the page? – The web page when links to alexa.com, following information are obtained. Traffic ranking – 132172. Estimated percentage of global internet users who visit this website in 1 month is less than 9% of which most of them are females between age group 18 – 24. When looked in to the contact information in alexa.com regarding this website, no details could be found and no reviews are so far been recorded. A related link to this website is found to be a cell biology graduate program. Search queries were placed on a number of topics in this website. For e.g on restriction enzymes bacteria telomeres etc.
b. Is the page listed in one or more reputable directories? – Yes. The Kimball’s Biology is listed in ipl2, infomine, about.com. It says that that much of the content of this website has been adapted with hypertext enhancements and updates as new discovers are reported from the 6th edition of the authors General Biology textbook.
c. What do others say about the author? – When searched in Google blog about this webpage results were found. One of them commented, “this site is an online text. It covers all aspects of general biology. It is searchable by term or alphabets. Pages include text and images. Direction for use of this website are clear. The submitter has also mentioned about the topics that are included in this website.
5. 5. Does it all add up? – To sum up, in my view this website is a reliable source of information. This page has been written and updated by a scientist graduated from Harvard University. It has been categorized under open textbook material type. The contents are made easy to understand and simpler to be used by any graduate student. This website seem to be updated on a regular basis. Even though there were no reviews on this website on alexa.com, good comments were found on Google blog and it also been listed on a couple of reputable directories. I think students can use this webpage as one kind of secondary source to obtain relevant information on technological advances and classification of primates.
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ReplyDeleteMeera, I found another website http://www.leeds.ac.uk/chb/lectures/anthl_08.html that can be used for this dot point. I think the website you evaluated was also very good; however, as in the case of my website, requires some scaffolding. Some of the information is beyond the scope of the syllabus and can be rather intimidating for year 12 students. On the other hand, I do believe that students need to be acquainted with websites such as these in preparation for the rigor of academic secondary research that needs to be undertaken at Universities.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Websites Meera!
ReplyDeleteI think photosynthesis is and can be challenging topic for students as it is very visual and more of an abstract concept. These websites and their visual interactive images would be of great assistance to students to help them understand the abstract concept by providing them with more concrete visual evidence. As well as this, these websites would be very effective in helping the students revise the content and prepare for their exams.