About the Websites
Prior to having the students explore on their own, the class would work through an article together. I chose this article because it is brief, but also, it is easy to walk through this article with students. This article also has external links that can also be examined, one including the Edgar Allan Poe Museum website. Working through this article as a class makes it easy to model for students what is important to look for and avoid when using a website. I have also provided students with a worksheet (via Microsoft Word) that would allow them to keep track of their answers while working.
After modeling one example, the students will work in pairs in order to analyze the other websites. The best website that was chosen for this activity is called “The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.” This is page is sponsored by The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, and the page is updated regularly (the most recent update was June 29, 2014). Additionally, this website provides several lengthy paragraphs describing different death theories, and it also provides an extensive list of resources which the students may use later for their project. While there is no specific person who wrote this page, it is easy for the students to find out more information about The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore through links that are available on the home page.
It is for similar reasons that I chose The Museum of Edgar Allan Poe website. While this website merely lists different death theories and does not provide much detail about these theories, there are links to a Poe biography as well as a variety of other links that may be useful for the students. The website also has a link that gives information about the museum, including contact information for the staff members and a place to send an email directly to the museum.
I also chose three other websites that are examples of sources that are not as reliable for research as the previously mentioned websites. For example, I chose to use the Ashland Area Veterinary Clinic website because it is a site that is generated while searching for Poe’s death theories when using a search engine. On the surface, this website looks somewhat reliable in that it has other links to articles and has a way to contact the clinic. However, this webpage has a brief paragraph saying that Poe may have died from rabies, and that brief paragraph is followed by a detailed description of rabies. Many times when students are researching, they get stuck reading resources that are irrelevant, and this would be an example of this kind of website. Additionally, this website also spells Edgar Allan Poe’s name wrong, which is a dead giveaway that it is not going to be a reliable or credible website for this particular research project.
In addition, because it is so easy to stumble upon numerous blogs on the Internet while researching, I chose a wordpress.com blog, a popular poetry blog that provides “evidence” demonstrating why Poe’s death was a murder. This blog is extremely convincing and interesting; however, the major issue with this blog is that there are no citations or other external links showing where the writer procured the information. This blog also has numerous comments that are interesting to read, including one that asks about the author’s credentials and source of information. I feel that this blog would prompt a lot of class discussion about author’s credentials and how to analyze and use blogs effectively.
Lastly, I chose a Yahoo!answers website as a link to evaluate because students often use Wikipedia and Yahoo!answers for quick answers. When they use a search engine, answers like those found on this webpage are generated. While Yahoo! and Google are okay to gather general information, these search engines should not be used exclusively for research purposes. By using a Yahoo!answers forum, I hope to generate a discussion with the students that would have them realize that while answer forums and Wikipedia may be a good starting point, they are by no means the end of the research process. Additionally, students should be made aware that any person could create and answer a question on websites such as these.
After modeling one example, the students will work in pairs in order to analyze the other websites. The best website that was chosen for this activity is called “The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.” This is page is sponsored by The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, and the page is updated regularly (the most recent update was June 29, 2014). Additionally, this website provides several lengthy paragraphs describing different death theories, and it also provides an extensive list of resources which the students may use later for their project. While there is no specific person who wrote this page, it is easy for the students to find out more information about The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore through links that are available on the home page.
It is for similar reasons that I chose The Museum of Edgar Allan Poe website. While this website merely lists different death theories and does not provide much detail about these theories, there are links to a Poe biography as well as a variety of other links that may be useful for the students. The website also has a link that gives information about the museum, including contact information for the staff members and a place to send an email directly to the museum.
I also chose three other websites that are examples of sources that are not as reliable for research as the previously mentioned websites. For example, I chose to use the Ashland Area Veterinary Clinic website because it is a site that is generated while searching for Poe’s death theories when using a search engine. On the surface, this website looks somewhat reliable in that it has other links to articles and has a way to contact the clinic. However, this webpage has a brief paragraph saying that Poe may have died from rabies, and that brief paragraph is followed by a detailed description of rabies. Many times when students are researching, they get stuck reading resources that are irrelevant, and this would be an example of this kind of website. Additionally, this website also spells Edgar Allan Poe’s name wrong, which is a dead giveaway that it is not going to be a reliable or credible website for this particular research project.
In addition, because it is so easy to stumble upon numerous blogs on the Internet while researching, I chose a wordpress.com blog, a popular poetry blog that provides “evidence” demonstrating why Poe’s death was a murder. This blog is extremely convincing and interesting; however, the major issue with this blog is that there are no citations or other external links showing where the writer procured the information. This blog also has numerous comments that are interesting to read, including one that asks about the author’s credentials and source of information. I feel that this blog would prompt a lot of class discussion about author’s credentials and how to analyze and use blogs effectively.
Lastly, I chose a Yahoo!answers website as a link to evaluate because students often use Wikipedia and Yahoo!answers for quick answers. When they use a search engine, answers like those found on this webpage are generated. While Yahoo! and Google are okay to gather general information, these search engines should not be used exclusively for research purposes. By using a Yahoo!answers forum, I hope to generate a discussion with the students that would have them realize that while answer forums and Wikipedia may be a good starting point, they are by no means the end of the research process. Additionally, students should be made aware that any person could create and answer a question on websites such as these.