Website Evaluation

Website Evaluation

Here is the link to the powerpoint presentation:
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUymy173iX9WZGdxbXFqZGdfMGpuY2dmZHE

Summary of Website Evaluation

In Sum, this website at first glance gives the impression that it contains research articles on a variety of topics. However, when a person begins to take a closer look at the website, Improbable Research, you find that the main goal of the information contained in the website is to first make you laugh and then make you think. As far as relying on this site for research, I would not recommend it as an authority on any particular subject. I think that an individual should seek research from an established database rather than rely on research from a .com site.

Website evaluation

This is a link to the Website evaluation folder:https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WOTQ4MzYyOWEtYjExOC00NjY1LWIzZDQtYjNkMDZjODA2ZTVm

Website evaluation

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WNjc5MGNhMzItNzg2MS00Njg2LTg1NjctYTMwMDk4ZjI2MGUy
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WZTg3NDc0YzUtMGFkMi00OWQ4LWE3MWUtNDk4NWRiM2U2ZDBi
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WN2U2NzA1NmItNGJmMC00MjU2LWE3YjEtMjUxZjI5OGU5Mjc4
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WMjViMDU2MTMtNzM0Ni00MTY3LThhZGUtNDBmYjQ4OWFmYmI2
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WMjg2MTQxNDMtM2M0Yy00NmZlLTgzZGMtYmU0YjlmYWMzM2Nm
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WM2Y1ZWE3MDctMTI5MS00MDNkLTkzYzEtMDU4N2I4OGNiYTA3
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0ymy173iX9WMTY3YjJhOWUtYzYxZi00OWI5LTg2ZmUtMWM0OGIxNjU1ODUz
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUymy173iX9WZGdxbXFqZGdfMGpuY2dmZHE

Website Evaluation

THE 5 W’S & 1 H OF CYBERSPACE

WHO” is the source of the information?

ANSWER:  Yes, someone has taken responsibility for the content of this site.  There is a “Contact Us” link on the left sidebar.  When you click on this link it takes you to information on how to contact the editor, Marc Abrahams plus many other international individuals associated with Improbable Research.  I did not find any in-depth information about the author of this site.  There is a physical address as well as telephone numbers listed for the editor.  The website states that “Mostly, Improbable Research is a vast, happy, open conspiracy of many volunteers (scientists, journalists, teachers, students, and all sorts of other people) in many countries”, but these individuals are not identified by name.  I was unable to verify the authority of the information.

WHAT are you getting?

ANSWER:  It is difficult to determine if the information is biased because information is supplied by many contributors.  I could not tell who provided some of the information.  Emotion plays a major role in this website.   The Heading states that “This is a website that makes you laugh and then think”.  This website contains a broad spectrum of offerings to a reader.  I did not find links to alternative viewpoints.  I did not feel that the information was well organized because there was an overwhelming amount of information on many varied subjects.   A copyright date could not be located.      

WHEN was the site created?

ANSWER:  There was a chat listed on the website that took place today, October 27, 2011.  It would appear that all of the links work on this website.  And there are many links to explore.  It would also appear that information on this site is constantly changing with each new “issue” of “Improbable Research”.

WHERE?

ANSWER:  When you deconstruct the URL, you find that this site is a .com, which means that it is a commercial organization.  A .com indicates that the site may or may not be credible.  The http tells us that this is a hypertext document and the next part, www, tells us that it resides on the “World Wide Web”.  The domain name of the person or organization hosting the website is improbable.

WHY are you here?

ANSWER:  This is a great website if you are looking for entertainment with a slight twist of possible research.  However, the article on cats did include a bibliography and a list of many contributors to the article along with their credentials.  I am not sure that the information can be verified, but if I was in need of research of how cats respond to bearded men, this article would definitely be a starting point.

HOW can you tell what’s what?

ANSWER:  I am a little skeptical about this site because one of the first words that you see on this site is “Subscribe”.  In my opinion this is a “tongue in cheek” site that mainly entertains.  If someone is seeking research, I think that they would be better off going to a database to find information.

Friday October 21st response

These are my answers to Question 4 and Question 5 for Friday, October 21, 2011.  I used a clustered column bar graph in Excel to determine the results of Level 1 & 2 Reading for Grade 11.

In terms of the most peaked on the clustered column bar graph, I noted that Category 8 (Special Education) in Level 1 had the highest peak at 67.94%. 

In terms of the least peaked on the clustered column bar graph, I noted that Category 1 (Asian) in Level 1 had the lowest peak at 11.86%. 

In the clustered column bar graph, I noted a unimodal score in the distribution due to the fact that a unimodal distribution was observed, which had one peak or "mode." When I look at this distribution there is definitely one score that is higher or occurs with a higher frequency (Category 8), which I feel shows that this distribution is unimodal.

The clustered column bar graph located below reflects the results of Level 1 & 2 Reading for Grade 11:

This link includes the line graph:

https://doc-0o-c8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ih48p76jd13lmb0slbnrg9haqhbsj0c1/0snkh3bptr8iumhjlp7cns7m6q8oo0q6/1318898700000/11051770537062490628/11051770537062490628/1eEM2hFop7N1nU4wxFVcqGMp3OsSaRGAvoVgXUX1ViaowmRRA5XleeHy1UeEW?e=download&nonce=nknam30aqnngq&user=11051770537062490628&hash=tcbomg917lsr0vam8t0vju0h8am0u32e

Excel Data Post

In the line graph below, math scores are reported for Japanese and American people.  According to the chart, the Japanese scores show a negatively skewed distribution.  In a negatively skewed distribution, most of the data values fall to the right of the mean, and the “tail” of the distribution is to the left.  In addition, the mean is to the left of the median, and the mode is to the right of the median.   According to the chart, the American scores show a positively skewed distribution.  In a positively skewed distribution, most of the data values fall to the left of the mean, and the “tail” of the distribution is to the right.  In addition, the mean is to the right of the median, and the mode is to the left of the median.   Looking at the line graph, it appears that the Japanese scores are leptokurtic (more peaked) and the American scores are platykurtic (less peaked). The Japanese scores are mostly concentrated in the range of 41 to 56.      The American scores are mostly concentrated in the range of 39 to 59. 

Voki Post

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Updated version of Magazine cover

Week 7 Blog

Quote:

“Even though students are spending more and more time on the Internet and teachers increasingly expect their students to do assignments online, digital media literacy skills are vastly underrepresented in the curriculum for all but the most advanced students (as, indeed, are offline critical-thinking and reading-comprehension skills).” (David, 2009, para. 4). 

Comment:

In the first paragraph, David (2009) poses the question, “Can schools provide the skills students need to become media literate in a digital world?”  This is the reason that I chose the quote above.  We need to carefully analyze what is being offered to students within the current curriculum that will encourage development of the skills students need to become proficient in the use of digital media literacy skills.  But to back up one step, students in pre-service education programs, as well, must make sure that they are exposed to curriculum that develops digital media literacy skills in order to teach those skills to future students.  I agree with David (2009) who notes that it is certainly important to make sure that digital media literacy skills are embraced within the curriculum in order to develop critical thinking skills needed for communication in a global society.

Reference:

David, J. L. “Teaching Media Literacy.” Educational Leadership 66:6:  84-86. Web. 5

     Oct. 2011.

Related Resource:

This is a link to a slideshare from a teacher in Sydney, Australia who gives an overview of what digital media literacy skills are all about and how she integrates digital media literacy skills into curriculum.

Here is the link.  Enjoy the video!

http://www.slideshare.net/kbonanno/digitalliteracyframework

Magazine Cover