Use Technology with Care

I've always heard that people need to be careful where they get their information from, especially when using the internet, but I assumed that common sense would be sufficient in determining what sources to use. After going through the process of evaluating a website, I realized that smart use of technology extends beyond common sense. When looking at the usefulness or integrity of a website, a deeper look can reveal background and history that is important to consider.

I chose to look at the website www.abcya.com in order to evaluate it for reliability and usability. This is a website that is geared towards learning games for children from grades K-5. It has an extensive selection of fun computer games that will reiterate age-appropriate concepts in reading, math, and more. While It was easy to navigate and fun to use, I was completely surprised by its history. I had heard the name before, but I assumed it was connected with the television station since PBS has a website for children filled with learning games. In fact, the name has nothing to do with the tv station, but instead it was created by a teacher who wanted more resources in his classroom. If I would not have taken the time to look into that information, I would have written off the site as one focused on promoting a more commercial approach to learning. Instead, I found that this site came straight from a teacher's personal background. This was an important and exciting piece of information, because to me, a teacher's experience is the most valuable resource when looking for additional learning material for my children.

Through this exercise I discovered a real value to evaluating websites. Not only are there a lot of great details that would be missed without proper evaluation, but also reviewing the website did not take that long! It was a relatively short process during which I discovered how current the information was through the copyright, where the source of the information was coming from, and how user-friendly this information would be to me, my students, and even my students' parents at home. I plan to continue previewing websites in this way so that I do not use inadequate websites for my children or pass up great websites based on an inaccurate assumption of its contents.