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Evaluating Web Sites Team Project Assignment
To make this assignment easier to handle, go to the URL for this assignment, which is at: http://clpccd.blackboard.com and select the Internet Skills Course.  Then select a Discussion Board on the left.

Part One

Pick out of the envelope a web site (one of which is listed below).  One to two more persons will also pick out that web site and will have a conversation with you through the Blackboard Discussion Boards.  In your conversation, talk about the web site in terms of evaluating it, using the checklist as your criteria (if you want, you can assign among yourselves what areas to focus on).   You have only TWENTY minutes and BE PREPARED to share what you saw on the particular site.
 

Winners Occasionally Use Drugs   http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30072

Feline Reactions to Bearded Men   http://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html

Coalition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide  http://www.netreach.net/~rjones/no_dhmo.html

AIDS Facts  http://147.129.1.10/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm
 
  Part Two

Below is a list of controversial topics.  The web sites listed beneath are sites that usually came up in one of the first ten results of a general search engine (i.e. Google, Excite, Altavista, etc.) and NOT from a portal or subject directory. 

Again, pick your controversial topics out of an envelope I will pass to each of you.  In your new teams, assign to each other what areas or sites each are to focus on and for the rest of this class discuss with each other interesting aspects you have found on each of the sites.  Your discussion will take place in the Discussion Board assigned to the controversial topic.

After the end of this class (though you will still have access to these discussion boards between classes if you want to continue your discussion), I want each of you to write two brief paragraphs comparing and contrasting the sites in your topic.  What I want you to do is comment what you see as the site's main strengths and weaknesses (can include the areas of accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage, depending on the site).  I do not want to be told which site is "better" than the other at this point.  Keep in mind that a point of view you agree with may elude you from seeing a poor information quality web site (and vice versa!)  So do not let the content or bias fool you!   For topics with three sites, you can pick two and then comment on the other ones if you want.  The paragraphs are due the next time class meets.
 

Cohabitation 

Sex and Cohabitation
http://members.tripod.com/~frjoe/sex.htm

Cohabiting, All About Living Together Before Marriage
http://members.aol.com/cohabiting/

Alternatives to Marriage Project
 http://www.unmarried.org/

Red Meat

beefnutrition.org
http://www.beefnutrition.org/

Meat Stinks (Now titled GoVeg)
http://www.goveg.com

Election 2000 Dispute

Election 2000: Things to Do
http://homeschool.crecon.com/election2000.html

Election 2000: Our Political System Faces an Ultimate Challenge
http://www.infoimagination.org/ps/election_2000/ 

Stem Cell Research

Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics
http://www.stemcellresearch.org/

Stem Cell Research Foundation: The Promise of Stem Cells in Medical Research
http://www.stemcellresearchfoundation.org/

Smoking and Health

The Harmful Effects of Smoking
http://www.smartlink.net/~phillipj/smoking.htm

The Irreversible Health Effects of Smoking
http://www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/iesmoke.html  

Medical Marijuana

The Science of Medical Marijuana
http://www.medmjscience.org/

Marijuana is NOT a Medicine
http://www.fmr.no/eng/ecad%2Dmedicine.html
 

Gun Control

Gun Truths
http://www.guntruths.com

Archived Page: http://web.archive.org/web/20030125020312/http://www.guntruths.com/
(URL for this page and all pages it links begins with the second http--Ignore all that precedes it)

Gun Laws, Gun Control, and Gun Rights