Title: Default for Second Year Teachers 2009-2010
Course: Tech Literacy for Teachers/Staff

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Jacopo di Poggibonsi .
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The Jacopo di Poggibonsi website is not accurate. It was written by a group of students for a class on Internet credibility. This site fools many people for a couple of reasons. The first is that they notice it is on the University of Michigan website. Many people don’t realize that most colleges and universities give all students and faculty web page space.They aren’t able to control much of the content of those pages. The second is that people see references to the Encyclopedia Britannica and don't realize that the page it links to is spoofed. It looks just like the encyclopedia pages that it imitates, but when you look at the URL of the page you will see that it is not on the encyclopedia site, but on the same U of M site as the original article.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Octopus
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The Octopus site is not accurate.Octopi do not live in trees.This site is setup to look very much like a primary zoology page and the pictures could convince many.Even many teachers (who know better) seem afraid to commit to telling me it is not accurate in face to face training classes for fear of being told they are wrong.A complicating factor is a cartoon on the Discovery Channel and Discovery Kids network called The Future is wild which predicts that some dominant land animals in the future are squid.A child that has watched those shows and sees this website would believe it very easily.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Brontosaurus
- True
- False
A: True
Feedback: The brontosaurus site is accurate, but I would generally look for that information some where else because the focus of the main site that contains this page casts suspicion on all of the information. The main site is the unmuseum. It is focused on topics that are generally shunned by mainstream science like UFOs, the paranormal and cryptozoology. That focus would make everything on this site generally off limits in a paper that is written for a scientific audience.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. All the good things (The story of Mark Eklund)
- True
- False
A: True
Feedback: All the Good Things is the story of Mark Eklund and it is true, but the site is a type of message board. Anyone can post a story there. I don't know how they verify information on that page, so I would look somewhere else to verify the story. I used http://www.snopes.com. They are a very good reference pertaining to all kinds of Internet and e-mail myths.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Velcro
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The Velcro site is not accurate.The part of the URL home.inreach.com gives us a clue that it is a personal site.The word home in the place of the www before inreach indicates that this is the webpage space that is given to many customers by their local ISP provider.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Deer
- True
- False
A: True
Feedback: The deer site is accurate. National Geographic is generally considered a credible site. The thing I would caution you about is that people do spoof sites like this. I would explore the site through provided links and such to make sure the site is legitimate before accepting information that is contrary to prior knowledge, such as deer that are carnivorous.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Martin Luther King (Warning: graphic-language)
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: This Martin Luther King site is not accurate.It doesn’t fit with prior knowledge of Martin Luther King.Anytime a site doesn’t match our prior knowledge of a subject, we should look else where to verify the information.A search for the owners of the site shows that it is run by a white supremacy organization named Stormfront.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Dihydrogen Monoxide
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The dihydrogen monoxide site is not accurate. It is an example of a site where accurate facts are used to promote an inaccurate agenda. The substance is water and most of the things referred to are exposed to water, but the conclusions of it being a dangerous product are wrong.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Molossia
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The Molossia website is not accurate.There is no country called Molossia.The “country” referred to on this website is a small plot of land in Nevada.A search of the site shows several humorous photos of their “Navy” and government buildings that reveal the hoax.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Hand of Hope (graphic-bloody)
- True
- False
A: True
Feedback: The Hand of Hope site is accurate, according to the author and photographer.Many details have been disputed by the others attending the event. At any rate, it is a site that should probably not be cited, or at least cited very carefully. Any site with an agenda should be used very carefully because the facts are generally slanted in the direction of their agenda and others that check your citations may not give them the same weight thus minimizing your persuasive argument. Looking for a websites agenda is probably the most important consideration when evaluating the information on a website.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Morgan Robertson
- True
- False
A: True
Feedback: The website about Morgan Robertson is accurate, but you should not trust it. Any website from AOL or any personal website should be considered suspect and the information should be verified from another reputable source before accepting it.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. Robots
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The site about the Victorian Robots is not accurate. It was created by the authors of a book with the goal of promoting their book.Exploring the site eventually brings you to a page about the authors.

Q: This site is an accurate website with true and appropriate information. McWhortle Enterprises
- True
- False
A: False
Feedback: The McWhortle Enterprises site is not accurate.Actually it was set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission to teach people not to invest in companies that they don’t know anything about.If a person attempts to give their personal information and bank or financial numbers to the site they will receive a message saying that their money could have been stolen from them because the company is a fake.

Q: This site is an accurate web site with true and appropriate information. Holocaust Revisionism
- True (That is incorrect. This site is not accurate. It is written by a professor of electrical engineering. This information was on a university site for many years. Students presumed the information was accurate because it was on a university site. A little investigation will show that the supporting information that the author links to was also written by him.)
- False (You're correct this site is not accurate.)
A: False