Assignment 4: Website Evaluation

http://www.theonion.com/articles/immigration-officials-beef-up-usmexican-border-wit,1080/

This websites purpose is to entertain the reader with witty and sarcastic remarks about true political issues. The events that the articles are based upon are true but many/all of the facts that back it up are to provide humor. This wesbite is a .com which means it is not a credible website and it has many different authors. I am not very knowledgeable about the topic of immigration but I felt while reading this article it was targeting conservatives whom want to tighten borders. I believe this website is a great transition to get older students interested in current events; however, for many students below high school this content is far too mature and sarcastic for them to understand or be appropriate.

 http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=16663&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1007

FAIR is a grassroots organization that aims to stop illegal immigration. By quickly looking at the website you can tell it is a .org website which means it will be accurate information. By reading this website I felt that it was biased towards pro tightening border control. It provides information that could be helpful in a classroom but the educator would have to be sure to explain the one side information that is being shared. A downside of this website, compared to some of the others, is the blog verse website. The blog website is updated weekly and is on top of staying current. However, this website has not been updated in five years, since 2005. The updated date is an important thing to remember to pay attention to while citing websites.

 

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

This is a government website, that is a .gov which means it is a credible, up-to-date website that would be great to use in a classroom. The great thing about this website is the authenticity and the easy to use layout which creates a larger opporunity for a broader range of students to use. Many people were writting comments about the non bias attitude that this website was created in and I completely agree. I also noticed while reading that the website can guide the reader to all of the updated immigration laws. I believe this is great for students to learn because so often history can be taught without it relating to them; by sharing with the students that all of this information goes into creating laws, they realise the link between government and laws; and the link between laws and citizens.

http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2008/February/20080307112004ebyessedo0.1716272.html

This website was a great source of information and in my opinion can be used for younger grades as well. THis website is a .gov which varifies that the information is credible and accurate. This website would be very helpful with aidingchildren who are writing reports or learning about immigration in social studies. THis would be a helpful tool becuase of the easy to read layout of information about the history of immigration that is provided.

 http://blog.immigrantconnect.com/

This site is written by a legal firm, because it is a .com website it is clear it is not a credible, accurate website. It is a blog which I believe is a creative idea and a unique way of portraying this legal information. While reading some of the blog posts I quickly figured out that the writers are writing from a very liberal view. Although it is written from this slanted opinion I still believe it would be an asset to the classroom to share this website. I enjoy that blog aspect of this site as well as the up to date and current events that are talked about. I am hoping to be a teacher in a kindergarten or first grade classroom, so clearly these websites are far and above any of my students but in highschool history class I feel that the students would find this website interesting.