It’s easy to visit Web sites but a different matter to evaluate and use them in your THJHA club. The following sections give suggestions on assessing and using on-line resources.

• Evaluating Web Sites
• Integrating the Internet into Your THJH Club Activities

Evaluating Web Sites

These days anyone can have a Web site, from an individual sharing family photographs to a company selling photographic equipment. Consider the following statistics from the journal Nature: As of February 1999, the Internet encompassed over eight hundred million publicly indexed Web sites. Only about 6 percent of the sites contained scientific and educational content, while approximately 83 percent contained commercial information. (L. Giles and S. Lawrence, “Accessibility of Information on the Web,” Nature 400 [1999]: 107–109. Available on-line at: http://www.wwwmetrics.com/.) Since anyone can create a Web site for any purpose, finding valid, objective information concerns many Internet users. No Web sites, even the 6 percent containing educational material, undergo formal peer review. Therefore, educators using the Internet in developing curricula must themselves determine the legitimacy of information presented.

To evaluate a Web site, ask the following questions:

• Who operates the site? Is biographical or background information provided? 
• What is the purpose of the site? 
• Is the presentation of the topic balanced or biased? 
• Who wrote the material? What are the author’s credentials? 
• Is the information up-to-date? Has it recently been revised? 
• Are additional sources, bibliographical documentation, or links provided? 

Ten C’s for Evaluating Internet Sources
http://www.uwec.edu/Admin/Library/Guides/tencs.html
McIntyre Library provides 10 concise tips for evaluating Web sites. 

Evaluating Internet Research Sources
http://www.sccu.edu/faculty/R_Harris/evalu8it.htm
This site from Vanguard University of Southern California features a detailed article on Web site evaluation by Robert Harris.

Evaluating Web Resources: Bibliography
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webstrbib.htm
Widener University provides this detailed bibliography of Web site evaluation resources.

net.TUTOR: Evaluation of Web Sites
http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les1/index.html
This page offers a tutorial on evaluating Web sites.

As a THJHA adviser, you may wish to ask these additional questions when evaluating a Web site for your club: Is it appropriate for club members? Will it hold their attention? If members will be accessing the site independently, other questions arise: Will members be able to navigate within it? Does it load quickly? Do the links work? The Web site http://www.cyberbee.com/guide1.html provides a Web site evaluation form—created specially for teachers—that addresses these and other questions.

Involve your club members in Web site evaluation by having them rate a site before using it for research. The following Web sites provide evaluation forms for specific grade levels:

http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/rubric1.htm (primary grades) 
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/rubric2.htm (intermediate grades) 
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/rubric3.htm (secondary grades) 

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Integrating the Internet into Your THJHA Club Activities

The Internet, an ever expanding global resource, has vast potential for use in educational activities. Even if your club meeting area is not equipped with Internet access, you can integrate the Internet into your activities. Web sites exist on almost any topic you might cover—from broad subjects (Victorian America) to specific details (Moravian genealogy). THJHA clubs will find especially useful the rapidly increasing number of primary materials on the Internet. For example, in addition to reading the text of a document, letter, or journal in a textbook, junior historians can see a scanned image of the original printed off the Internet. Here are several ways to expand this idea:

• Create a file in which club members can deposit printouts from Web sites they have used. 
• Take your club on virtual field trips via the Web sites of historic sites, museums, and historical societies. For instance, print out the Web page from the State Archives, the State Library, and your county’s genealogical society to supplement your club’s study of genealogy. 

• Visit North Carolina Public Schools Infoweb (http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/), which provides North Carolina’s social studies curriculum matrix, helpful information for educators, recent legislative reports and assessment results, a calendar of events, and other valuable resources.
• Many sites offer lesson plans that you can adapt for use in your classroom. Start with the American Memory Lessons Page (http://learning.loc.gov/learn/lessons/index.html) and Activities Page (http://learning.loc.gov/learn/activity/index.html) from the Library of Congress. 
• http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html#Social Studies provides many links to Internet lesson plans. 

• Visit http://www.teachers.net/chatboard/, a chat room for teachers worldwide, to gain insight into issues important to you. 
• Begin an e-mail pal program with a class in another state or country. Have club members create a message and e-mail it to the class. Print the responses and share them with the club. Through this exciting program, junior historians can learn about different parts of the country and other cultures around the world. 
• Contact educators in other countries through a bulletin board or chat room for teachers. Ask questions about their culture and country that relate to your club's projects. For instance, ask them if their students have undertaken genealogy projects and how they located, interpreted, and presented their findings. Present their responses to your club and compare their methods with your club’s methods. If you receive questions from other teachers, assign your club the task of researching and writing the responses. 

For more ideas on using the Internet in your THJHA club, see the following sources: 

Linda C. Joseph, Net Curriculum: An Educator’s Guide to Using the Internet (Medford, N.J.: CyberAge Books, 1999). 

Linda C. Joseph, one of the world’s leading authorities on the use of the Internet in schools, presents dozens of on-line projects, Web site links, search engines, information resources, research tips, and virtual field trips. The book covers all school subjects and grade levels.

Scott M. Mandel, developer of the Teachers Helping Teachers Web site, educates teachers on how to use the Internet to complement their social studies curriculum. 

Curriculum Ideas from CyberBee
http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html
This page contains examples of how the Web can be used in education. 

History/Social Studies Web Site for K–12 Teachers
http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/boals.html
This site, named one of the top ten teaching sites for the twenty-first century by the Education Source, encourages the use of the World Wide Web as a tool for learning and teaching and provides help for K–12 classroom teachers in locating and using the Internet in the classroom. 

Teachers Helping Teachers
http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/
Dr. Scott Mandel provides a forum for teachers worldwide, offering a guest book, chat line, lesson plans, book reviews, links, and other helpful resources. 

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