MySecureCyberspace: StoogeTube

To use the Internet for research, students must be able to determine which Web sites are reliable resources for information and which are not.

Although very accessible and teeming with helpful facts, the Internet is tainted with misleading and incorrect content, otherwise known as misinformation.

These days, web publishing is available to just about anybody with an Internet connection. Without any knowledge of journalism or skill in HTML, hundreds of thousands of users can post an online diary on Blogger , and countless others can publish on similar easy-to-use services. YouTube , among the most publicized sites in 2006, prides itself on sharing home videos that anyone can publish and view. While fun and entertaining, web content is not a reliable resource of information for school projects, unless you have several good reasons to trust it.

Online information is boundless, which is why students who take their research to the Internet must be cautious before using what they find. To know what to look for, read our encyclopedia entry on misinformation for guidelines.

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