Martin Luther King, Jr., and Web Site Evaluation

Here are some great sites for learning more about Martin Luther King, Jr.
King Center in Atlanta Georgia
Nobel Peace Prize Biography
mlkonline.net Listen to, read, and watch King's speeches.
"I Have a Dream" (An ABC News film on YouTube featuring King delivering this famous speech)

But, before you start surfing and searching, I'd like you to think about how you determine what Web sites to use for your school research.

We recently observed the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., which brings to mind a story a colleague of mine once shared. He was working as a university librarian in Oregon when a couple of students told him they'd received failing grades on history papers they'd written about Martin Luther King, Jr. They felt they'd written good papers and had done quality research, carefully including information they had gathered on the Web. When he reviewed their references--the list of Web sites and other sources they'd used for their research--he discovered that not only had they used Web sites almost exclusively, but they had used one site in particular. He checked out that site. It was full of information about Martin Luther King, Jr., that to him was clearly untrue, but to the students who were just learning about King seemed perfectly plausible.


When my colleague looked into who was sponsoring the site, he discovered that it was maintained by a white supremacist organization. Now, do you think a group of people who wish humanity all had one color of skin, white skin, would publish accurate information about a powerful, African-American civil rights leader? Unlikely.


Two research lessons can be learned here:

• First, don't just rely on Web sites. If these students had used other sources, such as books, they would have noticed that only the web site said some of the things it did. They might have then questioned the validity of that Web site and its information. They might have gotten credit for the papers they wrote.
• Second, evaluate Web sites using the journalist questions (who, what, where, when, and why). Who is writing the information and maintaining the Web site--a reputable organization you've heard of, or another middle school student? You can sometimes find out by reading the About Us section of their site, and if there isn't one, beware. Sponsors of quality Web sites should have nothing to hide.

Other questions to ask when evaluating a Web site:

• Why does it exist? To inform, to sell something, to recruit members, persuade, entertain? Try to use sites for research that seem to exist simply to inform people of something.
• What kind of information does it include--information you've seen elsewhere in print (paper)?
• When was the site last updated? Try to use current information. If you're doing an astronomy report, watch the dates of information. You don't want to say Pluto is a planet because you found that on an out-of-date Web site. It's no longer a planet!!
• Where does the site exist on the Internet--in what domain? Is it a .com, .edu, .gov, or .org site?
• .com means it is most likely sponsored by a corporation or a person; the information found there may be useful or it may be created by a company hoping you'll buy their products or by a person with an interest in a topic but with no special knowledge of it.
• .gov means the site is maintained by a city, county, state, or federal government. Governments have lots of useful information for you, including reliable statistics.
• .edu means the site is maintained by an educational institution, such as a university or school district, or someone affiliated with it, like a teacher. Not all .edu sites are useful, but some libraries, science centers, and museums have Web addresses that end with .edu., and they usually do provide valuable, credible information.
• .org means the sponsor is some sort of organization, usually nonprofit, such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), or a museum, library, or charitable organization. The information is frequently high-quality, but, as in the case of martinlutherking.org, not always.