You are expected to understand and use digital technology in and out of school. The skills you need to succeed in school today are different from the skills students needed even just a few years ago. The term digital literacy is used to describe the ability to locate, evaluate, create, and share information using a range of digital technology. This requires a knowledge of current technology, its features, and how it works. It also requires the skills to analyze what you find and make sure your sources are reliable.

Let's take a closer look at how to evaluate the information sources you find using digital technology.

You already know there is a lot of information on the Internet. As you conduct a search, keep in mind that all that information is not created equal. Once you have completed a search, you need to evaluate the sources you see, and only use valid, trustworthy sources.

Anyone can create a Web site. Think about blogs, for example. Anyone with an interest in a subject can create a blog about that subject. But the person's interest alone does not make the information on the blog reliable, or even true.

How can you make sure to use information only from trustworthy sites?

Sources you find on the Internet are not always checked for accuracy. Keep in mind that Web sites with addresses that end in .edu, .org, and .gov are more trustworthy than sites that end in .com. These types of sites usually have good information because it is vetted by reliable authorities.

The following lists the different domain names you will encounter on the Internet:

• .com sites are commercially owned sites, and may or may not be reliable. This is because the goal of most of these sites is to make a profit.
• .gov sites are government sites, such as the state of Maine's Web site, maine.gov. These sites are very reliable. In Canada, Web sites that end in .ca or .gc.ca are also government sites. 
• .edu sites are from colleges or universities, such as the University of Texas's Web site: utexas.edu. In Canada, university sites usually end in .ca. Most of these sites are extremely reliable. As long as you can identify the institution as an actual college or university, and the information on the site is supported by facts, you can trust what you find on their site.
• .org sites represent nonprofit organizations, such as the the Red Cross Web site, redcross.org. Many of these sites are trustworthy, but not all. There are some strange nonprofits out there, and it isn't hard to get a .org domain name for your Web site.

One .org site you will encounter often is Wikipedia.org. This site needs special attention. Wikipedia is a nonprofit Web site that describes itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." The last part of the description is the most important part. Anyone can edit it.

It is easy for any person to edit an article on Wikipedia without proving that he or she knows anything about the topic. Often times, there is no consistency across Wikipedia entries. These factors make Wikipedia an unreliable Web site. Many teachers do not allow students to use Wikipedia as a source. 

You may find it helpful to take a look at the sources provided at the bottom of a Wikipedia article. These links may be reliable. However, it is important to remember that you should not use an article from Wikipedia as a source.

Because there is no clear rule to help you evaluate a site based on its domain alone, you also need to ask yourself the following questions about every site you view:

• Ask, "Who is the author of this Web site?" On a reliable Web site, it will be easy to identify the author.
• Ask, "Is the author an expert in this field?" On a reliable Web site, you will see that the author knows the topic very well.
• Ask, "Is the information on this Web site supported by facts?" A reliable Web site presents facts, not opinion.  
• Ask, "What is the purpose of this Web site?" A reliable Web site tells both sides of an issue and presents facts on both sides as well.
• Ask, "When was the information posted on this Web site?" A reliable Web site will have a recent copyright date that you can find easily. Reliable sites will also be updated from time to time. Avoid using information from a site that has not been updated in the past five years.

Also pay attention to pop-ups that appear when you do a search. For example, the Web site of the New York Times newspaper always shows an advertisement at the top of its screen as soon as it opens. This advertisement is separate from the articles you can read on the newspaper's Web site. Be mindful of advertisements and other pop-up sites that appear when you click on certain links. Remember that these sites are not the sites you're looking for. Rather, they are paid advertisements that support the site you're looking for.