Article by Miriam Hagg, 
On The Edge Student Reporter
Edgewood Middle School

How do you know if the website you are using is reliable? A new program called Internet Integrity is based on making website evaluation easier for students through acronyms.

One acronym that we as a school corporation use is G.U.A.R.D. This stands for goal, usefulness, author, reliability and date; factors that tell a lot about the site and its credibility.

According to Wendy Kovach, the coordinator of media services at Warsaw Community Schools, an important part of this program is using databases such as Britannica Schools, Gale and ScienceFlix. Using these databases ensures that the information and images do not violate copyright, as well as ensuring true information.

According to Brad Hagg, the chief technology officer for Warsaw Community Schools, “Students need to understand clearly whether the information they are using is true or not, so we have been working to help provide students with good strategies to discern good websites from bad.”

“In the next 5 years, the main goal for Internet Integrity is that by the time students reach the sixth grade they are comfortable using the G.U.A.R.D. system to evaluate web resources, and that students in middle school and high school do not have to be introduced to it because they already understand it and are using it to evaluate web resources,” stated Kovach. “I think the most important thing about Internet Integrity is teaching our students how to find, evaluate, and ethically use the best sources of electronic information in order to meet their information needs. This is a skill that they will use throughout their lives.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The article above was selected from the Edgewood Middle School student written magazine On The Edge. This was the students’ last edition this school year and we at StaceyPageOnline.com want to congratulate the students on their excellent work throughout the year. Posting of On The Edge articles will commence again in the fall when school reconvenes. Please contact Alyssa Richardson at [email protected] with questions.)