This great site for The Great War is apparently a teacher authored site as directions
are given on the home page as to how to use hot links and database links (excellent)
as well as directives to cite information used accurately and honestly .It is
link from a directory of sites covering American, ancient, world and modern
history, social studies,
reference, AOL Teachersnet, where the webmaster calls herself Susie. E-mail
contact is anonymous with a frog with retracting tongue. Despite the juvenile
appeal animation device, the site is rich with quality links. I sent a query
about the site’s author.
The WW I site is aesthetically bare, with functional navigation tools and good organization of subtopics. It is colorless and without graphics. There is no site map. The hot links are alphabetically ordered, and then the subtopics are categorized under headings.
It has 60 hot links, and 21 databases, many of which are superior.
1. Author’s education all difficult to determine. The site has a blind
AOL address with an email contact directed to teachersnet. TeacherNet@TeacherNet@aol.com
Unable to determine experience, occupation, reputation as privacy and safety
policies of the site restrict that information. This site is a collection of
sites to search, rather than one, which gives the author’s ideas, reflections,
or opinions on the topic of World War I.
Its traffic record of visitors is 177, 540. Many of its links are quality,
though I did find equally fine sites listed on Yahoo’s Directory of WW
I sites. It has the approval of Met’s Educational Resource Center, Safe
Surf Rated for All Ages, Awesome Library’s top 5% Ranking, Academic Assistance
Center, and the ClassRoom Teacher’s Online ToolBox.
.
2. How reliable is the publisher (site) of the web page?
This national organization is providing web space. It is a multi-million dollar commercial site. Contact information is an e-mail address: http://TeacherNet.aol.com. The mission of the organization is to provide Internet services and web space for educators. This site sponsoring the author's page provides a contact for further information. I sent an email requesting a way to contact the author.
3. How reliable are the pages that the author's page link to? Too numerous to completely assess…hundreds of links
The site is massive…hundreds of links. Some are absolutely priceless, such as the Art of the War Exhibit, sponsored by UNESCO. One can view the paintings now resident in European art galleries, read about their painters who did drawings and paintings on site, such as John Singer Sargent’s painting of “The Gassed” where he shows a line of blinded soldiers groping along their way against a sunset. Interpretive comments about the paintings are well done. 100 paintings are included in the gallery, which also provides a tour.
The quality of links is uneven in that some are non-working at this time. I could not find several of the poetry links. The author of the site asks to be notified about dead links.
One link I pursued was very authoritative
Dr. Miller, MB.BS. (Lond), MRCP. (Lond), FACRM., FFRM,RACP., is a consultant
physician in internal, cardiological and rehabilitation medicine, practicing
in Sydney, Australia and has a particular interest in the medical problems of
war veterans.
http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/medical/medtitle.htm
The Medical Front Main Page is supervised by Dr. Miller. He requires that submissions
to this page be referenced and submitted to his group of medical referees before
it is posted. Email: gmiller6@bigpond.net.au
Following a link, I read an article by the above Australian doctor who investigated the death of Manfred Von Richthoven, as there were four possible perpetrators. It was intensely scientifically reported with many eyewitness accounts taken from personal papers, drawings, and medical reports on the scene. His conclusions were reasonable, and his article included 23 references. This area of the web will undoubtedly be closely monitored for reliable links.
· Do these pages support or contradict facts or opinions on the author's
page? It is difficult to ascertain which, if any, are author’s comments.
This appears to be a teacher’s provision of web resources for student
research.
· Do these pages add any new information on the topic? An incredible
amount of information is accessible on other links to this site. The pages on
another site.
· Are the pages from the same or a different domain? Many different domains
supplement information on this site: edu. gov., com.,
4. Do other reliable (or unreliable) pages provide links to the author's page?
· One cannot determine if these pages support or contradict facts or
opinions on the author’s page as this is a directory without an author’s
page. These pages add a great array of new information or perspective on the
topic on different sites and on different domains.
5. What information on the topic is available from traditional sources such
as newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias or library resources on the web?
· Do these pages support or contradict facts or opinions on the author's
page? Cannot determine, as there is no author’s page per se’.
· Do these pages add any new information or perspective on the topic?
Too massive to compare.
· Are these sources likely to be more reliable than the author's page?
Possibly.
The author does give personal comments on women’s role in the war, the
sinking of the Sussex and Lusitania, the Zimmerman Telegram, and also gives
additional cited resources on each of these topics. The information appears
to be verifiable. I noticed one spelling error.
6. How recently was the page published or updated? 2002
· Does the date of publication affect the reliability of the information?
Not really.
· Does the date the document was updated affect the reliability of the
information? To a degree if it contests the information previously cited.
· How accurately can you determine the date of publication or updating?
7. Assess the accuracy of the information in the document.
· Is the content of the site a true reflection of what it says it is?
Yes
· Are the facts correct? Some are, some may not be, too massive to assess.
· Is there a way to judge accuracy, such as independent access to information
upon which the site is based? Some of the links are to primary documents which
speak for themselves.
· Are there typographical or grammatical errors? No.
8. Does the page show signs of bias in its perspective or presentation?
· Is the language of the document often extreme? No.
· Does the argument appeal more to the emotions than to reason? The topic
itself, war, the tragedy of war, thousands cut down in battlefields generates
emotion on its own merit.
· Does the argument oversimplify or over generalize? Not applicable to
this site.
· Does the author present a limited perspective on the topic? No—the
links are far ranging.
9. What evidence is provided to support opinions and conclusions expressed
in the document? These questions are not applicable to this directory of WWI
sites.
· Does the author provide data to support each important opinion or conclusion?
· Is the data quantitative or qualitative?
· Is the evidence supported by references to accepted authorities on
the topic?
· Is there information on the page that would allow you to contact the
author or publisher to check the information?
10. Can you contact someone with expertise in the area to validate the opinions
or conclusions expressed in the document? I did not pursue this question, as
other than directions for correct citation, there were no statements to be attributed
to the author, other than his selection of links and databases.
I did notice that other sites, which seemed to be quality sources did not link
to this site as one of their top ten links.
On the whole, this seems to be a good workhorse site for someone researching
WW I, as someone has obviously spent a good deal of time collecting these links
for his/her students. The quality and credibility of each link has to be judged
on its own merit. I encountered dead links, and I encountered superb, scholarly
links. Many of the sites, such as Trenches on the Web, and others done by high
school classes were far more aesthetically design conscious than this bare,
austere site. It is a basically utilitarian site with vast resources which achieves
its purpose as a broad starting point for research on the history of WWI. Gold
or dross? Probably both on this site.