That means that hundreds of thousands of photographs, computer graphics, sounds, video clips, multimedia files, and pages of text are transmitted over the Internet every seven days. Thanks to the Internet, you and your students now have more information available to you than at any other period in the history of the world. However, this freely-accessible repository of information and data does pose some challenges to adult and student researchers alike. There are no professional editors and proofreaders who question, sometimes rewrite, and always check the validity of information in a writer's work. In the real world, only after this time-intensive editing process does a textbook, magazine, or feature article get published.
Truth is, it's sometimes difficult to be sure.
The key is to teach yourself and your students how to sort the good online information from the bad. This section of the tutorial will help you understand and deal with this pothole on the Information Highway. How to separate the good information from the bad The ability for anyone with a computer and modem to publish something on the Internet provides incredible opportunities for free expression and information sharing, but also offers the unscrupulous and irresponsible a global stage for their views. False, incomplete, or inaccurate medical, legal, and scientific information can be found on a variety of Web pages and Usenet newsgroups on the Net. To make things even more complicated, many people use the Internet to post their political views or satirize public figures, events, and places.