That being said, the Internet is still a tremendous resource of information on just about any subject. Once again, until your students are prepared to analyze sites critically, you really need to visit all sites before your students do. If you know a lot about a particular subject, determining whether or not a site is factually correct is fairly easy. Try to determine who the author of a web site is. If you are looking at a dinosaur site created by a professor from the Paleontology department at Berkeley, you can be pretty sure the content is going to be accurate and up to date.
Web sites created by individuals are harder to evaluate, but often just as informative.
If you are not sure whether someone s site is accurate, try to compare it to other sites in the same subject area. If Billy Bob s Dino Site directly contradicts every theory from the Berkeley Paleontology Department, you should be a bit leery of Billy Bob s facts. However, if five individuals have dinosaur sites that state the same ideas, at the very least they are listing facts that are possibly worth discussion. Often when looking at a site you can pick up on an individual s blatant bias or agenda. As a rule, this is a good way to determine that the author s purpose is not to educate, but rather to influence.