I am the first to admit there are a lot of things I don’t know. \u00a0Some areas of study- such as the architecture of ancient China or Greek mythology- just don’t interest me. \u00a0 On the flip side, there are topics I do know a lot about, including 80’s music, human biology, and labels and nameplates. \u00a0I came upon this knowledge in a variety of ways, as we all do, including on the job training, college, and reading about topics that interest me in my spare time. \u00a0This used to mean just books and magazines, but now we have the internet.<\/p>\n
The internet has been a double-edged sword for learning. \u00a0While it allows us access to a literal treasure trove of information we never could have had access to before, it also makes it much more difficult to know what is good information and what is, simply put, crap. \u00a0 You only have to log into Facebook or any other social media site for a couple of minutes to see people sharing fake news, fake contests, and other nonsense.<\/p>\n
So how can you tell the good from the bad when you are trying to learn online? \u00a0It can be tricky, but there are a few things you can do to help yourself say on the right path.<\/p>\n
#1 Go the source. \u00a0If you want medical information, go to sites like http:\/\/www.hopkinsmedicine.org\/\u00a0 or http:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/<\/a>\u00a0 . \u00a0If you want information on world news, go to sites like\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 . \u00a0Third party sites that curate content can be time savers, but if you chose to use them make sure they are curating from expert sources.<\/p>\n #2 Check for safety. \u00a0If you go to any website and your pop-up blocker or anti-virus program warnings come on, leave that site immediately!<\/p>\n #3 Check for tone. \u00a0“All doctors are trying to hide……” \u00a0“The mainstream media won’t print this…….” “Only we know what REALLY happened at……..”. \u00a0Run. \u00a0 Do not pass go, do not collect $200. \u00a0 \u00a0At best, you are going to be in for some half-truths and \/ or a sales pitch for useless products. \u00a0 Which brings me to….<\/p>\n #4 Check for cost. \u00a0Yes, it does cost money to do research. \u00a0Yes, it does cost money to run a website. \u00a0Yet in spite of this sites like\u00a0http:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/<\/a>\u00a0 and http:\/\/www.ushistory.org\/us\/<\/a>\u00a0offer more information that you could read in a lifetime at no cost to you the reader. \u00a0 If you are enrolling in a class then yes, you can expect to have to pay for that. \u00a0But teasers that let you read half an article and then demand payment? \u00a0Probably not a very trustworthy source.<\/p>\n What other tricks\/ tips do you have for finding reliable information online? \u00a0The more we share our knowledge the more we all learn!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am the first to admit there are a lot of things I don’t know. \u00a0Some areas of study- such as the architecture of ancient China or Greek mythology- just don’t interest me. \u00a0 On the flip side, there are topics I do know a lot about, including 80’s music, human biology, and labels and nameplates. \u00a0I came upon this… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[24,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/books.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}