It is important to check the validity of internet sources because of the nature of the internet. As evidenced by this blog, anyone can post anything they like on any topic anywhere on the internet and no one can stop them. Others might contradict what they said, but if a student is not aware enough or does not look hard enough, then they could stumble on some bizarre sites and take the information found there as gospel. No one can insist that internet authors have good research to back up their statements like an editor or publisher of a book would do, which makes the internet in general much more unreliable in some ways.
A good example, at least in the past, of a semi-valid, but mostly not, source of information has been Wikipedia. Anyone can post anything in Wikipedia and because it is not peer edited, no one may see blaringly obvious errors in the site’s information. However, students could imagine that because it looks official and is an easy source of information, then they can use it without worrying about the validity.
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