Misleading Web sites: The upside

The Web is a tricky place for uncritical thinkers to gather information. But it can also be a wonderful tool for developing critical thinking. TechLearning.com ran a helpful article recently showing how parents, teachers, and children can use that learning tool. A good example the piece points out is MartinLutherKing.org, run by a white supremacist group. "What better way for a hate group to get out their message than to disguise their agenda and masquerade their hate in a well designed, albeit historically inaccurate, Web site?" writer Frank Westcott asks. He offers tips and things to look out for in critical surfing, such as tildes (~) in URLs, checking whois to find out who's behind a site, and Google's links-to feature (showing all the hate groups that link to MartinLutherKing.org). For more on this subject, see "Critical thinking: Kids' best tool for research."