What does a website ending in .org indicate according to a teacher?
A teacher has told my relative’s daughter, who is in middle school in the US, that a website ending in “.org” is always reliable. She believed this and now considers “.org” sites as trustworthy sources.
If this is the case, the teacher is lacking in common sense, and spreading such misinformation is dangerous. Anyone can purchase a “.org” domain for less than $10.
My question is: Is this teacher an exception in the US education system? Should they be put on an improvement plan?
This teacher might have been taught the same thing when they were in school, as was I. It used to be considered “common sense,” so a bit of understanding would be fair. The teacher might simply be repeating what they learned and may not realize that anyone can easily acquire a .org domain.
You can express your concerns and, if you wish, provide resources on how to evaluate domain suffixes when researching.
Also, keep in mind that the middle school student might have misunderstood or simplified the teacher’s explanation. The teacher may have offered a more nuanced view on assessing the reliability and credibility of online information.
I disagree. I know of a for-profit commercial retail website that has used a .org domain for the past 20 years. People may have assumed that .org domains are always legitimate, and many credible organizations did use .org, but it was never a guarantee of authenticity. Anyone could register a .org domain back then, just as they can now.