I enjoyed my group's discussion in tonight's seminar. Our topic was "how would I teach my students to search efficiently?". It was interesting to learn that colleagues teaching at different levels have different concerns relating to 'search'. Some of these concerns include:
- which keywords to enter?
- which link to click?
- which link shall I base my research on?
- do students simply read the 1st link found in the search results? Do they only read the easy to understand ones? (some of my students do this!) Or, do they seriously consider the source and its credibility?
These concerns are very real in our classrooms and we find ourselves without a map and a North Star. We feel that we're given a piece of work with this instruction: "there're many roads which lead to Rome, go find your own". Well, leading a herd of 30 learners or more is a huge responsibility and honestly, discovery lessons can be fun, but not when there's a time constraint or a learning objective to be met or a product that's expected.
Looking at how dynamic the information technology is evolving, and the fact that we've different learners in different contexts, it's difficult to come up with a blueprint which can address all these concerns. What are we to do then? Perhaps what we teachers can fall back on are back-to-the-basics concepts such as teaching our learners to THINK. Think about...
1) the Purpose, Audience & Context of / for their search.
2) the keywords and concepts for their search (thanks Nalini, for sharing!)
3) which search engine or directory can serve their needs.
4) how they can narrow or widen their search. E.g. use of booleans.
5) which website's info to use (depends on Purpose, Audience, Context)
6) the reliability of information.
7) how we can ask and learn from each other - not just student from teacher but teacher learning from students
Would you like to add to this list? Perhaps as a group, we can create a 'what can a teacher do to help students search for information effectively on the Internet'? : )
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My poly students showed some interest when one day, we discussed what some of the following 'dots' meant and the kind of restrictions (eg. in the .gov and .edu sites), information, biasness or selling points they may see on such sites (esp. the .com and .org sites); and possibly which sites will be more trustworthy when they are searching for 'factual' information to support their arguments.
ReplyDeleteSource: Info summary from wikipedia
Generic Sites
.biz • .com • .info • .name • .net • .org • .pro
Sponsored Sites
.aero • .asia • .cat • .coop • .edu • .gov • .int • .jobs • .mil • .mobi • .museum • .tel • .travel
.biz
is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) intended for domains to be used by businesses;
.com (short for commercial),
the generic top-level domain used on the Internet's Domain Name System
.edu (education)
is the sponsored top-level domain for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States. In some countries a second-level domain is used to indicate an educational institutions (e.g. .edu.mx in Mexico, .edu.cn in China, .edu.au in Australia, .ac.uk and .sch.uk and .ed.uk in the United Kingdom)
.gov (.government),
is a sponsored top-level domain restricted for use by government entities in the United States. Other countries typically use a second-level domain for this purpose (such as .gov.ar for Argentina, .gov.au for Australia, .gov.sg for Singapore
.info (.information)
is a generic top-level domain intended for informative websites, although its use is not restricted.
.museum
is a sponsored top-level domain (TLD) used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession, as these groups are defined by the International Council of Museums
.name
is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) intended for the use of individuals' real names, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other personal names.
.net
was initially intended to be used only for the computers of network providers (such as Internet service providers). However, there are no formal restrictions on who can register a .net domain name. Therefore, while still popular with network operators, it is often treated as a second .com.
.org
was one of the original top-level domains, established in January 1985, originally intended for use by organizations
Anyone can register a .org domain; there are no requirements for registration. .org was recommended for and perceived by common public to be of non-commercial entities
There are many instances of .org being used by commercial sites, although some people question whether it is ethical to do so. .org was also commonly recommended for use by individuals
.pro (professional)
is a generic top-level domain intended for business use by qualified professionals. The extension was originally launched in June 2004 with registrations restricted to lawyers, accountants, physicians and engineers in France, Canada, UK and the US.
Wow, doing an information search requires quite a bit of planning and then teaching of these strategies to students.
ReplyDeleteI have taught primary school students and am now teaching secondary school students.
The strategies I have employed are quite different.
With primary school students, I usually ask them to focus on keywords and concepts. It saves me the trouble of responding to their incessant shouts of whether that particular websites are relevant. Some teachers use to hand hold their students by giving them specific websites.
When I started teaching Secondary school students, I used to highlight to them who they thought were their audience and for what purpose they thought they were going to source the information for.
Brenda , I think your strategies are great and I feel they can be taught to younger students (we might have to start with a simpler assignment).
Denise , I did not know there was so much meaning to a simple dot. Thank you for enlightening me.