Post on 07-Jan-2016
description
Researching: Helping Students navigate a
mountain of knowledgeDigital Learning Series
Digital Citizen Skills - Librarian Edition
Questions?
At anytime during the presentation please feel free to key in a question in the chat window. I will read and respond as they come in!If I am going to fast please help me to press pause!
What does it mean to be a 21st Century learner?
collaboration, communication, critical thinking, & creativity
Think … How can I as a librarian accommodate the 4Cs?
The “4Cs”
Students are not just looking for an answer anymore.
We are asking students to look at the facts, think, make judgments and share their findings. (more of this in the inquiry presentation I am sure!)
This is where we as teachers and librarians can play a huge role.
Changing face of education.
If it can be googled is it worth learning?
Is googling dumbing us down?
Points to ponder as a result of a discussion with George Krahn (aka Joe).
In light of searching
One can not assume a student knows how to search.
Often they don’t even question the search results – if it’s on the internet it must be true!
Often they never consider the validity or authenticity of a website.
Learning to search
There is a strong need to explicitly teach search skills to students.
They need to know legitimate online research involves much more than 10 seconds with Google and copy-pasting the Wikipedia links.
Do not assume anything.
Searching
An ancient tools project. Students are expected to build a tool that early humans may have constructed and used.
Starting with spears!
How can I go about making an ancient spear for my social studies project?◦ Every word is included in a search.
Students need to think about refining a search to the most important words for the topic◦ Well thought search ancient spears materials
Ask no questions
A basic search of spears
A better search spear –britney
Getting rid of the unwanted
Want to be more specific? ◦ A search for ancient spears would find all the
pages of both or either term. Add quote around words and Google
searches for that exact phrase.◦ ie. “ancient spears”
At times the results differences can be subtle with the non quote top hits simply being more general.
The Exact Phrase
Imagine searching for someone named Michael Kenny Jackson.
Try with or without the quotation marks (“ ”) – any difference?
A needle in a hay stack!
To the student explicitly …
◦ Precise key terms and eliminating unwanted key terms (-) generates great search results.
Search word precision is key!
To keep our search confined to the field of education we may also add site: in our search◦ for a search of all education sites
site:edu spears – yields articles on spears from educational .edu sites only.
◦ for a search of a single site site:cbc.ca spears – yields articles on spears from
cbc.ca only.
Refining the results further
Google search tricks explained.*
Tips for searching like a pro from Google. Google made Classroom posters (the first
and last one are good!) Print and post!
More on refining your search
Watch Google’s search suggestions assistant for proper wording and keyword suggestion.
Great for humor as well.
More searching tips
Google has a pile of interesting ways to search. You can even narrow your search by using the left side search options or clicking on the advanced search on settings icon.◦ Ie. File type or currency.
Consider a visual media view using What do you love? (by Google)◦ http://www.wdyl.com/#◦ eg.
Narrowing the search
How proper online research works.
Help your students become better searchers with lesson plans and activities from google.◦ http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/index.html
Go even deeper …
Consider one of these search tools the next time a student asks for assistance to look something up.
◦ http://duckduckgo.com/ (a non tracking search)◦ The best of 2012 search engines◦ Search engines for kids – awesome list
Beyond google search
Often the best way to teach website credibility is to show by example.
For example if students are asked to research an Endangered Species of their choice …
Assessing Web Site Credibility
Bogus site
http://www.sudftw.com/jackcon.htm
Credible site
http://worldwildlife.org/species
Credibility criteria. The list may include:◦ Authorship – Author vs. Authority ◦ perspective ◦ consistency with experts ◦ documentation of sources ◦ currency ◦ mechanics ◦ Usability
Evaluating Web Site Credibility◦ Full teacher tool kit available @ Learn Alberta
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ssmt/html/assessingwebsitecredibility_mt.html
The concept of Credibility
Tools to determine Web Site Credibility are listed on
Tools to determine Web Site Credibility
http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/ A nice collection of Magazines, Journals and
Newspapers that are credible. Many of the sites are only accessible within
our schools.
Sask Learning’s Online Databases
Sweet Search is a search engine for students that searches 35,000 websites that research experts, librarians and teachers have evaluated and approved.
http://www.sweetsearch.com/
Consider using sweetsearch
Questions?
As learning technologists we are eager to assist you as well:-Small steps to becoming cybrarians!-Springshare by Saskatoon Public-There is plenty more on Digital Citizenship as well!
@jrswanster
Find this presentation @ ubershare.wikispaces.com/libraries!
http://leadinginnovation2012.wikispaces.com/Digital+Citizenship http://nets-implementation.iste.wikispaces.net/Digital+Citizenship http://www.byrdseed.com/teaching-search-skills/ http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ssmt/html/assessingwebsitecredibility_mt.html http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/navigatingthenet/tp/How-to-Properly-Research-O
nline.htm
Cited sources