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Why is it important to teach and demonstrate good search skills?
Why is it important to teach and demonstrate good search skills?
Teaching students to effectively search the world wide web is extremely important in today's technology driven society. Searching satisfies student curiosity and expands student knowledge to the fullest potential. By using correct search terms searching is faster, and can be more effective, than flipping through the pages of a book for information. People can often become overwhelmed by the amount of information on the web, and effective search skills can narrow the information down and make learning much faster and less frustrating. In addition, searching also teaches important critical thinking skills by showing students the importance of credibility on the internet. It can help access up-to-date information that coincides with our ever-changing society.
Tips for Effective Searching:
Tips for Effective Searching:
- Choose the right search terms! Be very specific by coming up with a few key terms instead of full questions.
- Know the author/publisher! It is important that you check the credibility of the author or publisher to be able to understand if the source is reliable.
- Use filters, modifiers, and search tools! These will help you to narrow down your search to find information that is most relevant to you!
- Always compare multiple sites to make sure the information is credible! Some sites may have biases, this is why it is important to compare at least three for information.
Some Search Tools For Teachers:
Some Search Tools For Teachers:
- Google Scholar: This is a great tool for educators to access peer reviewed or scholarly articles. These articles have a higher chance of coming from a reliable source than a normal google search will show. This will help teachers to narrow down information to use in class quickly.
- Learning bird: This website is full of great content that teachers from all over the world can add to! These resources are already vetted, which makes it easy for teachers to access and approve those resources for their classrooms. This website also makes searching easy by allowing users several "filters".
- http://www.allteacherwebsites.com/ : This is a website I stumbled upon. Their slogan is "Google for Teachers!" so I did a quick search for 'dogs' and found multiple great coloring pages, worksheets, writing prompts, and more.. This will be another quick way to search for quality resources for class!
Search Websites for Students:
Search Websites for Students:
This website would be great for students to find and synthesize information! The search results show many educational links with the reading level clearly displayed. It also tells how many illustrations the page has and what the subject is. The list of results have quick synopses of the page, which makes it easier to find exactly what you are needing! I believe the lack of filters may be confusing or difficult for young students, however. For example, when you click on the buttons labeled 'image', 'sound', or 'video' these links take you to a list of different sites that contain these types of media. Otherwise, I think it would be a very helpful tool for students to find information quickly!
Kid Rex is another great search engine for students. However, this site does not offer filters or options for photos, videos, and audio clips. Also, when searching the term 'dog' the search results lead me to websites that sell dog toys. This leads me to believe that not all of the websites that appear in the results are educational. On the flip side, they are all safe and secure! So, there shouldn't be any chance of students searching for inappropriate things using this website.
This site is a great resource for students and teachers! On the home page there is a list of links for pictures, games, KidzTube (youtube for kinds), cool facts, encyclopedia, and much more! This is great for young students to narrow down their information without sifting through pages of articles when they're simply looking for one photo or one video. The search results were very similar to the first two when I searched 'popsicle'. I came up with many of the same websites! The first few are advertisements, which is why it is so important that students know the difference between ads and helpful articles. All in all, I find this to be a good and safe search engine for kids!
Kiddle is another website powered by Google for kids. I personally enjoy this website because it is very similar to Google in the way of providing links for images, news, and videos below the search bar. This will make it easier for students to find relevant information in the format that they desire. Again, the search result websites are very similar but if you get past all of the advertisements- this could be a great resource for students.
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