[MACEP] searching with Google--appropriately

Tue Feb 13 16:15:42 PST 2007

Hi, Corin!

Yes, please share the activity with anyone (teacher, parent, or staff) who can pass it on.  The more people who learn  to effectively search and cite, the better. 

---Mary

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Richards, Corin" <Corin.Richards at wesd.org>
> Wow! This thread along with the posts about Google apps seem to be
> generating the types of discussions we should be having at a state
> level! A number of things come to mind for me.
> 
> First, Mary, can we share your activity with teachers who may benefit?
> Does anyone else have activities they can share? I've got
> many...probably enough that I shouldn't post them to the list. If anyone
> wants them, let me know and I'll put them in Google Docs and you can
> retrieve them;) 
> 
> I've included a snippet from the class I developed for students at OSU.
> Unfortunately, the Overture bids tool isn't working right this minute so
> you can't do the activity. It might be up later (it's very moody) if you
> are persistent. This document is a collection of information from my
> brain after years of learning with kids and listening to speakers like
> Jamie McKenzie and Alan November.
> 
> In my experience, there is no "accidentally" hitting inappropriate
> websites. They WILL come up during searching. The questions are: do your
> kids know enough about using the internet to avoid clicking the sites
> that don't apply to their subject? If they aren't getting useful
> information from the internet, do they know where else to look? Do they
> know how to change their search to get different results? 
> 
> If your students do hit sites deemed educationally inappropriate it's
> either your fault for expecting them to know too much or their fault for
> not following the implicit set of guidelines for using the internet that
> I'm sure you have implemented in your schools. I'm also sure you've let
> students know when it makes more sense to use a resource other than the
> internet for finding information. You're practicing this with them all
> the time...I'm sure.
> 
> We proved, just the other day, that using books over the internet for
> research is sometimes just better. An 8th grade teacher had challenged
> his students to find out if the historical "facts" in what appeared to
> be an urban legend were true or not...a pretty cool activity. I'd seen
> the fact list over email. It traces the lives of Abraham Lincoln and JFK
> and points out strange parallels. Maybe you've seen it too?
> 
> Anyhoo, he put students on the internet and they diligently searched
> with total disregard for whether or not the information they found was
> from a reliable source (okay, that's why I was there, we're working on
> that). They spent their class period looking for the facts and printed
> countless trees-worth of paper - "Oh, it printed three, I'm sure I only
> clicked once! That's weird." No one was ready to confirm the truth about
> these statements by the end of the period.
> 
> In the next session, we had a group of fifth graders. After the first
> ones finished their activity, I challenged them to find the same facts
> but we searched in the biography section...of the library. The kids
> pulled two biographies of Lincoln and two of JFK. They started to read
> the books from the front page. I taught them to use the index.
> Immediately, one of the kids pointed out that there was a timeline in
> her book near the index. Behold! ALL the books had timelines. We had
> answers to whether or not 50% of the statements were true within about 5
> minutes because they had years attached to them. The rest of the answers
> we had within another 10 minutes using the index in each book.
> 
> It has also occurred to me that we always tell kids what they can't do
> on the internet. How often do we give them good suggestions about what
> they can do on the 'net? IMing (prior to widespread filtering) was some
> of the best, free typing practice my students got. We had little task
> cards that they got when they came to the lab. They said things like "IM
> a friend whose name begins with H and tell them what you plan to do
> after school. Ask them what they are doing after school." After
> switching with friends and fulfilling three different task cards, kids
> could IM with whomever they wished within the class. Guidelines were
> clear. We got to talk about guidelines for what you put on the internet,
> social aggression, conventions, semantics, conversations w/o body and
> facial expressions, etc. 
> 
> At a time when media specialists are few and far between and we are
> expecting educational assistants and classroom teachers to pick up the
> slack without giving them adequate training in media skills, it's
> unrealistic to expect that kids use any of the abundant resources with
> awareness or even logic. We need to work on this, but first, we need to
> admit that it's an issue. Lynn's question, Paul's guidelines and Mary's
> activity are steps in the right direction. What else are we going to do?
> 
> --Corin
> 
> Corin Richards
> Educational Technologist
> Willamette ESD
> Salem, Oregon
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: macep-bounces at macep.net [mailto:macep-bounces at macep.net] On Behalf
> Of Lynn Lary
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:45 PM
> To: macep at macep.net
> Subject: [MACEP] searching with Google--appropriately
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I had a conversation today with a person who told me that their 
> school is not allowing students to use Google because inappropriate 
> search results were coming up. The example that she had given was, 
> "bunnies" and sure enough nothing really related to rabbits came up 
> when I searched for this word.
> 
> My suggestion was that rather than block Google, perhaps the staff 
> should teach the students how to search effectively. Having students 
> enter a single word into a search engine and having both the teacher 
> and student think that this is a good search is a not a good thing. 
> When I suggested that perhaps they do a more meaningful search such 
> as bunny habitat, the results were vastly different than the initial 
> search.
> 
> My experience is that adults think that students know how (without 
> ever being taught) to search effectively. This just doesn't seem to 
> be the case...How can we get folks to understand that that it isn't 
> the tool, but the user, that is the problem?
> 
> Do any of you have a search curriculum that you are using at elem, 
> ms, and hs levels that you think is effective?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Lynn
> 
> >HI All,
> >
> >I am interested in learning what/how other districts are using 
> >Google domains and web pages, along with the many other features of 
> >Google. With the exception of the Goolge search, I don't see much of 
> >a downside to using the many other features of Google, and in fact 
> >can think of many advantages to using these in instruction (Google 
> >notebook, docs and spreadsheets, Page Creator, domains, etc.)
> >
> >Maybe I am naive...
> >
> >I would like to get a wider perspective from all of you about the 
> >advantages and disadvantages, and ways to effectively use these 
> >tools districtwide.
> >
> >Thanks in advance for any info you can give!
> >
> >Tricia George
> >--
> >Tricia George
> >TOSA Instructional Technology
> >georgep at nclack.k12.or.us
> >503.353.6117
> >
> >_______
> >
> >"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." 
> >~~ Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)
> >_______________________________________________
> >MACEP mailing list MACEP at macep.net
> >Archive: http://macep.net/pipermail/macep/
> >http://macep.net/mailman/listinfo/macep
> 
> 
> -- 
> Have a good day,
> 
> Lynn
> 
> Lynn M. Lary, Instructional Technology Specialist
> Lane ESD
> 1200 Hwy 99N
> Eugene, OR 97402
> (541) 461-8216; FAX (541) 461-8335
> http://www.lane.k12.or.us/insttech/
> 
> "Helping schools make effective use of current and future 
> technologies as tools for improving student learning."
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From: "Richards, Corin" <Corin.Richards at wesd.org>
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