Learning How to Search the Web in the 21st Century

As I think about my middle and high school years I find myself comparing how students find information compared to my days in school.  Even now I can compare my own search methods to the methods I once used when I was younger.  I remember my English teachers showing us step by step in high school how to research a paper using a card catalog and tons and tons of books from the library.  The last couple of years of high school we had a computer lab that allowed us to use an online card catalog to find the books we needed.  It wasn't until I was in college where I had the opportunity to use the internet as a way to find information for my school work.  As I think back I feel as if I had a really good base knowledge on how to research topics from having to use books from the library.  The material was controlled and only approved items were allowed in the view of the students.  Now, however, this is almost the complete opposite.  Although districts have site blockers to keep students from inappropriate things there are always new sites being created they slip by these blockers.  It is nearly impossible to keep students 100% clear of inappropriate sites. Therefore, it is necessary to teach students the correct way in researching while on the web.
I used a tactic last year as my students began a unit of Ancient Egypt that went fairly well.  My goal is to make it better for this school year.  We started off by learning how to log on and add a page to our very own class wiki.  Once the students created their page they then had the opportunity to complete their research.  Before letting them loose I modeled what a search might look like by projecting my screen onto the promethean board.  After modeling this I gave the students about 5 minutes to search for information about pyramids.  We then stopped to see what we had found.  We talked about the sites the students had found, what key words they used in their search, and what changes could be made to make the search better and more to the point of what we were researching.  We also talked about what made a site credible and what made a site questionable.  Once students had a good understanding of what was expected of them and how to search the web they were given their topics of research on Egypt.  This went well for my first time attempting this type of project but as I read through Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms  I am beginning to see that a couple of changes and/or additions are needed before I begin this project for the current school year.  Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez talk about using Boolean search tools while researching items such as quotation marks, + (plus sign), OR, AND, and NOT or - (minus sign) (pg. 39, 2010).  To be honest I have never used these tools but I am certainly going to be using them myself as well as teach my students these shortcuts to help them better search for materials of interest.  I will go over the meanings of these prior to my modeling and then have students guide me as to what tool I should use when searching.  This will allow the students to not only visualize what is expected of them but also it will allow for trial and error so they can see the difference between each of these tools when searching with the same words.  After my demonstration I will keep the 5 minute search and allow for the discussion of their findings.  From there I will show them how to write a simple paragraph and then check it with a plagiarism checker.  This will allow them to check their own work before publishing their wiki page to ensure they are not taking credit for someone else's work.  By adding these two components I will be empowering my students with the ability to not only effectively research information on the web but also check their work to make sure they are not taking credit for work that is not their own. This may add a little time at the beginning of the year, however, I believe this will end up saving some time and headache later in the year.

References

     Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms. Bloomington, IN:Solution Tree Press, 2010. Print.