Digi foot 2012

Digifoot 2012.notebook

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July 23, 2012

Investigation Skills for Students

(and Other Interested Learners!)

#DigiFoot12 July 24, 2012

Case File #4: Be a SearchSavvy Detective


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Who is today's lead detective?

Tracy Poelzer

• TeacherLibrarian

• District Technology Coordinator, SD #73 Kamloops, BC Canada

• Mom of two teenagers

Twitter: @TracyPoelzer

http://smallbytes.blogs.sd73.bc.ca


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• Participate through Blackboard Collaborate interaction tools (thumbsup, applause, happy face, etc.)

• Type questions or comments in the chat section The "wing men" moderators will keep track of questions so we can answer them at the end of the session

• Feel free to tweet about what we're learning in this session by using the Twitter hashtag: #DigiFoot12


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1. Good quality, purchased databases and subscription resources (encyclopedias, peerreviewed articles, etc.)

2. Library books (make sure content is relevant/current).

3. Preselected sites (teacherapproved)

4. Searching the free web

Steps to Effective Research

Do you follow these steps?

Sweet Search site

Google Custom Search


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Great Things About the Internet NotSoGreat Things About the Internet

Anyone can be an author

Anyone can share opinions, thoughts, feelings on subjects with a large audience.

There are tons of great, free tools available that allow people to easily create professional looking sites.

An overwhelming amount of information on any given topic is available to us at the click of a button, 24/7.

Super search engines allow us to peruse information on the web from a multitude of sources.

Anyone can be an author

Anyone can share opinions, thoughts, feelings on subjects with a large audience.

There are tons of great, free tools available that allow people to easily create professional looking sites.

An overwhelming amount of information on any given topic is available to us at the click of a button, 24/7.

Super search engines allow us to peruse information on the web from a multitude of sources.


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Image found at: http://blogs.csm.arts.ac.uk/documentation2009/serratansel/paper/


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How can we search through everything in this "tangled web" and just get to the good stuff?

Image found at: http://www.123rf.com/photo_4786396_amantangledupinwiresandcables.html

Are you a confident web searcher?


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Start with good keywords (and synonyms)

• Keep it simple don't use too many words

• Are there other ways to say the same thing? Think of synonyms, check results and "related searches", etc. for other suggestions of words or word combinations that could be used in your search.

• Don't incorporate an answer into your search query.... you just might find what you're looking for (and it might not be right). (Ie: "Is the average length of an octopus 18 inches?"


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Carefully Examine (and Think Critically About) Your Search Results

The first result is not necessarily the best result!

• What does the url (website address) tell you? Do you recognize the domain name / extension?

• Who is the author/owner of the site?

• How old is the website? Is it current?

• Does the site appear to have quality information? Are there spelling/grammatical errors? Any other "red flags"?

• Are multiple sites telling you the same information? (triangle method of research)


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Domain Extensions

Let's use the Blackboard Collaborate whiteboard to brainstorm some domain extensions....


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Extension Guide(based on the list in Alan November's "Web Literacy for Educators Book)

.edu Higher education (most U.S. colleges)

.ac Academic institution (outside of U.S. not usually Canada)

.k12 U.S. school site (not all U.S. schools use this)

.sch Schools in United Kingdom (not all U.K. schools use this)

.com Commercial site

.co Company (usually used with a country code: e.g., co.uk)

.org Any organization

.gov Government agency

.gc.ca Canadian government agency

.net Network

.mil U.S. Military


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Country Code Examples

.at Austria

.au Australia

.ca Canada

.ch Switzerland

.cn China

.de Germany

.es Spain

.et Ethiopia

.fr France

.gr Greece

.ie Ireland

.in India

.iq Iraq

.it Italy

.jp Japan

.nz New Zealand

.pk Pakistan

.uk United Kingdom

.us United States

.za South Africa


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Who is the author of the site?

• Scan the perimeter of the site for info.

• Is there an author mentioned?

• Is there a company, organization or school name on the website?

• Is there an email or contact information listed on the website?

• What does WHOis tell you about the owner of this site? Try a site like http://www.easywhois.com/


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How Old is the Site?• Scan the perimeter and look for "Last update" information.

• Examine date/time stamp on blog posts, etc.

• If this site links to other sites, are the links current and "live"?

Is the Site WellWritten? Are there "Red Flags"?

• Are there spelling/grammatical errors that would indicate that this might not be a high quality website?

• Does the information seem realistic?

• Remember: It can be convincing, wellwritten, and professional looking, but it still might not be true.


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The Triangle Method of Research

Have you used the triangle method with your students?


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Great Acronym for Critical Web Searching (courtesy of Alan November's "Web Literacy for Educators")

R E

AL

Read the URL

Examine the Content

Ask About the Author and Owner

Look at the Links


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Other Strategies to TryMore information and tutorials on these topics can be found in this

week's Case File resources on the Digifoot12 wiki

• If in doubt, do another search (or compare to other types of resources/media, etc.)

• Search within a domain extension typei.e.: "election site:.bc.gc.ca"


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• Search within a specific, reliable site.i.e. "mars site:nasa.gov"


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• Test out different search engines. Google is not the only one out there, and might not be the best tool for the job!

Choose the Best Search for your Information Need (link)


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Your Case Assignments!

1. Go to the assignment wiki at: Please print off the evaluation checklist. Work through at least one of the pairs of websites and decide which is reliable and which is not.If you have time, evaluate more than one pair of websites.

http://searchsavvy.pbworks.com

2. Scroll down to the "Other Great Links to Investigate" section on the DigiFoot12 wiki (week 4). Try out some of the resources to help you hone your search/investigation skills!

3. If you are an educator or parent, visit this that lists resources for teaching search strategies. Check out some of the resources listed in this document, and please add any that you can recommend as well!

Google Doc


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Any questions?

Education

Digi foot 2012