please disregard my wandering thought on WATER…
To keep students more engaged I plan on breaking the scavenger hunt into pieces. The first part would be around keyword searches and what they do or don’t need to write. The second would be analyzing different search engines. So having them answer similar questions but using different search engines to see the variety in the results.
I found a better checklist to determine whether a website is a reliable source or not:
I use the scavenger to also teach them about things they may not know about the school. Such as where is a particular counselors office located, what is the actual name of the cafeteria, where is the greenhouse…things that they might not know exist in/on the school grounds.
I plan to create a QR code scavenger hunt to help build community and challenge students to understand the lesson.
I believe discovery and practice are the best teachers, so I will allow my students to do some sort of scavenger hunt to find samples of different types of web applications and interfaces. The key is getting the students to save or gather their findings. There is a great website called “Thing Link” that allows the user to save internet addresses in a meaningful way. Then, the students should have to post the url to their Think Link page to the class’ discussion board; this will allow their classmates to view the results of each scavenger hunt.
Teach students to combine critical-thinking skills and smart-searching techniques so they can produce relevant Internet search results. Originally posted on CS Teaching Tips.
Goal:
- Students proactively build up their Internet searching skills so their searches produce the best results possible.
- Instead of indiscriminately clicking on the first few links from the millions of results produced by a simple search, students will know how to make searches that produce fewer results with higher quality links.
Reason:
- Most students don’t know how to extract the most relevant information from a search that produces millions of results; they normally just type in a few keywords because they think that’s sufficient.
- Many people are passive web searchers, they often trust that the top three results in an Internet search are the best and most relevant sites People incorrectly assume the tops links represent the best possible resources.
- Teach students how to actively control their internet search to produce the best results in the first place when using Google.
- Use Search Tools to limit queries to a particular time range.
- Search Tools in Google is located under the search box next to the “more” drop-down box (at the end of the menu of result categories types).
- Example: Users looking for the most recent advances in medicine or technology can filter by date to find the most current articles.
- Another filter users can try is site, which limits search outcomes by domain type. For only education domains, use site:edu
- This is a good filter when searching for recent advances in medicine because preliminary research first takes place and is published in academia.
- Another filter users can try is site, which limits search outcomes by domain type. For only education domains, use site:edu
- Build up a search using Google’s Advanced Search, located within the settings’ gear icon, which can be found under the top right corner of an active search page.
- You can use advanced search to narrow down the results by site, domain, region, language (English, Spanish, etc), file type, and usage rights.
- Example: Put the the country in the region section of the advanced search to find out how a country reported on an event.
- Region allows users to look for resources from a specific location or country.
- In a regular search bar you can search by region by typing in the countrycode after site: (e.g., site:fr for resources coming from France)
- Teach students how to rate a website using a checklist.
- Use Search Tools to limit queries to a particular time range.
- Check out tour tip on filter bubbles to learn about what does not show up during your web searches.
Tutorials and videos on how to use Google Advanced Search:
- Instructions to become a Google Power User.
- Google Advanced Search - a video for journalists that has examples of site:, related:, filetype:, and using the minus(-) to refine searches.
- Three Advanced Search Tools for students - this video looks at Reading Level (this filter was dropped in May, 2015), site and filetype.
- Google Advanced Search 2014 - looks at the Search Tools, and filetypes in advanced search.
I plan to make sure that I show the students some informational videos such as the ones we just viewed, as well as allow for class discussion and individualized reflection. I think this topic will be one they want to explore further, and I will give them an opportunity to do so by having a student-driven discussion/pseudo debate about the validity of filter bubbles.
Give students a list of information to look up on a classroom set of computers and screen shot what information is given to them just as in the TEDTalks video; then have them to look the same information up on their personal computers or devices, and go to the library and do the same thing and report to the class the similarities and differences of the info.
My ECS class is held in a classroom with desktops at their disposal. I plan to have students visit a website which they consider reliable and evaluate the site using an already given rubric. Students will also be expected to discuss and analyze a wider use of the internet and it’s functions.
I would put my students in pairs to journal and discuss the What, Where, When, Why, and How they use some of the Social Media that is currently available to them such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and list the many ways that it is being used. I would then have them share with the class what they came up with. I would use clips from web 2.0
In my Design, Multimedia and Web Tech class, I will have students find websites they use frequently, and I will give them some they may not have seen. Then a compare/contrast of ease of use, appearance, relevance, etc.
I may have the student create a survey discussing difference and similarities of their lives.Before they start obtain a group of classifications from the class, ex gender, ethnic, interest - academic and non academic, goals, educational future… I would put students in groups of 3 or 4. Each group will create 5 questions in the first 30 minutes of class. After the groups have done their list, We will discuss each list with the group and decide on a final list - one from each group. Number of questions would be determined by the number of groups.
We can take this final survey to other students/teachers in the school and discuss the outcome in a future class.
I like to have the students research web 2.0/3.0 applications / sites that pertain to school. Are there ways for them to collaborate on assignments that they may not be aware of? How can they use these tools to work together and make their lives better.
I think for the most part this lesson is pretty engaging on its own…Students will be working in groups, they will be evaluating websites together and discussing the pros and cons of the websites. I do have a problem with the Martin Luther King Jr. website. I don’t think its appropriate for our 8th grade students. I plan on using the "Help Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website instead. Its much less inflamatory plus it reinforces 7th grade science sol’s by reviewing cephalopods although in a tongue in cheek sort of way… the website is zapato.net/treeoctopus/
To keep students engaged I will use a variety of strategies per assignment. I believe being able to switch strategies will keep the students engaged.
I will have students search for prompts on their cell phones or tablets. We will also have a discussion after watching the TED talk.
The scavenger hunt can be custom to local interests, or things that they might find more engaging. The quality websites one can be expanded with trusted websites that give false information, or I may create my own to make the point “you can’t believe everything on the internet”
How do you plan to help students remain engaged throughout this lesson? Do you plan to use any additional resources? What are they?
Students will be familiar with many aspects of Web 2.0 applications, so I will be encouraging students to share their individual experiences and expertise with different examples of search and social media sites and how they are used by the students for personal and academic purposes. I can guide the students on the use of sites that are helpful to me as a teacher while the students can discuss and demonstrate the social media sites with which they are familiar.