Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Blog # 8
Wow! Thankfully we got to read the article titled "Teaching Students to Use the Internet as a Research Tool" By Elizabeth Caulfield Felt and Sarah Symans. This article was beneficial to not only students but to teachers as well as college students. I enjoyed all of the wonderful tips regarding "good information." Although the tips seemed to be common sense once they were read, before reading this article for myself personally, and I'm sure I speak for others, they were tips that were rarely thought of when in "Research" mode. The article gave about five different ways on how to locate valuable information. The first was to buy information from companies who are selling it. Obviously, if it costs money, it must contain valuable information. Second, by evaluating where the URL used came from, if it came from a magazine or a company brochure it can be regarded as quality information. Third, and this one was most beneficial for students, was that this article pointed out that search engines in which look for information on the entire web are pretty much a toss up meaning they could contain good or bad information, while search engines like Yahooligans which contained information evaluated by a specialists contain trustworthy information. The fourth way to get quality information is to browse through Directories which divide all information into topics. Lastly, by examining the sponsor of the website, for example, three letters follow the dot in the url, if its .gov, or .edu, more than likely it's reputable information. I personally, as a college student have struggled with this very same question on whether or not my sources contain valuable information, so I can really see the purpose in teaching a lesson like this to younger grades such as fifth graders. They can really benefit from this lesson throughout the rest of their education on up to college. By introducing these types of lessons young the more likely they will retain it and make these tips a part of their process to accessing "good quality information" for their research papers.
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5 comments:
Hi Lisa, yes this article was very good since it provided valuable information for both students and teachers. As we were able to read there were a lot of good tips given to us to become better Internet searchers. It offered us information on how to get the best quality product at the lowest prices. There were search engines given to us, as well as a way to obtain the most credible information circulatting in the Internet.
Hi Lisa,
I also thought this article was a great tool to use in the classroom as well as for us college students. It is so hard to find good, valuable, and true information on the web. However, if we follow the guidelines that were in the readings, I think it can give us a head start on conducting valuable research. It will also be helpful when doing the filamentality assignment. Basically, good search engines are a must when searching information on the internet.
Hi Lisa,
The articles were greate, I agree with you. And it's a good thing that most of this information we are getting will be usefull to you and to your students. I liked that there is a way to find out how valuable your information really is.
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