Who remembers using the Dewey Decimal System to find the information for a research paper? For us, we were taught the Dewey Decimal System to provide a faster and more accurate way to find information within the library. Now students have the opportunity to find information at their fingertips from a computer. At least they can avoid the paper cuts from thumbing through the cards to find the book, in the library.Students are able to access lots of information on the Internet but how can we, as teachers, guide them to the right information. With students today, simple seems to be better. 21st Century Information Fluency has listed 10 great tips on locating resources on the web. The tips are written so they are easily understood by any audience. Each tip progresses from a more general search to more specific search.
Tip #1 Don't waste time looking for things you are not likely to find on the Internet.
- Information that has been published within the last 75 years may not be found in its entirety on the Internet but you may just find an excerpt on it
Examples:
Tip #3 Use unique terms that will distinguish the document(s) you want from all others
- Using unique terms will cut down on the unwanted information
- " " force the search engine to find the exact phrase
Tip #5 Consider spelling variations when choosing search terms
Tip #6 Search the best sites in depth
- Search specialized site such as: PBS (Public Broadcasting System) or The Librarian's Index to the Internet
Tip #7 If at first you don't succeed, refine your search strategy
Tip #8 Use synonyms (and other NYMS) to focus your query more preciselyTip #9 Focus on Format
Tip #10 Search the Invisible (Deep) Web
Examples:
Where was the Internet when I was writing papers in college, the first time. I remember reading through books to find the right information. Now it is as simple as typing the focus of your topic in a search engine on the Internet. Students are able to find information faster and become more efficient in their online searching. If you would like more information about any of the tips; each tip has at least one learning module per tip. These learning modules can be taught to students or just more information for the teacher.
In this society we want everything bigger, better, and we want it NOW. Teaching ourselves and our students to improve their searching ability to find resources on the Internet create more time for other things. We as a society have come a long way from the Dewey Decimal System and spending hours in the library. Now we are able to bring the library to us from anywhere we are, as long as we have the Internet.
I agree. Many times my students will spend several minutes searching for something and then when there's 10 minutes left in class come up to me and say, I didn't find anything. I will go over these tips with them in my annual learn to search the internet unit. I really liked how it broke it down and your links were well placed.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas. I never remember to use quotation marks to get an exact phrase when searching. Also, using synonyms is a good idea. Sometimes in my haste or frustration I will just change the phrase around instead of the word all together. This is a simple and concise list that will help me as well as students. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love that you remember the Dewey system! Our school library has complety done away with it and books are sectioned out by color coded labels which correspond to a genre.
ReplyDeleteTeaching summer school right now I am strugeling to get the students to read assigned pages in the book where the answers to a given assignment are found rather than type the question in to google and expect the search engine to be able to answer!
These tips are great, even for me! The only tip I ever remembering in school (and it may have even been in college) was using a + between two words to make it a better search. These tips would be great to teach students as soon as they get a computer in their hands for research. We did a couple of research projects this year in our 5th grade class and you wouldn't believe the amount of time we just spent on explaining what to type in a google search.
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