Search

There’s a new Google site called Search Education:

“Web search can be a remarkable tool for students, and a bit of instruction in how to search for academic sources will help your students become critical thinkers and independent learners.

How can a teacher resist  an introduction like that? The site has lesson plans, sorted into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced,  and videos of recorded web casts about Power Searching, Assessing Authority, Modern Search Literacy, etc.  The lesson plans are mapped to the (USA) Common Core Standards, ISTE NETS, and American Association of School Librarians standards, and charted under Essential Understandings, Unit Guiding Questions, Lesson Guiding Questions, Knowledge, and Skills, and are all  licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY license.

First, a little review – How does Google Search work? What happens when you’ve typed a word or two in that little space on your screen, and clicked “Enter”?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs[/youtube]

Next, why do we need to know how to search the Internet?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9yZco8bwI8&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

How will we become better searchers (or is it hunters and gatherers?) Watch “Becoming a Google Search Ninja“,  by Derrick Waddell from the Google Education on Air Conference,

Cross posted at Using ICTs @ ISOCS