Students can fool us when it comes to technology - they have such as high level of skill when it comes to being "tech-naturals," they adapt, they use prior computer and tech knowledge to quickly figure out new programs and swiftly navigate through the internet. HOWEVER, (and I don't say this to hang on to a shred of my tech intelligence around the students), they are NOT information savvy. They can jump out into the ocean - but can they swim well? Students need guidance to learn to navigate the information out there, and to be able to pull back exactly what they need. This is part critical reading skills, part information evaluation, and part source selection.
That's where Nettrekker and DISCUS come in. We've talked about Destiny Quest, which helped us search for print materials, Nettrekker gives us Internet resources, and DISCUS gives us quality electronic reference and periodical information.
Why Nettrekker? Well - the kids know Google, and they know search engines... how... someone told them and they told their friends. Type in whatever you want and get stuff... a lot of stuff... if you're lucky, you'll find something on the first two pages. Who could ask for more? Google has a lot to offer - don't get me wrong. Let's do a simple search on "civil war" - librarian friends, settle down, I KNOW this is a bad search, work with me.
Now, this is a bad search because there is more than one civil war and the search could have used much better key words. But, me, the lucky person thinking like a student just went with it.What did I get? Link 1 - preservation society trying to save battlefields, Link 2 - for profit site with ads, authorship on non primary documents by unidentified "committee," Link 3 - Wikipedia (I'll save that heated argument), Link 4 - Wikipedia again, Link 5 - personal nonprofit site - no information on author's credibility without serious digging. I as the student didn't care, I copied pictures from the first page and copy/pasted information from the for profit site, then got everything else from Wikipedia... I'm done!!
Now, this is an excellent teachable moment with students to talk to them about web evaluation, selecting site, AND using all the cool tools that Google has built in for us savvy users. HOWEVER, do we use these tools ourselves regularly as teachers? Have you Googled something in the last month... I've lost count for my part. The point is, we need to break these skills down. They can't be taught in one shot, and they aren't all need at one time. Its the habit that needs to be built and habit is tied to purpose and repetition. SO... lets look at Civil War on Nettrekker...
For the classroom, for targeted searching this is much cleaner. There are easy ways to sort AND a lot of the junk has been cleared out ahead of time.I can tell before I go to the site if there are pictures and I can find other sites like it just by following my blue link addiction.
Nettrekker is also much safer for the school and home environment for children. NOW, that said, there is no such thing as a completely SAFE search engine that still works the way you need it to? WHY? Because a computer program is running the selection. However, Nettrekker is far and away better than Google for returning safe searches. Remember, the site may be blocked, but the description isn't on the search returns!! So now, I as the student am searching in a safer environment, and my teacher can focus on my atrocious copy/paste habits and critical reading skills THIS time, and make me search savvy over time until I am the uber cyber wiz as I go off to college with my 21st century skills alive and kicking. (Cue success story music) The truth is, as teachers well know, that it is a process and continued practice and reinforcement will make it better. Echew the once a year "research projects" they don't stick!!
There is a full handout on using Nettrekker including its advanced features like the Read-Aloud, and specialized searches available at: http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/gcsd/depts/ets/its/docs/nettrekker.pdf
1 comment:
We are living in an unprecedented social experiment.
Never so much technology has been available to everyone.
From a very young age, children start with a computer connected to the Internet then graduate very quickly in the name of parent security with mobile phones, they are the new generation of connected kids.
For these kids social interactivity is happening through emails, SMS and of course what it is called “Social” sites with the likes of Facebook and others.
didier grossemy
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