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Are you confused by terms that educators use? The ASCD Lexicon of Learning might be what you need.

 

 

 

Technology Integration

Part 2: Resources (Page 2 of 4)
Building Internet, Search and Citation Skills

Build your Internet Skills

 

 

 

You and your students can enhance your Internet skills with the following:

Internet Tutorials at the State University of New York at Albany address the basics of the Internet and the Web, browsers, file transfer protocol, Internet research, search engines (including Boolean searching and how to choose a search engine), subject directories, and the deep Web, capturing Web images, and more.

Living Internet is an in-depth reference about the Internet, the Web, Email, Internet Chat, Multi-user Dungeons (MUD's), Mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups.

NetTUTOR by N. O’Hanlon of Ohio State University is your personal guide to understanding the Internet.  Interactive tutorials address such topics as getting started on the Web, the basics of Web browsers and e-mail, online discussion groups, research strategies including evaluating and citing web resources, and search skills. Each tutorial can be completed in 15-30 minutes.

Online Netskills Interactive Course (TONIC) from the University of Newcastle in the UK is a free self-paced web tutorial with quizzes designed for beginners to learn about the Internet. It is also suitable for use with middle and secondary students.  You will learn concepts and features of networks of the Internet, information and resources available on the Internet, tools that provide functionality on the Internet, searching on the Internet, communication tools for use on the Internet, and about creating and publishing Web pages.

 

 

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Locating and Evaluating Internet Resources and Citation Information

 

Web 2.0 Tools

Before you begin your Internet research, equip students with some new online tools to make locating information and conducting research on the Web a lot easier and more productive.  They will appreciate being able to highlight relevant information on web pages and adding comments to those just as you would on paper.  Storing notes online makes them accessible from any computer, and enables sharing with others and collaboration for group work.

Diigo, the "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff," is all about social annotation. It’s also free and features “social bookmarking, clippings, in situ annotation, tagging [i.e., keywords for searching], full-text search, easy sharing and interactions.” Users can add highlights and sticky notes on any webpage and designate private notes or public comments.

Locating and Evaluating

The search process, Web page navigation, evaluation, and synthesizing information are four challenges Internet users face (Coiro, 2005). Students need to be taught appropriate strategies, particularly for evaluating the information found on a Web page.  Not everything online is 100% accurate and bias-free. Teachers can provide such assistance by modeling steps and thinking aloud as they do so.  P. Deubel would add a fifth step--students also need to learn how to appropriately cite information they find.

Step 1: Search

Locating information with keywords often involves a Boolean search using AND, OR, NOT, +, or -, for example.  When searching for exact phrases, the phrase is enclosed in quotation marks.  Internet Tutorials of the State University of New York at Albany provides excellent primers on Boolean Searching on the Internet and How to Select a Search Engine or Directory. Briefly, Boolean logic combines algebra with logic.  "AND" is associated with the concept of intersection on Venn diagrams and the word "both."  If one searches with "AND" the web pages that come up will contain both terms of the search.  On the other hand, "OR" is associated with "union" or putting things together. Searches will find web pages in which either term occurs and more pages will be found.  "NOT" excludes subsets from a search.  The symbols " +" or " -" when placed before a term within a search phrase mean "must include" and "exclude," respectively.  Use a space before the + or - followed by the key term.

A URL can reveal an initial concern about a site, as well. Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask from UC Berkeley Teaching Library will help you to understand information contained in a URL, and how to identify authenticity and credibility of web pages.

Step 2: Navigate and Preview

After selecting a Web page, its navigation becomes important.  For previewing a Web page, Julie Coiro (2005, pp. 32-33) at the University of Connecticut suggests that teachers model seven steps accompanied by thinking aloud:

1. Read the title of the Web page and the title of the Web site.
2. Scan menu choices, running the mouse over navigation buttons or menu options to get the big picture for what is on the site.  Menus often appear down the left side or across the top of a page.
3. Predict where major links might lead and anticipate a link's path through multiple levels of the site.
4. Explore interactive features of dynamic images, pop-up menus, scroll bars that might reveal additional features at the site.
5. Look for information about the author, and when pages were last updated.  This is often found in a page "About this Site."
6. Look for and try out any internal search engine or organizational site map.
7. Decide if the site if worth further investigation and if so, decide where to explore first.

Step 3: Evaluate

The ACTS Model (Authoritative, Current/Correct, Truthful, Supported) provides a good rule of thumb for selecting quality online resources (or more traditional print-based resources), be they web sites or literature appropriate for writing articles.  Mark Rossman (2002) elaborates on this model, primarily in terms of evaluating literature:

• AUTHORITATIVE. This suggests that the reader consider the trustworthiness of the piece. Who wrote it? How well known is the author? What type of organizational support is provided to the author? What else has been written or produced by the author? What quality control standards are evident (i.e.; has the article been subjected to a peer review)?
• CURRENT AND CORRECT. This suggests that the reviewer should look at when the article was written and should also try to determine the correctness of the material. When was it written? What are facts and what are opinions? Is it timely? Is it complete? What is the intended audience? Whose voices are being reflected?
• TRUTHFUL. This means looking at the reasonableness of the piece. Is it fair? Does it reflect differing perspectives? Is it objective? Does it present the opinions and findings of others? Is it presented in an unbiased manner
• SUPPORTABLE. The piece should be supported by data or it should clearly indicate that it is the opinion or viewpoint of the author. The reviewer of the piece should determine as well as possible if the material is supported by references. Who has written the references? Is there more than one reference in support of each statement of fact? Are all claims supported? Is there consistency among the sources? (pp. 91-92).

Students might also find out who else is linking to the site, as some sites are bogus.  Entering LINK: [web address] in a search engine such as Google will reveal this list.  Try entering the search phrase "bogus Web sites" to demonstrate to students examples of such sites, some of which look quite professional.

Step 4: Synthesize

Finally, synthesizing information is difficult to teach students.  Coiro (2005) suggests creating a Word document template for students to use in which they write their research question, then actually copy and paste the URL and relevant text from each source into this organizer.  Then students summarize that content in their own words, and provide a personal connection of how the information or new fact relates to other information they have found on the topic and how the information on each new idea changes their thinking.  Students might jot down other questions as they reflect.  Next they write their synthesis, which considers points from their sources.  Coiro states, "A good synthesis weaves together at least two of their personal impressions with at least two facts learned from their reading" (p. 35).

Note that students can now avoid using a copy and paste technique from Internet resources to a research project.  If they use Web 2.0 tools noted above, their highlighted text and those same notes that they might have put in a Word document can be created and stored online rather than on the desktop computer.

Step 5: Cite

Students need to learn appropriate methods for citing the information they have directly quoted, summarized, or paraphrased from others.  Common methods include MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago.  Sites that generate citations are available to help writers put references in appropriate format.

Crediting ideas from others is part of academic integrity.  Teachers might also discuss plagiarism with their students, as sometimes students don't realize they are plagiarizing.  See Dr. Patricia Deubel's publication, available at CT4ME: Plagiarism: Prevention is the Name of the Game.

 

 

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Search and Citation Methodology Resources

NOTE to those teaching about APA style:  The Sixth Edition of the rules of APA Style, detailed in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, has been released.  As you use APA resources listed below, be sure to verify that the new rules are being used.  Some sites might convert faster than others.  Find those updates at APA Style or use the APA Formatting and Style Guide from the OWL at Purdue University, for example.

APA Citation StyleGuide Handbook: Online Guide to Preparing Manuscripts in APA Style, from The Write Direction

APA Documentation from the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

APA Formatting and Style Guide from the OWL at Purdue University includes examples according to the 6th edition of the APA manual.

Apaguide.net  lists APA guides and software.

APA Citation assistance from Owens Library of Northwest Missouri State University.

APA Style has tutorials, FAQs, and other resources to help you improve your writing, master APA Style, and learn the conventions of scholarly publishing.  You will also find what's new in the Sixth Edition for the rules of APA Style, detailed in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Duke University Library will help you to correctly cite in MLA and APA formats, create Turabian footnotes, or use the Chicago Manual of Style.

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet from Johns Hopkins University.  This article also includes how search engines return information.

Evaluating Information from the University of North Carolina's Academic Affairs Library consists of a "series of self-paced instructional modules designed to introduce you to various search tools and strategies and guide you in evaluating the information you find" relating to books, articles, and websites.

Fact, Fiction, or Opinion? Evaluating Online Information from Education World contains the how to's suggested in the title.

Four NETS for Better Searching by Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University includes: start Narrow, find Exact phrases, Trim back the URL, and look for Similar pages.

How to Cite Your Sources: First Things First! from MidLink Magazine, a digital magazine for students 8-18, sponsored by NC State University and the University of Central Florida.

NoodleTools, a suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and professionals with their online research, will help you select a search engine, find some relevant sources,  and cite those sources in MLA or APA style.

Plagiarism.org contains resources for preventing plagiarism and guidelines for correctly citing information.

Search Engine Showdown by Greg Notess --learn all about searching and get search engine news.

The Spider's Apprentice is a helpful guide to web search engines, including basic search engine FAQ, how to plan the best search strategy, how search engines work, and even historical information about the first search engines.

University Library at California State University, Long Beach, has a complete resource on APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and other citation methodologies.

Using the Web from Eduplace.com is divided into three sections and includes Grades 1-2: Learning from Web Sites;  Grades 3-5: Searching for Web Sites; Grade 6-8:  Evaluating Web Sites.  Each module is very engaging with appropriate animations.

21st Century Information Fluency began in 2001 at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.  Its mission is to provide "professional development and resources to help educators and students improve their ability to locate, evaluate and use digital information more effectively, efficiently and ethically."

Citation generators:

KnightCite, a project at Calvin College: APA, MLA, and Chicago styles can be generated.  Rules are included to help enter data.

Landmarks for Schools Citation Machine provides citations in MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago styles.

21st Century Information Fluency has online citation wizards for CSE (scientific style), MLA, and APA.

Search engines for young students:

Before releasing your students to search on the Web, you might begin by reading Child-safe Searching on the Web at SearchEngines.com.  This site addresses nearly every concern you might have about search engines.

• Ask for Kids
• Awesome Library for Kids (also in several languages)
• First Gov for Kids
• KidsClick!
• Kids.Net.AU
• Yahooligans!

General and more scholarly search engines and databases:

• Ask.com  Ask a question and get an answer.  This is the upscale search engine to Ask for Kids.  Search by category: web, images, city, news, and blogs.

• Dmoz "The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web."  Educators might particularly like the reference section for education.

• FindThatFile.com claims to be "the most comprehensive file search on the Internet.  Common searches are for PDFs, Documents (DOC, TXT, etc.), Audio, Video, RAR and ZIP compressed files, Fonts, and much much more" and that they "search more places than anyone else: Web, FTP, Usenet, Metalink and P2P (ed2k/emule) including 47 file types and 557+ file extensions including over 239 file upload services" (About section).

• FirstGov the U.S. government's official web portal.

• Google Scholar will help you find "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations."

• OAIster began in 2002 as a project of the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service.  It contains "a collection of freely available, previously difficult-to-access, academically-oriented digital resources that are easily searchable by anyone." Find the pearls: books, journals, images, audio files, video files, and more.  "OAIster has since grown to become one of the largest aggregations of records pointing to open archive collections in the world" (sec: History of OAlster).

• Scirus focuses on science-specific web pages, including peer-reviewed articles, journals, and patents.

• Search.com is a metasearch engine, which means it searches dozens of search engines such as Google, Ask.com, LookSmart.

• Wolfram|Alpha  Enter a question requiring a factual answer or calculation, including one in which graphing is involved, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer.  This resource can be used by anyone, including K-20 learners, educators in the classroom, other professionals, and beyond.  Multiple topics are included: math, engineering, physics, places and geography, dates and times, money and finance, units and measures, chemistry, health and medicine, foods and nutrition, colors, music, and much more.  This is not a search engine, but Wolfram|Alpha has sidebar links for doing web searches.  This is an emerging technology that will continue to grow.

 

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The Amazon widget below shows books using the search phrase: internet searching skills.  You can also use the widget to search with other key words.  Suggestions include:

• internet research skills

 

 

References

 

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See other Technology Integration pages:

Part 2: Technology Integration Resources: Page 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |

Part 1: Essential Questions  |  Part 3: Web Page Design  |  Part 4: Multimedia in Projects