By now many of you are beginning to realize how much information is out in the world that you still don't know. The evolution and metamorphosis of the Internet is moving at an exponential rate. I can't even keep up with all the changes (and I do this for a living)!
Welcome to the continuation of our session on "Critical Evaluation of Online Information!"
Knowing that there is so much information on the Internet convinces me that this would be a good time to discuss the quality of online information.
As you move through Session 4 please keep in mind that this is all meant to support your second deliverable.
Good luck!
PS--As always, if you have any trouble with this session you may find it backed up on Authorstream.com Just do a search for edc922 and look for the appropriate session.
PPS--I just checked out our Google 'Shared' Document and it finally looks like some of you have made some changes. (You can definitly tell what Nick's contribution is--once a die-hard fan; always a die-hard fan). Check it out again, but this time, go to the 'File' menu. From there choose, 'Revision History.' There you can revisit a copy of every change that each contributor made as well as revert back to a prior version, or compare different versions. Play around with resource some more.
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AND NOW HERE IS SESSION 5
(please remember that this can be a lot of material, so 'crisis manage' and focus on the most important items and deadlines.)
Welcome to the continuation of our session on "Critical Evaluation of Online Information!"
As you continue to research, write, and revise your second deliverable you'll soon begin to realize that the challenge isn't whether or not you can find enough information on the Internet that will help you----instead, the real challenge is how to cull through all of the websites and content to find quality information that will really help you.
Well, that's why we are spending this time on the evaluation of online information. We, in the Information World, call it "Information Literacy." Read the definition here. Children won't be able to survive in the 21st century world without it.
Good luck with this session and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Dave
PS-D2 is a big project. Don't wait until the last minute.
PPS--A back-up of S5 can be found on Authorstream.com When there, just search for edc922.
6 comments:
Session 4: Internet Detective.
From using the tutorial, I really enjoyed the format and process that the site used to train someone to pick out the "Good, Bad and the Ugly." I learned quite a few tips and tricks to decipher a quality site from a questionable site. The best tip that i walked away with from doing that tutorial was "If there's any doubt {about a site} go without.." That mostly rings true. For most users of the internet for research, we "Google It" and go from there. We try to look for sites that look credible, but a trained user will look beyond the look of a site and look at the quality of the content. www.globalwarming.org for example. Looks very professional and legit, it most definitely has an agenda. But a student may not know that organization has an agenda and take all of those as facts without reviewing the opposing side.
Nice exercise Mr. Fontaine!
For my deliverable #2, I took my outline from the previous session and tweaked it a bit. I've developed a wikipage that contains 4 of the most useful Web 2.0 tools that I have come across. Those tools are Wikispaces, Google Tools, Google Earth and Delicious.com. On my wikipage (link below) I've created a user's guide for each of these tools. Any user can go to the link and get an overview of what the tool is, why they should use it and other various explanations of how to use the tool. Feel free to take a look.
http://npaolini.wikispaces.com/EDC+922+Final+Project
I took the initial course offering, I believe 920 "Practical Uses of Internet" and there was a section/session on the authenticity and review of web sites/searches. I brought it up in our weekly "CPT" (common planning time) session and we actually adopted a two day unit on evaluation techniques in our Computer Application I course. We show alot of the same resources outlined in this session, but the last link on Session 5 is terrific as a resource if anyone has to train technology use in the classroom.
I found alot of this session a review of sorts...but I understand each course has to have a piece of this if it's the only offering you take as a teacher/librarian...no it's all good.
Coach P....I'll take a look at that link on your post as I am focusing on my Personal Finance course here at SK, it is growing by leaps and bounds and they are actually considering making it a requirement, so I have to "upgrade" the course significantly within the next twelve months.......
Karen Izzo
EGHS
AP English/Brit Lit
Session 4/5
Hi everyone:
First, coach, your wikispaces explanation of Google docs is going to be a great resource for me this upcoming school year. I am committing to reducing paper use at school (blame a brutally honest student of mine who wrote a persuasive essay about the English department's contribution to global warming), and that You Tube video is wonderful. Did you create that?
Next, I agree with both Coach and Chase that much of this is review for us, but the Detective website would be very useful for students. I've seen that presentation before, perhaps in the other internet class, but it seemed to have new information. One item that seemed to be missing is a tool that aided my students immeasurably this year - using the advanced search in google to limit a searches to domains with .gov or .edu, where one is more likely to find reputable sites.
I've also started my Deliverable Two work, and I will upload it ti the wiki site as well.
I enjoyed the tutorial this week. I found that I have not been using the web quite the way I should be as far as being a “smart” surfer. Karen, after reading your comment I went back and looked at the advance search options available on Google and tried a few searches. I don’t know why I never tried this before! I will use this aspect of Google to help me with Deliverable #2.
In addition to not limiting my searches enough I learned that I need to scan the results of the search a bit more before going to the web sites. I did look them over to some extent, but now I know what to look out for as far as what would be desirable and what would not be desirable.
I am very happy that my last day of school was Tuesday so I can dive into my next deliverable and spend a lot of time exploring and creating this week!
Diane Cunha
Community Prep
6th grade math/science
I'm catching up! Dave was right Deliverable 2 is a lot of work. After looking at Coach Paolini's site I want to make some lessons using Google Earth for Earth Science!
The review on searches and evaluation was good. I'm a creature of habit... I google and go from there. Even though I've done a couple of evaluation lessons with my students during the past 2 years (that doesn't seem like enough effort on my part), I was surprised at how hard it was to find some of the information. I can see how the students would be frustrated, and there is always the issue of time and access to the computers. I do see that it is important and it really IS the type of literacy students will need. I will make it a part of my technology goal.
I did some searching for a web evaluation form that I might like, but didn't find exactly what I thought would work yet. A number of links on the http://eduscapes.com site did not work.
Adopting the evaluation techniques unit was great. (Chace)
I can just see the kids reading The Onion! And there was a site for Aluminum Beanies to protect you from mind control...I could see my students believing that and asking if I had any aluminum foil! Still catching up. Thanks for the comments. DC
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