Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Google, Garbage, and Research Alternatives

Here is a piece of a Slideshare presentation for the Searching 101 for Educators I'm holding in our area. I realize that PPT without the "comments" is lacking in understanding the message, but for information professionals, you might get a few ideas for when you deliver the same content.  
    
Although Google is the biggest gauntlet for information on the face of the Earth, it is not the only source out there.  In fact, there are wonderful alternatives.   If you are an educator and haven't heard this message, see your librarian for some alternatives.  Chances are they can make your students "smart searchers" as well as provide databases for research which save time. 


Information professionals can encourage teachers to:

  • Use databases as an alternative to web searching
  • Teach kids that we live in the age of misinformation--not the Information Age. The MO has moved from "you can't believe everything you read,"  to "Don't believe everything you read."  This subtle nuance captures our misinformation world.
  • package your research endeavors to "solve real world problems"  rather than "find information" = Inquiry based learning.  
An enlightening activity is to sign into Google, then view your own history:  www.google.com/history   - They have mine back to 2008, on the calendar you can view your "heavy" days buy the intensity of the color blue.   If you are not signed into a Google Account, it will not archive your data.  Therefore at school, your searches shouldn't be "captured."   As soon as all this PD is over, I'll erase my history, but for now...I need the example.


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