Guiding Students During Research

The reading and lecture this week gave some great ideas on effective search skills.  One of the sites that came up in the reading was Wikipedia, and I was glad it did. I have always encouraged my students to stay away from it as a resource in the past because anyone can post or alter the information on the pages.  With that being said, typically when my students use Google to find information, Wikipedia is ALWAYS the fist result. I teach middle school children, and sometimes they can be a tad lazy. They just click on the first thing that comes up instead of looking at their options.  In my personal experience I have found that Wikipedia is usually accurate and it has a ton of information. The book did recommend using it as a starting point in the research process, and to check other resources to confirm the information.

I liked the CARS checklist for website evaluation, and I think it would be a useful tool for kids.  I’m worried about my kids being misinformed with Wikipedia when they can stumble up a completely bogus website anywhere (the tree octopus!)  No matter what the site, it would be good for the kids to evaluate it for its credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support. Whether they are doing researching or buying  a product, kids need to know what a reliable website contains.

Dr. Dell introduced a term this week that I was unfamiliar with but totally understand...Infowhelm.  We are all very familiar with being overwhelmed with teaching, learning, family and all of the things that come with it.  That same overwhelmed feeling happens to our students when they attempt to search for information. Google is great, but sometimes it gives us too many results.  Creating a custom Google search is a great way to let students search for information in a structured way. I also like the idea of using a bookmarking site like Diigo to help kids keep track of helpful sites or provide them a series of options to look at when researching.