There’s a well-thought-out online research process that includes using quotation marks to search for certain words in their exact order (for example, “Pittsburgh Penguins” or “Subaru Outback”); using a minus sign to exclude a word from a search (say, penguins -Pittsburgh, outback -Subaru); and, most importantly, using the site operator to limit a search to certain credible sites—such as an educational institution or a governmental site—which increases the probability of finding reliable information (for example, site:edu, site:org, or site:gov)
Students need to learn to evaluate the quality of information they find on the web as well as other information resources such as books, magazines, or online. Ask students to be skeptical of everything they find. Encourage them to compare and contrast different information resources. Consider the following ideas:
Authority. Who says? Know the author.
Objectivity. Is the information biased? Think about perspective.
Authenticity. Is the information authentic? Know the source.
Reliability. Is this information accurate? Consider the origin of the information.
Timeliness. Is the information current? Consider the currency and timeliness of the information.
Relevance. Is the information helpful? Think about whether you need this information.
Efficiency. Is this information worth the effort? Think about the organization and speed of information access.
Search for Clues. Start by examining the page itself. Look at the web address (URL). What kind of domain (.edu, .gov, .org, .net, .com) is it? This doesn't always help, but it may provide an indication of the sponsor. Is it a government site, school resource, museum, commercial or private web project? Try to determine who published the page. Is it an individual or an agency? Can you find a name attached to the page? Look at the core page for the entire website (everything between the http:// and the first /) and see who sponsored the site and how information was selected. You might also try truncating the website address to see each level between slashes.
Sometimes you can answer these questions by reading the creation information at the bottom of the main page. Look for a name, organization, or email address. If you can't find the answer there, see if you can locate a page that tells "about the website." Sometimes there's a "contact us" page. The author of the page and the webmaster may or may not be the same person.
For information about the content of the page, look for a link to an author biography, philosophy, or background information.
Another hint about the quality of the website is the copyright date. When was the page originally posted? When was the last time the page was updated? This information is generally at the bottom of each page or at least the first page of the website.
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Diminishing Returns  |
It’s 10 a.m. and Kate Elder’s ninth-grade English class is in the library researching early 19th-century Paris, the setting of Victor Hugo’s classic Les Miserables. In her first attempt to learn about the French Restoration, Emily enters www.restoration.com in the address bar, and finds herself at the site of a swanky hardware store based in Pasadena, CA.
She tries again, this time typing the word “restoration” into Google. No luck. “Restoration Hardware” is the first of 69.2 million hits, which include results ranging from religious movements to ways to restore files from a computer’s recycling bin. Emily isn’t alone. Tom, who’s been asked to research the Bourbon Dynasty, one of the most powerful ruling families of Europe, is sifting through pages about Kentucky Bourbon and mixed drinks. In 45 minutes, the bell rings, and both frustrated students leave for their next class. This assignment is officially a bust.
Over the years, we’ve watched our students aimlessly search the Internet in an effort to complete their assignments, so we decided to design a Google game with enough appeal to help teens search the Web more effectively. We chose Google because it’s the most common search engine used by our students, and even though our lesson is geared toward our gifted ninth graders, it can easily be modified to suit seventh through 10th graders. The point of the game is simple: to show students how to refine their searches by thinking critically.
Before beginning, we read up on a few things about our target audience. For one, contrary to popular belief, kids are easily bored and frustrated by the Web and are less adept at online searches than adults. They may be whizzes at instant messaging and downloading tunes, but when it comes to searching, they’re just lost puppies, according to “Teenagers on the Web,” a study by the Nielsen Norman Group, a user-experience research firm. Other things we had to keep in mind for our lesson? Kids’ aesthetics are pretty sophisticated; they like clean and simple-looking sites. They’re impatient, so any lesson should include regular searches, rather than advanced searches. And since teens like to keep things simple, our lesson would only teach them a few basic, but essential, skills. Lastly, teens want to have fun, so the game is interactive.
With those key bits of information in mind, we devised the “Google Game,” with the goal of making our students’ Internet searches more efficient so that they end up with as few hits as possible. We taught the strategy in one period at the beginning of the school year, and we were amazed to see how valuable it became, not just in terms of our students’ school assignments, but in all of their Web searches.
We begin the lesson by telling students that each search term is like a bead on a string. To make things simple, we limit everyone’s search to 10 terms, explaining that the addition of each word or phrase is like adding one more bead to a string. The aim, of course, is to end up with the information you’re looking for with as few hits as possible.
Then we supply our students with three crucial search tips: use quotation marks (for example, “French Restoration,” “human rights,” “affirmative action”) to look for words in the exact order that you enter them. This may seem like common knowledge, but most kids don’t know to use quotation marks. Use a minus sign to exclude a word from your search (for example, vikings -Minnesota). And to limit a search to Web sites by certain groups, such as colleges and universities or organizations, use the site operator (for example, site:edu or site:org). If a student is searching for information about lacrosse, for instance, and only wants results from educational institutions, she would type lacrosse site:edu in the search bar.
Students often make the mistake of conducting searches by asking questions, which isn’t the way Google works best. Effective searches consist of typing in carefully chosen words and excluding those that are irrelevant to your search. For example, while researching seasonal depression, a mental disorder that occurs at the same time each year, choosing the right words can make the difference between a search result with millions of hits or just a couple hundred. Using the search terms depression -great (to exclude hits that include the Great Depression) will result in 42.6 million hits, while searching the words depression -great seasonal FAQ site:edu symptoms, will lead to 650 hits because the search was limited to Web sites by educational institutions that were restricted to frequently asked questions related to symptoms of seasonal depression. Using these basic strategies to gradually reduce the number of results from more than 74 million to just 650 makes students sit up in their seats.
But we don’t stop there. Showing kids how to search for information about the Great Depression of the 1930s really gets their attention. Using the search term the “great depression” results in 5.1 million hits, but using the terms “the great depression” site:org okies occupations, results in only 89 hits.
With their newfound search skills, students are ready to play the Google Game—and the team with the fewest number of hits in 15 minutes wins. The rules are simple: while working in pairs, students use their new search techniques to answer a question posed by a librarian or teacher; students record the search terms that they used to get their results; and the team with the fewest number of hits and the correct answer wins the game.
One of our first games consisted of asking students the following question: Can you explain how Edgar Allan Poe used the raven as a symbol in his poem “The Raven”? A pair of students won by typing in the terms “Edgar Allan Poe” raven symbol site:edu and getting 253 results.
The search results for the next question simply blow their minds: How was Edgar Allan Poe related to Virginia Clem? In 15 minutes, another pair of kids high-five each other with excitement. By typing in “Edgar Allan Poe” “Virginia Clem” site:edu, the pair found out that Poe married Clem, his 13-year-old cousin. And their search terms resulted in just three hits!
Keep in mind that librarians need to test their own questions before the beginning of a class to see how many search results they end up with. The results change from day to day because sites frequently come and go on Google, so it’s best to construct questions shortly before the lesson is taught.
Although the librarian guides students through the search process and updates the questions used to demonstrate that the search strategies are effective, the classroom teacher plays an equally critical role in the lesson’s success. Students are engaged in the lesson if their teacher monitors their progress, and if she encourages a friendly competition among the teams by egging on one team to beat the other.
When students are finished searching, the winning team (or teams) copies its search string on a white board and explains its solution to the class. The teacher and librarian should emphasize that the lesson is constructed to demonstrate more effective ways to search, and that there is no guarantee that every search will produce so few results.
In the words of one satisfied student who tried his new search skills as soon as he got home from school, “I found exactly what I was looking for in less than 10 minutes, which normally would take me about an hour. I think the technique should be taught to other classes, so it will help them like it did me.” And it was music to our ears when another student said, “I have always been annoyed with search engines because I could never get the Web sites I wanted on the topic I wanted… until [I played the Google game] yesterday.”
We’ve been very pleased by our students’ enthusiasm to apply what they’ve learned in our Google game to all their Internet searches, but we’re more gratified by the fact that teaching this lesson has earned us increased credibility. Now, when we recommend a book or a subscription database as the best place to start researching, our students actually listen to our advice.
See an updated version of this article.
| Author Information |
| Librarian Katrine Watkins and English teacher Kathleen Elder work at Shaler Area Intermediate School in Glenshaw, PA. |
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