Teaching online research

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Phillips on June 7, 2008 at 5:16pm

Anthony Luscre (director of technology at Mogadore Local Schools in Ohio) has developed an online tutorial and printable guide booklet about web searching. It is very detailed. Here is a link to his website:

http://www.mogadore.net/portal/search.html

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Permalink Reply by Dorit Eilon on June 9, 2008 at 5:28am

Hi Joanna,
Thanks. Good resource.

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Permalink Reply by Dorit Eilon on June 10, 2008 at 9:08am

Thanks Sandra - the articles are very good, especially the one on choosing search engines for various tasks.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on June 10, 2008 at 8:30am

Hi Dorit,

In addition to checking with your district's school library services contact who will have plentiful information in this area, I recommend KidsClick!. It is an annotated searchable directory of websites created for students by librarians. Searchable by subject, reading level and degree of picture content.

I find the reading level feature very exciting.

Education World Review:
KidsClick!
GRADE LEVEL: K-8

CONTENT:
A group of librarians created this search engine/Web directory to guide young users to useful, age-appropriate Web sites.
AESTHETICS:
KidsClick! has an attractive and engaging interface that will appeal to young users.
ORGANIZATION:
This is a well-organized, comprehensive Web guide for kids. Users can search by keyword as well as alphabetical subject.
REVIEW:
If you are concerned about allowing your youngsters to search the Net on their own, this is a good place to begin. KidsClick! will direct students to valuable sites that are appropriate for students in grades K-8. By clicking on the Advanced Search option, users can limit their searches by reading level and number of pictures or search by URL. Teachers and students won't want to miss KidsClick! Worlds of Web Searching, a very cleverly done tutorial on how to search the Web. Nine different "worlds" of searching are explored that offer students lessons and activities for developing and improving their searching skills.

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Permalink Reply by Dorit Eilon on June 10, 2008 at 10:02am

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your post. I have mixed of feelings about KidsClick! It offers categories which are very helpful and if you go to the advanced section you can choose grade level and with or without pictures. However, the search results are often very limited. Typing Marco Polo produced no results. Typing explorers produced 17 results with various reading levels; limiting it to Grades 3-6 produced only one result to a so-so website. I think their concept is great but… the search engine itself doesn't always deliver. The link to the lesson plans on research is not working. The categories are helpful especially for an initial search and for students who might be struggling with keywords.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony A. Luscre on July 3, 2008 at 10:21am

Regarding Joanna Phillips' posting- thank you for the complements.

I have recently made a number of enhancements to my site's information on Web Searching.

The best link to use for information on teaching and learning about searching techniques and resources is http://www.mogadore.net/searching. There you find a booklet "Beyond Simple Web Searching-- Guerrilla Tactics to Get The Information You Want & Know What You're Getting" you can print the booklet, find exercises from the booklet and links to presentation I have given at FETC and Ohio e-Tech Conferences. I would suggest you use this link for staff professional development

The best link for day-to-day access of searching resources is http://www.mogadore.net/portal/search.html (I will be shortening this link by fall to http://www.mogadore.net/search.html, but will maintain both links.)

For staff development you may also find my other pages, booklets & presentations helpful.
Links to these can all be found at http://www.mogadore.net/tech :

"Technology Ethics: Recognizing Right From Wrong in a Digital Age"

" Not Just for Math Anymore-- Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum"

"Planning & Preparing Successful Technology Training:Session Design, Training Materials & Presentation"

"Guerilla Productivity Tools: Work More Efficiently & Effectively with Free or Inexpensive Software Gems"

Computer Productivity Tools: A "How-To" mini-manual for Spreadsheets & Word Processing along with a little introduction to general concepts of Databases

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Permalink Reply by Dorit Eilon on July 14, 2008 at 10:30am

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work. I had shared your site with teachers I work with and other PD people.

Regards,

Dorit

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