A Guide for Teachers By: Jana Bowling

1. Why Use Nettrekker? Why Use Nettrekker? 2. Meeting the Standards Meeting the Standards AASL Standards 3. A Revised Search A Revised Search 4. Easy to Use Easy to Use 5. Exploring the Home Page Exploring the Home Page 6. A Basic Search A Basic Search Using your Results 7. Narrowing down your Resources Narrowing down your Resources Different Kinds of Resources 8. Subject Search Subject Search Other Subject Areas 9. The Features Box The Features Box Timeline/Image Search Famous Person References/Teacher Tools 10. Other Cool Stuff Other Cool Stuff 11. Questions???? Questions????

Why Use Nettrekker? Meeting the Standards: Both subject area and AASL standards are met through using Nettrekker in the classroom. A Revised Search Limits the resources you students will use. Easy to Use Great format and quick to learn!

Meeting the Standards All subject areas have topics that can be researched further for better understanding of the Standards. ELA(4-8)W3 – All middle grades students are required to learn how to find and evaluate sources to use for information they are writing about. The AASL standards concerning using technology to find information are met. Your Turn: Do you try to meet any of the AASL standards in your Classroom already? How do your students use technology?

AASL Standards Students should develop as 21 st Century Learners by developing their skills, dispositions, responsibilities, and self- assessment strategies. Our students are exposed to and required to use technology – these standards help ensure they learn how to use different technologies effectively and productively. Using Nettrekker meets: Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, and appropriateness – Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information – Demonstrate flexibility in the use of resources Develop directions for future investigations.

A Revised Search You can revise your search easily in Nettrekker; in other search engines, you can search and hunt through the given resources. Nettrekker allows you to search in several ways: - By subject area. - Limited by Readability level. - For people by era, profession, gender, and ethnicity. Your Turn: What are some difficulties you have encountered when using other search engines with your students?

Easy to Use Nettrekker resembles other search engines, so teachers and students should recognize how to search for information. The format is easy to read, follow, and figure out. Nettrekker includes many features that teachers will want their students to utilize.

Exploring the Homepage After locating the icon on your desktop, you will click on your school’s name and hit submit. The page should then open to the Nettrekker homepage. You can always access this homepage by clicking “Home” in the top right corner.

A Basic Search Use the Search bar on the homepage to perform a basic search. Type in your keyword to produce results. You can search within the web, by person, for an image, or for a standard.

Using your Results Each result contains certain details: - The rating for the result (given by educators who have nominated the site). - The complete url (easy to copy down for Works Cited). - A description of the website. Clicking on the result will open a new window to take you to the website.

Narrowing Down Your Resources After searching for your topic, you can narrow down your resources using the Readability level. This allows students on all levels to find relevant information. To change the Readability level, select the Readability tab and click on the box next to the appropriate level. Middle School students should use Levels 1,2,and 3.

Different Kinds of Resources Nettrekker gives different icons for the different types of information for each result. This can include multimedia websites (like videos or interactive websites) or the different languages the website is in. To find out more about what each result offers, simply scroll your mouse over the icons at the bottom of the result.

Subject Search Another way to search is by subject area. Students can use this to find a topic to research or to narrow down a general topic. You continue to select options within the subject area, until you find the results you need. Step 1: Click on Social Studies Step 2: Click on U.S. History

Step 3: Click on The Civil War Step 4: Now select Civil War Battles Step 5: Now your students would be able to select a specific battle from the Civil War to research and report to the class.

Other Subject Areas You can search using subject areas for the usual subjects (English, Social Studies, Science, etc), but other subjects are included as well. Your Turn: How could you use these different subject areas in your classroom?

The Features Box The Features Box includes different ways to search and find information. We will look at each Feature in the next few slides.

Timeline/Image Search The timeline lists important topics, events, and people to the particular subject selected. The image search allows students to search for safe images through Nettrekker.

Famous Person When searching for a famous person, you can search according to gender, occupation, and ethnicity. This allows your students to make specifications about his/her chosen person and then find a list of people who meet those specifications. Your turn: How can you use this search in your subject area?

References Teacher Tools Students can use the References Tools to find some quick resources that they will need to use like a reliable dictionary (Wordsmyth), sites about how to cite resources, good sites for maps and measurement, and so much more! The Teacher Tools are only available to teachers and lead to websites that teachers may find useful. Your turn: How can you use either of these tools for you or your students?

Other Cool Stuff One feature of Nettrekker that can help students is the Read Aloud feature. Students can use This feature to have the text on the page or resource read aloud to them. Click on Open Read Aloud to begin using the feature. You will then see a Status bar appear at The bottom of your Nettrekker screen with your Read Aloud Options.

Questions????? If you need any help using Nettrekker, please contact me at This powerpoint and the associated Read Me First document are located on the Teacher Shared Drive.