Digital Learning Series Digital Citizen Skills - Librarian Edition

At anytime during the presentation please feel free to key in a question in the chat window. I will read and respond as they come in! If I am going to fast please help me to press pause!

 collaboration, communication, critical thinking, & creativity  Think … How can I as a librarian accommodate the 4Cs?

 Students are not just looking for an answer anymore.  We are asking students to look at the facts, think, make judgments and share their findings. (more of this in the inquiry presentation I am sure!)  This is where we as teachers and librarians can play a huge role.

 If it can be googled is it worth learning?  Is googling dumbing us down? Points to ponder as a result of a discussion with George Krahn (aka Joe).

 One can not assume a student knows how to search.  Often they don’t even question the search results – if it’s on the internet it must be true!  Often they never consider the validity or authenticity of a website.

 There is a strong need to explicitly teach search skills to students.  They need to know legitimate online research involves much more than 10 seconds with Google and copy-pasting the Wikipedia links.  Do not assume anything.

 An ancient tools project. Students are expected to build a tool that early humans may have constructed and used.

 How can I go about making an ancient spear for my social studies project? ◦ Every word is included in a search.  Students need to think about refining a search to the most important words for the topic ◦ Well thought search  ancient spears materials

 A basic search of spears   A better search spear –britney

 Want to be more specific? ◦ A search for ancient spears would find all the pages of both or either term.  Add quote around words and Google searches for that exact phrase. ◦ ie. “ancient spears”  At times the results differences can be subtle with the non quote top hits simply being more general.

 Imagine searching for someone named Michael Kenny Jackson.  Try with or without the quotation marks (“ ”) – any difference?

 To the student explicitly … ◦ Precise key terms and eliminating unwanted key terms (-) generates great search results.

 To keep our search confined to the field of education we may also add site: in our search ◦ for a search of all education sites  site:edu spears – yields articles on spears from educational.edu sites only. ◦ for a search of a single site  site:cbc.ca spears – yields articles on spears from cbc.ca only.

 Google search tricks explained.* Google search tricks  Tips for searching like a pro from Google.searching like a pro  Google made Classroom posters (the first and last one are good!) Print and post!Classroom posters

 Watch Google’s search suggestions assistant for proper wording and keyword suggestion.  Great for humor as well.

 Google has a pile of interesting ways to search. You can even narrow your search by using the left side search options or clicking on the advanced search on settings icon. ◦ Ie. File type or currency.  Consider a visual media view using What do you love? (by Google) ◦ ◦ eg.

 How proper online research works.  Help your students become better searchers with lesson plans and activities from google. ◦

 Consider one of these search tools the next time a student asks for assistance to look something up. ◦ (a non tracking search) ◦ The best of 2012 search engines The best of 2012 search engines ◦ Search engines for kids – awesome list Search engines for kids

 Often the best way to teach website credibility is to show by example.  For example if students are asked to research an Endangered Species of their choice …

worldwildlife.org/species

 Credibility criteria. The list may include: ◦ Authorship – Author vs. AuthorityAuthor vs. Authority ◦ perspective ◦ consistency with experts ◦ documentation of sources ◦ currency ◦ mechanics ◦ Usability  Evaluating Web Site Credibility Evaluating Web Site Credibility ◦ Full teacher tool kit Learn Alberta gwebsitecredibility_mt.html gwebsitecredibility_mt.html

 Tools to determine Web Site Credibility are listed on

  A nice collection of Magazines, Journals and Newspapers that are credible.  Many of the sites are only accessible within our schools.

 Sweet Search is a search engine for students that searches 35,000 websites that research experts, librarians and teachers have evaluated and approved. 

As learning technologists we are eager to assist you as well: -Small steps to becoming cybrarians! -Springshare by Saskatoon PublicSpringshare by Saskatoon Public -There is plenty more on Digital Citizenship as well!

 Find this ubershare.wikispaces.com/libraries!

     Online.htm Online.htm