Getting Started

 

The Upside

• Information access
• Varied perspectives
• Communication
• Collaboration

The Downside

• Information overload
• Time consuming
• Over dependence
• Inappropriate materials
  • sex, violence, reading

 

Before You Start...

• Who will use the information?
  • readability, interest
• How will it be used?
  • read, skimmed, summarized,
  • evaluated, reviewed, applied, synthesized
• Match search tools...
• Topic: broad, narrow
• Age: interest, readability
• Channel: audio, video, graphics

 

Use Search Engines for kids! For teachers!

• Adult Search Engine Starting Points
• About.com
• Kid's Search Engine Starting Points
• KidClick
• Ask Jeeves

 

Polling Example

• Polling Report

Archaeology

• Crow Canyon

 

Pirate Examples

• http://members.tripod.com/~toby_g/pirates/pirates.html
• http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/qar/
• http://search.yahooligans.com/
• http://www.powerup.com.au/~glen/pirate.htm
• http://despina.advanced.org/16438/index.shtml

Lightning Example

• Lightning

 

What kind of info?

• Type: text, visuals, sounds
• Current information
• FAQ lists
• Questions & Answers
• Glossaries

http://butterflywebsite.com/faq.cfm

 

The World

• Current events
• News
• What's happening?
• Plug your class into the world

Locating Newspapers

• http://www.usatoday.com/
• http://www.usatoday.com/educate/home.htm
• http://www.yakscorner.com/
• http://usnewspapers.about.com/index.htm
• http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html

Local News

• Pins on map
• Match facts to the real world
  • apples?
  • mountains?
  • conservative?
• http://www.newswest.com/dailyrecord/
• http://www.pathfinder.com/Life/thisday/thisday.html
• http://eduscapes.com/projects/truman.html
• http://www.nando.net/prof/edsvc/teach/

Using the News

• Make it a regular part of class
• Focus on curriculum outcomes
• Transfer to paper and TV
• Keep it simple
• Consider readability

http://www.almanac.com/

 

Student Resources

• Online
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Web Projects

Online News

• http://www.scholastic.com/juniorscholastic/
• http://www.yahooligans.com/content/news/
• http://www.cbc4kids.ca/regular/homepage.html
• http://pathfinder.com/TFK/index.html
• http://www.americangirl.com/cgi/ag/ag.cgi
• http://www.ce.org/
• http://www.sikids.com/index.html
• http://www.hipmag.org/

Using Kid's Mags

• Look for
• current issues
• back issues
• stability of site
• subscription requirements
• website updates
• http://www.newmoon.org/nmgirl/index.html
• http://www.yesmag.bc.ca/
• http://www.zuzu.org/
• http://www.zuzu.org/collect.html
• http://www.teenvoice.com/

Student Sections

• Explore student sections of adult resources
• commercial sites
• government resources
• health care sites
• museums
• http://www.fda.gov/
• http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/kids/default.htm
• http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/index.htm
• http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/tipskids.htm

 

Info Age Fact Finding

• Dictionary
• Thesarus
• Almanac
• Encyclopedia
• Paper or Plastic
• … books or computers
• It depends on your organization Internet access
• http://www.iTools.com/research-it/research-it.html
• http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/netdict
• http://www.refdesk.com/instant.html
• http://www.infoplease.com/
• http://kids.infoplease.com/
• http://www.bjpinchbeck.com

 

Using References

• Beyond low level questions
• Focus on issues
• Draw comparisons
• Create charts & draw conclusions
• Take a stand
• http://my.webmd.com/index.html

 

Living in an Info Age

• What information do I need?
• Where can I find information?
• How do I evaluate information?
• What do I do with the information? 

 

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