Monday, February 27, 2017

Search Engines, Evaluating Websites, and Internet Safety

Search Engines:
When having the students use any search engine for research it is important for the students to understand how to use the search engine in order to locate the desired information. Therefore one should not limit the students to one search engine and as a teacher, one should teach students how to evaluate the sources that come up when searching for the desired information. According to Roblyer (2016), one should “Teach students to search with keywords, rather than with a questions” (p. 184) and show the students how to narrow down their searches using the advanced search tools that are made available (p. 184). When both the utilization of multiple search engines and proper website evaluation are used, the students will be able to find the desired knowledge they need in order to complete any project to the fullest.

Website Evaluation Video:
Here is a quick video that I would show and discuss with students explaining how to evaluate websites using the five W’s.

Favorite Websites:
One of my favorite professional teaching websites is www.aptiq.org. I enjoy using this website because it has many resources that one can utilize in the classroom. For example, on can find virtual field trips on the site, videos, or even lesson plans on the site. This resource the site has available can help me greatly in the future to better teach my students any subject. Another professional teaching website that can be categorized as a favorite is https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/. This site allows the teacher to find books to utilize in their classroom, along with providing a resource that helps teach the book itself. This can be of great use in my future classroom because by utilizing this website I do not have to start from scratch when writing a lesson for books. According to Roblyer (2016) both of these sites are good to use for professional purposes because they use controlled fonts and type sizes, contrasting colors for the background which make the site easy to read, and navigation tools that allow for easy navigation throughout the sites (p. 198).

Online Safety & Security:
One internet safety topic that stands out to me is online predators. Roblyer (2016) says that “young people tend to believe everything they hear and read” (p.175). He goes on to say that a student talking to someone in an online chatroom may not every think that the person they are talking to might actually be older than he or she says they are (p. 175). With the anonymity that comes from communicating via online, it is so easy for someone to pretend to be someone they are not. This is why it is important to inform students how crucial it is that they never give out personal information to anyone online.  As a teacher, one must not only be sure to inform and remind students of this, but one must also monitor any online socializing that is happening in the class.

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (Seventh ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational Inc

Goldfinch, Ellen. (2014, October 8). Evaluating Websites With the 5 W's. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPI7FVon29k

2 comments:

  1. Hello, the five W’s is a great resource to use to evaluate websites. I feel the same as you on the social networking; you never know how is actually on the other end talking to very venerable young people. I have noticed the age of students becoming younger and younger on social websites. You can see students in the third grade with cell phones; I just cannot understand why parents would allow children this young have access to these sites.

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  2. Scholastic is also one of my favorite websites! Something I find helpful on that site is teachers can search a book and find out what the guided reading level is! I am really glad you also chose to discuss online predators. I don't think students truly understand that online predators are real and they will take advantage of any situation. It is so easy for someone to lie about their name, age, where they are from, etc. According to Robyler (2016. p. 175) it is important students know to never share/provide their complete names, addresses, or telephone numbers to anyone over the internet. They should also know to report to their teacher any person who asks them to share/provide these things.

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