2. Students
…and Teachers
“The Web is a learning tool that differs from other tools
used in education because students acquire a great many
Web skills in an out-of-school context and also regard
themselves as skilled Web users. This is reflected in the
perception of many teachers that their students' Web skills
are superior to their own, which may result in
underestimating the support students need when using the
Web for educational purposes.”
3. It is true
Most of our
students are
‘digital natives’
Instant-messaging, photo sharing, texting, social
networking, video-streaming, and mobile Internet
Young people don’t need coaxing
to take up Internet technologies
Their skills quickly improve
relative to their elders
4. BUT…
without guidance most of our students
remain …
amateur users of information and
communication technology (ICT)
a generation of youth who are deeply
immersed in cyberspace yet are not fully
digitally literate
5. In other words,…
Students who think they’re tech savvy are not
necessarily web literate: they consider that
surfing the web immediately means benefitting
properly or fully from the web’s potential.
Students don’t know that they don’t know, so
they don’t feel the need to ask.
Students don’t trust their teachers or parents
could guide them in this area.
6. Despite the various terms and concepts
attached to digital literacy, there is
consensus that…
the use of technology has to be pedagogically
meaningful taking into consideration the
critical skills needed to assess information as
well as the ethical and social implications
involved.
One of the models of digital literacy as
developed by Calvani, Fini and Ranieri
(2009):
7.
8. Objectives
Become better informed as teachers
• what the rights and responsibilities of web
users are (digital citizenship)
• what skills are required to search and
manage web content (information and media
literacy)
• and why it is important for us teachers at
this point (design more purposeful / informed
assignments)
Think about a better integration of digital
citizenship and web literacy in the curriculum
(through training and not just instruction)
9. Digital Literacy
Under the “digital literacy umbrella” are a wide
range of interrelated skills that traditionally fall
under:
• Technology literacy (from basic computer skills to
more complex tasks like editing a digital film or
writing computer code)
• Media and Information literacy (our ability
to access, analyze, evaluate and produce
media)
• Visual literacy, Communication literacy, and
Social literacy
10. ISTE Standards
The International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE) frames its benchmarks for digital
literacy around six standards:
creativity and innovation;
communication and collaboration;
research and information fluency;
critical thinking, problem solving, and decision
making;
digital citizenship;
and technology operations and concepts
13. Examples of Digital Citizenship
• How to use a cell phone in public (etiquette)
• How to write proper emails / which pictures
to post (communication)
• Benefit from web tools to learn or take
classes as in videoconferencing (education)
• Connect community members to the
Internet (access)
• Beware of illegal activities in case of
commerce as in online shopping
(commerce)
14. More Examples of Digital
Citizenship
• Respect copyright by citing resources for
e.g. no stealing or plagiarism or
downloading illegal music (responsibility)
• Protect privacy and free speech as in having
the right to publish personal opinions (right)
• Not give personal info to strangers or open
suspicious emails / avoid eye strain or lack
of sleep (safety)
• Manage virus protection and data backup
(security)
15. Information and Media Literacy
Skills
1. Define an information problem or formulate a
research statement
2. Access Information efficiently (time) and
effectively (sources)
3. Evaluate information critically and competently
4. Manage and use the information
5. Create products
6. Share and communicate
16. How much do you know about
information literacy?
What strategies do you use?
- Which search engines to use?
- Which search tools or key words to use?
- How to evaluate websites / media?
- How to manage the flow of information?
- How to use the information accurately and
ethically?
17. How much do you know about
information literacy?
Take the following quiz (11 questions) to see
if you are:
Somewhat Savvy (0-4 points)
Moderately Savvy (5-8 points)
Downright Nerdy (8+ points)
18. How much do you know about
information literacy?
1. List 3 major search engines and a major
directory.
2. What is a blog?
3. Why might you use quotation marks when
conducting a search?
4. URL is an acronym for…
5. Identify three Boolean search terms.
19. How much do you know about
information literacy?
6. How do you find the owner or publisher of
a Web site?
7. Identify these extensions and what they
represent:
.org .com
.sch .k12
.edu .gov
.ac .net
.mil .co
20. How much do you know about
information literacy?
8. What clues in a Web address might indicate
you are on a personal Web site?
9. How would you conduct a search for the
following: a list of Web sites of all the
academic institutions in South Africa?
(Hint: South Africa’s country code is .za)
21. How much do you know about
information literacy?
10. How would you conduct a search for the
following: US higher education Web sites
that contain the word turtle?
11. How do sites get to the top of a result list
in Google?
22. Applying Web-related Research
Skills
“Research shows that students primarily use
one search engine and then only look at the
first page of results. They can quickly give up
or settle for something “close enough” when
they don’t find the information they’re
looking for. Huge amounts of time are being
wasted in searches void of the rigor of
research.”
23. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
1. In addition to the pages it finds in response to
your query, Google
• draws on searches other people have done
before you to offer related searches at the
bottom of the page.
• exposes information in the panel on the
right.
• provides results even before you finish
typing in the words you have in mind.
24. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
2. Notice that when you point at a particular
search result, called a result block, a small,
sideways chevron appears next to it (>>).
Clicking on that chevron allows you to
preview a document, letting you determine
what kind of document is behind the link.
25. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
3. Result blocks consist of:
The snippet is not a complete summary of the text on a page; it
is only search terms in context, extracted from the document.
Text that is taken out and replaced by the ellipses (…) could
be critical to answering your question.
26. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
4. Result blocks might provide links to specific
pages within the website :
27. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
5. Result blocks of complex websites usually
displays a search box that will allow you to
search exclusively within that site:
28. Finding the Information:
Reading Google Search Engine Results Page
6. Last tip: Not only is it helpful to know how to
understand a single result, but you can gain a
lot from taking a moment to look over an entire
screen or page full of results. If you find
discrepancies among the results, try to find the
name of organizations that could be primary
sources and change your search terms.
29. Finding the Information:
Different Kinds of Content
Google offers access to multiple media such as:
30. Finding the Information:
Different Kinds of Content
In addition to the
left-hand panel,
there is the bar
across the top of
the screen:
And even more…
such as Google
Scholar.
31. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
What is an operator?
It is a command that you add to your query to give
Google special instructions about how you want it
to deal with a specific search term.
1. The “site: operator” to limit results to pages
that come from a specific website
e.g. “Gibran Khalil Gibran site:aub.edu.lb”
or “car accident rates site:.gov.lb”
You can explore this feature further by clicking
on Images or News, or even by limiting the time,
in the left-hand panel.
32. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
2. The “filetype: operator” to limit results to
files or documents of a particular kind
e.g. “Gibran Khalil Gibran site:aub.edu.lb
filetype:pdf”
File types:
o PDF files (mostly for manuals, reports, etc.)
o flash files i.e. animated web content (SWF)
o Google Earth files (KML; KMZ)
o Excel files (XLS)
o PPT
33. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
3. The “minus sign (-) operator” is just a hyphen
that's put in front of a term (usually an invasive
term) that you want to have excluded from the
search results. You can also add multiple
minuses together.
For example, if you were looking for a recipe
about salsa, you might search for [salsa] and
discover that there are multiple definitions of
salsa.
There's the dance. There's the music. Don’t
forget the food.
34. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
By using [-dancing] or [-music], we can
actually focus just on salsa recipes: [salsa -
dance -music].
But now, suppose you are trying to get a
recipe that does not have tomatoes in it.
Maybe you are allergic to tomatoes.
You would then use [-tomatoes] to get rid of
recipes mentioning tomatoes:
[salsa -dance -music -tomatoes]
35. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
4. The “double quotes operator” to signify a
phrase search. The goal is to focus the results
on pages where those words appear in the same
order they appear in the quoted phrase.
5. The “OR operator” (always in caps) provides
a way of combining ideas so that you can
search for pages including at least one out of a
set of related terms or synonyms. e.g. uk OR
england (put between quotation marks if you
have more than one word).
36. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
6. The “intext: operator” allows you to find
pages that have a specific word in the body of
the text somewhere--it forces inclusion on the
page.
Here is an example: You want to find pages
from the Stanford.edu website that include the
phrase “coral bleaching.” However, you also
want to assure that the term geophysics appears
on any page you find. The query would look
like this:
[coral bleaching site:stanford.edu intext:geophysics]
37. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
The reason you sometimes need this is when
you're searching for a page that has multiple
terms on it, some terms you ask for in the search
box may drop out of your search and not get
used. When you want a word to be on that page,
use intext: to force the inclusion of that result.
38. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
Combining Operators:
[filetype:kmz shipwrecks OR “ship wrecks”
florida -site:floridamarine.org -
site:thejacobs.org]
39. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
NASA’s website indicates that the agency is a model of
sustainability. You want to get a better notion of what
others think about NASA’s environmental
management. You decide to look at what other
government (.gov) or military (.mil) organizations have
to say about NASA’s programs. You do not want to see
results from NASA.gov itself.
You know that you want the following elements in your
search: [nasa environmental management OR policy];
.mil sites; .gov sites; but NOT anything from
NASA.gov.
40. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
Did your search match any of the following?
Which will work best?
1. [nasa environmental management OR policy
site:gov OR site:mil]
2. [nasa environmental management OR policy
site:gov OR site:mil -site:nasa.gov]
3. [nasa environmental management OR policy
site:gov OR site:mil -nasa]
4. [nasa environmental management policy
site:gov site:mil -site:nasa.gov]
41. Finding the Information:
Google Operators
7. Advanced Search:
You could use all
these operators and
others through the
advanced search
features very
quickly.
43. Checking Your Findings
Just because Google puts a result first does
not necessarily give it any credibility. It
only means it is popular among other
considerations (200, Google expert says!)
Some of the useful methods in checking
credibility:
44. Checking Your Findings
1. Reading the web address (URL): the
directory imperialism in this address
http://www.historywebsite.com/imperialis
m/panamacanal.html indicates a specific
perspective.
2. Checking the time range (use the time
feature on Google’s left-hand panel)
3. Checking the accuracy of quotes
(“Elementary, my dear Watson”)
45. Checking Your Findings
4. Checking the owner or the publisher of
the web site.
5. Looking for a primary source especially
in case of variant information. For
example, between a Wikipedia article and
a BBC article on an experiment conducted
in the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, it is better to check the
mit.edu as a primary source.
46. Quiz Answer Key -1-
1. List 3 major search engines and a major
directory.
• A Web directory is a listing of Web sites organized in a
hierarchy or interconnected list of categories.
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/
• The Best Search for Your Information Need:
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate
/adviceengine.html
• NoodleQuest Search Strategies Wizard:
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest
47. Quiz Answer Key -2-
2. What is a blog?
Blog is short for weblog. It is like an online
diary (a public one) where anyone can post
personal comments.
There are many free platforms to create a
personal blog such as Blogger and Wordpress.
48. Quiz Answer Key -3-
3. Why might you use quotation marks
when conducting a search?
Use “quotation marks” to ensure your
keywords appear in your search results in
the order you have specified. It could yield
almost half the results of the same query
without quotation marks.
49. Quiz Answer Key 4-5
4. URL is an acronym for…
Uniform Resource Locator
5. Identify three Boolean search terms.
AND, OR, NOT
50. Quiz Answer Key -6-
6. How do you find the owner or publisher
of a Web site?
• Go to www.easywhois.com and enter the
URL of the site you would like to research.
• Find owner information for the
site www.harrypotter.com
51. Quiz Answer Key -7-
7. Identify these extensions and what they
represent:
• .org – organization
• .com – company
• .sch – school (used outside of US)
• .k12 – most US school sites
• .edu – US higher ed
• .gov – US government (add country code
for outside US)
52. Quiz Answer Key -7-
7. Identify these extensions and what they
represent:
• .ac – higher ed outside of US usually used
with country code, example, “.ac.uk”
• .net – network
• .mil – US military
• .co – Company (if paired with a country
code, example “.co.uk,” the state of
Colorado or the country, Columbia)
53. Quiz Answer Key -8-
8. What clues in a Web address might
indicate you are on a personal Web site?
Look for a tilde “~” or the “%” sign
or a personal name “jdoe”
or the word “user” after the domain name and
the first forward slash “/”
54. Quiz Answer Key -9-
9. How would you conduct a search for the
following: a list of Web sites of all the
academic institutions in South Africa?
(Hint: South Africa’s country code is .za)
• Go to Google: www.google.com and type
“site:ac.za” in the search box
• For a full list of country codes,
visit http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/web_country_c
odes.html
55. Quiz Answer Key -10-
10. How would you conduct a search for
the following: US higher education Web
sites that contain the word turtle?
Go to Google: www.google.com
Type in the search box “site:
“site:edu
“site:edu turtle”
56. Quiz Answer Key -11-
11. How do sites get to the top of a result
list in Google?
One factor Google uses to rank sites is
popularity. It counts the number of links from
sites all around the Web. There are several
additional factors as well, including but not
limited to the title of the site and the actual
content of the site.
57. Managing the Flow of Information
A logical starting point to teach students how
to be organized and to collaborate in their
search experience is to use a social
bookmarking tool such as
Diigo http://www.diigo.com
or delicious http://delicious.com
58. Managing the Flow of Information
Diigo helps users:
- Keep a record of sites and images from the
web
- Organize them using personal notes and
keywords called “tags” (tags can relate to
subjects, content areas, individual projects,
and more.)
- Annotate resources using embedded sticky
notes
59. Managing the Flow of Information
Users can also use a social bookmarking
tool such as Diigo
as a search engine to check resources
collected and shared by other online users
or groups. A little time spent searching
through these groups might prove to be
more productive than spending the same
amount of time searching with Google.
60. Managing the Flow of Information
Students can use Diigo
to collaborate on a class project; they can
agree to use a specific tag. A simple search
on Diigo for this tag would provide each
student with the resources found by all.
61. Managing the Flow of Information
One of the greatest benefits of using a
tool such as Diigo is that the students’
libraries follow them from class to class and
from year to year. Therefore, a student who
studies biology as a part of the seventh-
grade curriculum can return and add to the
resources found when taking biology again
in high school and then in college.
62. How Does One Learn Best?
– Watching, reading,
listening to someone else
talk about it
The LoTi Digital – Direct exploration and
Age Survey will
experimentation
help you reflect
on and direct your
learning process:
http://www.loticon – A combination of both
nection.com/
