My perception has definately changed. I know I am not very technology saavy, but until I did the activities for this week I sure thought a understood the internet.
Before reviewing the MAPing activities, I had always heard that people have to be careful what they believe on the internet, but I never understood how to tell if the website was legitimate or not. After reading through our notes on MAPing and reading through what Dr. November had to say, I feel like the information I collect from the internet will be a lot more acurate (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I love the example that he gives about martinlutherking.org. It is such a perfect example of so many websites that state invalid information. I am so glad to see that Dr. November points out important key factors to consider when using websites as a source of information (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I will definitely use these points and share them with my future students when they are to conduct research.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I was shocked at how much I thought I knew and how little I actually did know. The coolest thing I got was that if you use quotation marks in your search term you will bring up possible sites with the terms together rather than just words randomly used on the site. Do you know how many wild goose chases that I have been on because one of the words was just mentioned in passing on a site that had nothing to do with what I needed?
Before performing the MAPping activities for this week’s assignments I conducted my online searches by going straight to Google and typing in the entire bit of information I wanted to search word for word. Google would then present sometimes thousands of websites about the information I was searching for but also some sites that didn’t include much or any information on my topic at all. I would then pick a few of the sites, compare the information with each site, and use the website that provided the most information. I never thought about if the information being given to me was relevant or not, I just used what the websites gave me. After performing the MAPping activities and searching many different engines, I found myself to be unaware of just how unsafe information can be that is given on the many different search engines available on the internet. I conducted searches on The Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus and compared information I received off of a couple of different search engines and found the information to vary on more than one occasion. I didn’t know, for example, that Powerset, Ask Jeeves, or Wikipedia could be giving out wrong information and could be unreliable. After performing these activities I also found out that anyone could post information about anything whether true or not so information I believed to be correct may have really been completely wrong. I also learned that for some search engines, people are actually behind them doing the research for you by going on their computer and finding the websites with the information requested. They don’t know how accurate the information really is they are giving you, they are just doing their job by giving you what you asked for. That to me is scary! I will definitely be more aware of the things I search on the internet from now on. One thing I plan on doing from now on is to filter my searches. I have realized if a directory requires you to link back to them or other sites they promoted in order to be included, it’s trying to manipulate my search through linkage.“In order to target keywords in searches, use the same keywords in the text. For example, an article on design layout will use the keywords design and layout instead of using architecture and templates. However, using the keywords repeatedly does not help either,” (Website Gear, 2004). I am sure a lot of teachers and parents are unaware that the internet is giving them false information on some things so something that may have been researched in the past for children may have been the wrong information. I am thankful to find out the truth behind search engines and to become more aware of my research online because I want to make sure to provide my students with only the best and most accurate information I can. I will teach my students “rather than searching by key words, as search engines do, directories such as Yahoo and LookSmart are databases that use a hierarchical structure, listing Web pages in convenient categories and subcategories” (Jonassen, 2008, p. 16). Also, when I am teaching my students to research on the internet I will know which search engines to stay clear of. I have also found that by analyzing what I want to search for and providing only the most precise information and /or search words will limit the number of websites that appear hopefully providing me with the most accurate information.
Work Cited WebsiteGear Inc. (Sunday, March 28, 2004). Website Gear, Tools for Your Website. SEO: Optimize Your Web Pages. Retrieved July 13, 2009 from (www.websitegear.com). Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
I am like Tracy. I have spent hours looking for something, usually for school and getting random subjects pop up. Using quotation can completely change the meaning. Just when I think I am becoming computer savvy I learn something new.
Kesha, I was like you about assuming the information that I read on certain website was correct. I was convinced that Wikipedia was ALWAYS accurate and would even say “Oh yeah that’s correct because I got it from Wikipedia.” One day my son informed me that anyone could edit or add information to Wikipedia, making it a very unreliable resource and that you should always check the bibliography at the bottom and verify the information!
You just never know until you actually research the facts behind something that it will not help when you think it will. I always think the best of things before assuming the worst and the internet was one of those things. I am thankful for learning the truth behind searching the internet as well as ways to help eliminate garbage from my searches. I am also thankful that I have learned how to teach my students way that will and ways that will not help them when searching on the internet.
Before I read and completed all of the activites I always searched by using Google although I was aware that there were other search engines. And I normally dont trust any website therefore when I search I go to multiple websites. I will say I have never use wikipedia but all I've ever heard about it was that wikipedia is not reliable. After doing all of the activities it's still clear to me that one can not trust sites. But I have learned that there are was of checking to makes sure that the website is legitament. Not only did I learn how to check website; I also learned how to help narrow my search. Now I know different search engine and to use quatations. I wish that in my high school/entry-level technolgy classes would have taught me some of these techniques. These things should not be learned in college--not when we are constantly surrounded by technology and research paper. Just now as I wrap up my college career I learn how to properly use the internet.
I also like the example that November used in martinlutherking.org. That is so misleading and just one site of thousands if not millions like it. It so important in this day of the web to be search engine savy.
Kesha Jenkins, I think it is great that you "always think the best of things before assuming the worst" and u apply it to the internet as well. Unfortunately, I am your opposite. I always assume the worst in hopes that everthing will turn out good and I apply this way of thinking to searching on the internet. The point is I think it is awesome that with the same tools eventhough we have two different ways of thinking we can still function and find things on the internet.
Week 1 discussion Looking something up on the internet, sound easy right? “ Using the Internet as a vast online library that it is, requires multiple skills page 15” “ Effective information gleaning from the Internet combines expertise in searching for information, evaluating the worth of that information , then organizing the information to make it more readily usable (D. Jonassen,J. Howland, R. Marra, D. Crismond (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology, page 15”. There is a lot to consider when you use the internet. This week I have learned several innovative things about search engines and search results. For example,“ Google is sorted not by relevance of information, but by number of hits on a website. (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/)”., When I searched the internet, like Google, for things I would use the first option they gave me. I never knew, until now why sometimes the search result would give me something totally unrelated to my search. In the future I still plan to use Google as a search engine but I will carefully choose the results to use. If I can’t find something; I know now that it can be put in quotation and that will give me a whole another set of results. I will keep in mind what Dr. November says about MAPping “the Internet as a way of methodically critically analyzing information and points out that searching for information via the Internet is not enough, we need to learn the structure of information on the Internet (Meta-Web Information), the person or persons responsible for posting the information (Author), and the reason for the information (Purpose). (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/).”. Just this small piece of information really makes me think about the resources I use. Doing research in the past has made me aware of not believing everything I read on the internet but MAPping actually explains exactly what you should consider. In today society we are constantly growing and changing, the internet and technology is becoming a necessity not a luxury . I encourage teachers to educate the students of tomorrow how and why technology is so essential. We are training students at a young age how, when and why we use a computer. This is a good thing but “believe that, in order to learn, students should teach the computer or use the technology to represent what they know rather than memorizing what teachers and textbooks tell them. (D. Jonassen,J. Howland, R. Marra, D. Crismond (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology, page 6”.
Donna's comment really makes you think. I use to do the same thing. It's crazy to think how many facts on the internet have been tampered with. Before this lesson I too would have assumed Wikipedia had correct infomation. It's also funny to me that our children know more about the internet than we do.
I guess you could say I’m a beginner when it comes to technology. I am a nontraditional college student that is definitely learning as I go. I knew little about search engines and techniques until I read the first two chapters of the book and read the MAPing activities. I feel that it’s extremely important to use key words when conducting a search on line. Before the MAPing activities I usually just goggle something in and hope I could narrow my search in a relatively short amount of time. However, since the MAPing activities I read yesterday I feel I will be a more complete educator. The short video A Vision of K-12 Students Today was a real eye opener for me. I was amazed that 63% of teachers never allow students to create something with technology. I feel that is probably true for the school district I work in. I not saying we should keep students logged in to computers all day but rather than have them write a story on paper have them tell the story digitally. To conclude, as future educators we are all aware that today’s students are more sophisticated than what my generation was so why not use their strengths of technology to all our advantage.
Bibliography Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
Before this class, I worked for an Internet service provider, and I considered myself to be Internet savvy. Lately, using the Internet was mainly for schoolwork, checking my e-mail or looking up information on a specific topic. I frequently “surf (November)” just for fun, going from on one topic to another. Sometimes I would see a link on a page I was on and click it and before I new it, I was five or six pages away from where I began. I didn’t realize how “off task” I was until I tried to go back to the search engine.
After reading the Dr. November’s activities and trying them out for myself, I realize the importance of determining a site’s legitimacy before using the information gleaned in my work. I assumed if a page looked professional, had a date and title, it was pretty legit. I can see how a student who is building knowledge could really be misled if they didn’t have sufficient prior knowledge about a topic. For instance, Dr. November provided a link to an article, California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge (November, California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge) that is full of information about Velcro. Unfortunately, it is full of incorrect information, which is pretty funny if you know Velcro is produced in a factory, not grown in a field! Using Dr. November’s Mapping activities would allow students lacking in prior knowledge to realize whether or not the information is accurate.
While working on this assignment, I discovered things that I already knew, such as the domain checkers, different kinds of search engines, validity of ads, etc. However, there were some things I was not aware of, like the tilde meaning that the page is a personal site (November, Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key) or that search engines use quotation marks (November, Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key) to differentiate between single words and phrases. This new knowledge will be beneficial to my students and me since I will be able to teach them better, faster strategies for using the Internet and how to stay focused while searching! It is very easy to get off task while searching on the Internet and these strategies will keep students from becoming frustrated and will build their confidence.
Bibliography November, D. A. (n.d.). California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge. Retrieved from http://www.home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro .tyml November, D. A. (n.d.). Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key. Retrieved from November Learning: http://www.novemberlearning.com/resources/ information-literacy-resources/ii-information-literacy-quiz-answer-key/
Amandaw, you are not alone. I too was surprised that google was not sorted by relevence but by how many hits a website has. Why does google run there search engine this way?
I feel the same way you guys do about google. I had no idea that they sorted their sites that way. I've always been the one that clicked on the first 3 because they had the most highlighted words in the sample below. Although, sometimes when I would go to the site, I would never be able to find what the sample said.
I am in the same boat as Amy Peters. I too am a non-traditional student who is somewhat new to all that technology has to offer. I can navigate my way around the internet (or so I thought) with little or no problem. You can say that I am "self-taught" as it has been many, many years between my first technology class and this class. I had heard on Oprah one day about putting your key words in quoation marks and thought that that was very interesting (Oprah did too!)
I do believe that technology is an extremely important tool for our future generations and feel that the title that they gave the children in the video, "digital learners" is very accurate.
Prior to doing the MAPping activities, I felt that I could navigate the internet with ease and confidence (one of the few aspect of technology that I felt that way about.) But after taking the “Information Literacy Quiz”, boy were my eyes opened! Starting with the first question; name four major search engines. Well I did know Google and Yahoo, but only by default since Google is set up as my home page and Yahoo use to be the major search engine before Google. The second question; what is a Blog? Well I can honestly say I have heard of the phrase “Blog” in connection with the computer, but to actually know what it means or what it was, I did not have a clue! Then came the fifth question, and this one really threw me for a loop; Identify three Boolean search terms. I thought to myself, “What the heck is a Boolean?” I pretty much knew that I was sunk at this point, and felt that little bit of confidence that I did have was completely obliterated. How could I be living in the 21st century, the age of technology, the “information super highway” and not know what the answer to these questions were? Was I that old? Had technology passed me by when I was not looking? Apparently so.
After doing the MAPing activities (and peeking at the answers to the rest of the questions) I knew that I was going to have to be open minded and try, no not try, I was going to HAVE to know this information if I were going to be a teacher in the 21st century. I thought to myself, “How am I going to relay information to my students if I did not understand it myself?” (Truth of the matter is that the students could probably teach me a thing or two about the internet). I read with interest and absorbed as much information (that is the information that made sense to me) to feel a little more confident in my ability to steer my students in the right direction. I loved the article,”Websites to Validate”, especially the”Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.” As an adult you can see how ridiculous this sounds, but as an uninformed, young student, who believes everything that they read and hear to be true, you can see how misleading this information would be. Along those same lines it was also interesting to learn how to “find the owner or publisher of website by using the Whois? Database.” (November Learning). It states that “a good example of why you may want to check publishing information is illustrated by the web site: www.martinlutherking.org . While it states that this web address looks innocent, the information was definitely not and in doing a publisher search it is linked to a White Supremist organization. Again, an innocent student might believe what they have read on this website.
In conclusion, reading the textbook, Meaningful Learning with Technology, 2008, it makes the following statement under the subchapter -How Technologies Foster Thinking (pg.8); “students learn from thinking—thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use—just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. What kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies?” What do you think about this statement? Do you agree? Disagree?
Bibliography Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson. November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July16, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I feel the same way Tracy felt. I was shocked on how little I actually did know about web searches. I guess I was a little naive in my thinking that if it's on the internet than there has to be some validity to it, but unfortunatley I think a lot of us look through "rose colored glasses" or we are honestly just are to lazy to dig deeper into the fact or fiction aspect of some or our inquiries. (I am guility of that from time to time)
Before reviewing the MAPing activites, I had always been told to watch what websites that i use, and i nerve understood why. I also never understood why there were so many different websites that betrayed to have the same information, until the MAPing exercises. After reading about MAPing and reviewing the information on Mr.Novembers website(http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I understand why there are so many differnt sites and that there are some sites that are not what acurate.The example about martinluntherking.org was really good, it reminded me of website that my daughter and i were trying to find for school and what came up was not school material. In conclustion after read the material and reviewing the website I have found out that the way I was looking up information was not the correct way, but now I am proud to say I have now a better unstanding of how to look up information.
November,A.Mull,B.Wenzloff,J.Lang,D(2009)November Learning.Information Literacy Resources.Retrieved July 16,2009 From http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/).
Keasha, I was in the same boat that you were in. Looking information up on google, word for word and getting the thousands of sites that matched what I had typed in. I would also take the website with the most information do my paper or what ever else I need it for,assuming it was right. Well, I quickly found out what people meant when they told me you know what you get when you assume. In this case it surly was not the correct information.....
Tracy--- I am glad that I was not the only one that was shocked to find out that they did not know as much as they thought they did. I also did not know about the quotation marks. I tried it to day as work and one of my co-worker wanted to know why I was using quotations marks, so I showed her and she was very surprised...
I agree with what Macy said about not waiting until your a college student before you are fully educated about using the internet and being more specific with the search.
Jaelyn made an excellent point about being a teacher in the 21st. century, if we don't keep up with the lastest technology available and stay on the cutting edge we not only do ourselves a disservice but we do our students a disservice as well.
Macy, I amm right there with you when I used Google for all of my searches. I am not very good at computers so Google is all that I knew. I am glad I have learned there are more search engines available and also of what they are capable or incapable of doing. I think it's great we get to learn more about technology because as teachers, we need to provide our students with the most appropriate and useful information out there in order to help them succeed in their academics.
My internet searches have always been conducted using Google. I would just type the word or words into the search field and use the first 5 or 6 hits that came up. I always thought that the first hits had the best and most reliable information. I did not realize that Google sorted by number of hits to the website rather than relevance (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 19). I was also unaware that quotations made a difference. In reading Chapter 2 of our textbook I also realized the importance of organizing my thoughts prior to do any searches (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 15). Usually I just start searching and then build my thoughts of what I need to know. I did however, know that Wikipedia is not always a reliable source as Donna stated.
After reading MAPing activities I will definitely do more thinking and organizing before I even begin my search. I will also be more selective about the sites I choose and do more research on the authors. I also learned that there are free databases such as AskERIC, which I have used the ERIC database through school, but did not realize that it could be accessed outside of the school library (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 18).
As a teacher I will use this knowledge to demonstrate to my students how to conduct online searches as well as how to find credible information. I only wish that I would have been taught more about this in high school.
Works Cited Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., Crismond, D. (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
Donna-I too just recently learned that Wikipedia allows anyone to modify its information. I know professors at this University that use Wikipedia all the time as a reliable and credible source of information. I will definitely be weary of it from now on.
Amanda, Macy and Ashley I am right there with you about Google. I had no idea until today. It's great that we are all learning this new information.
I also agree with everyone that as future educators we need to stay updated with technology. This also plays a part for me as a parent. I can only imagine the technology that will be around when my 1 year old turns 13. Hopefully being a high school teacher will help me stay updated. It totally amazes me what devices that are out there.
During my high schools years when research for papers was introduced to me, I always followed the rule that “books are better than using the internet”. I was always taught that the internet provides a lot of information, but most of it is not useful or relevant to the research topic. Throughout the years I have become more savvy in using the internet for research because of the numerous amounts of papers we are compelled to write during our colligate years, but I still consider myself a bit of an “old school” and use books for concrete evidence when looking for useful information. The use of quotes, databases, and especially online libraries are techniques that I have used in the past and have found to be very useful, but sometimes very difficult to use. Furthermore after taking the “Information Literacy Quiz” I figured out that although I know the basics of the internet, there is much I still have to learn. One thing I was unaware of was the way search engines conducted their searches, like Google searches by the number of hits on a particular website for that subject. In addition, “directories such as Yahoo and LookSmart are databases that use a hierarchical structure, listing Web pages in convenient categories and subcategories” (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008). Before performing the MAPing activities much of my research was done blindly—hoping for the perfect information to pop-up once I googled it. Most of my thought was that hopefully the people running search engine sites had it right and that the information I received was sufficient for my research. The question whether the information I found during my research was authentic and legitimate, has been in the back of my mind every time I turned in a research paper, but after performing the MAPing activities and reading the text, I now have a better understanding of how to evaluate any information I find on the internet. The MAPing activities I found very educational and useful for later work I may have to perform. Besides the core curriculum of education, I believe that a teacher’s job is to better prepare his or her students to an ever changing world around them. The internet research strategies I found in the book can be very useful not only to myself, but also to teach my future students. After reading the text and perform the MAPing activities, I feel my knowledge and strategies for teaching are better equipped. In conclusion, today’s students are very aware and savvy with technology and we as future educators must be responsive to their needs and also be updated with today’s latest technology. Technology should be in our classroom for our aid, but it can also hinder our job as educators if we do not handle it or implement it properly. “Using the Internet as the vast online library that it is, requires multiple skills” and we as future educators must be able to teach our students how to navigate it (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008). Works Cited Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology (3rd ed.). (D. B. Prybella, Ed.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc. November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July16, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I also like Ashley had always heard that “people have to be careful what they believe on the internet,” but the biggest problem is that nobody had ever really taught me how to evaluate the information presented before me on the computer. After performing the MAPing activities, I will be better prepared to appraise the vast amount of info that the internet has to offer. Not only will the MAPing activities help me in finding relevant and authentic information, but also it will hopefully speed up the process in finding that information.
I learned a lot from the MAPing activity. Before when I need to look something up I just went to google like most people in the class and I usually used to first page of so of what all popped up. I know now how the websites work and how to make sure their creditible. Next time I will pay more attention to the imformation and who is presenting it.
Like Macy said “I normally don’t trust any website,” and the main reason is that there is just so much information on the internet, that one must be cautious and carefully choose his or her information. Unlike Macy though, I have and still use Wikipedia for small petty information that I may need for myself, but not for concrete evidence because of the editing format that it uses. Like Macy I wish that I had learned techniques and tactics for using the internet that would have helped me earlier on. During my high school and early years in college, I was shown the basic concepts, but nothing in-depth or substantial that I could have greatly benefited from.
Before doing the MAPping activities I thought that most websites were valid if the information was presented in a professional manner, the page looked neat and organized, and if it used proper spelling and grammar. It really seemed to throw me off when teachers and professors would say, “Make sure the websites you choose to use are creditable and valid.” I remember thinking to myself, “Sure, like I know what you’re talking about and besides how wrong can the information be?” I soon found out when the MAPping activities over the Pacific Northwest tree octopus! I would read different links and websites provided by the search engine and compare the information and use what was most common. This took a lot of time away from what I was doing trying to sort through the websites myself. As I read about Dr. November’s MAPping strategies and did them I soon learned how much time I had been wasting. Everything I learned was new to me, I am not big into computers and not up on all the technology like I should but it made sense and seemed to be a lot more helpful than my old way of doing things. I would google what I was looking for and pick off the first page because I was under the impression that the farther you go back the less creditability the website had. After this lesson I how more about how search engines operate, how to find the authors, and to look for the purpose in the site. I learned that different search engines do not gather the same information in the same order for example, google goes off of the number of hits the website gets not by the relevance of the information you are looking for. I also learned that we are being misinformed about information about the internet and the information we find on the internet. As a future teacher I am glad I did the MAPping activities and learned how to properly search for thing that are true, now I will be able to teach my students what it means to make sure the websites that they use are creditable and have valid information. I think that it is crazy that this is my last class and I have gone my whole school career not knowing this information and still passed.
I completely agree with Chris when he talks about how we are just expected to know if the information is creditable or not when no one has taught it to us. This is crazy but it looks like it happens all the time!!
What I know about search engines? Ha! I am very aware of the fact that I know very little, almost nothing. I put a word in one of the little boxes at the top of my screen and see what happens. A lot of the time I get really frustrated when I can not find exactly what I want even when I have a website address. I have even wondered why this happens, if I have a web address shouldn't it take me straight to it? I am sad to say I was right I knew nothing!! Just for starters I did not know the difference between a start engine or directory, I didn't even know the terms. I have never been one to surf the net because it is so time consuming, so I have very little experience. I read so much new information about it my mind is whirlling. I have never really doubted the information I find online, I just assumed if it was there it was legitmate. I never thought there would be people who produced the sites, I just saw it as educators sharing facts to educate people. To me it was just a way to find knowledge about a certain subject and I never contemplated wither the infomation was correct or reliable. I will always pay attention to where the information comes from now. I was also surprised to learn that internet technology remembers the user's past actions, preferences, and history and that agents interact with each other to share knowledge about their users. Something else I found interesting was how the order of the sites is decided, I had always thought the best had to come up first. I could not believe how many search engines there were and how there are certain ones for certain reasons. I will pick my search engine more careful from now on based on where I want the informaiton to come from. In conclusion the information and knowledge I have gained so far will help me to be a more effective teacher and researcher. I will share the information I have learned with my students allowing them to be critical thinkers using the internet not just giving them a website and telling them to go to it. This will allow them to use these tools to learn to identify websites as useful or not on their own.
Work Cited Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
Ashley I was suprised with the Martin Luther King website. I hate that people put things like that out there for people to find. I also believe that my information collected in the future will be more accurate. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Amy I am inexperienced with computers, and I feel your pain. The articles and chapters we read this week were a real eye opener for me. I liked your mention of the movie we watched. I was surprised at the infomaiton in it also. It helped me to see the current world of technology throught our students eyes and how we need to let them be creative thinkers in the assignments and activities we do with them.
Ah Haley, you bring up an excellent point about wasting time on a less than credible website. I have been tricked before and wasted time on a website only to realize a) they are trying to sell something and their link in Yahoo didn't indicate that at all, or b) click on a link and tons of spam popup or you are transported into a porn site! I feel that after completing the MAPping activities I will first be more aware of the link BEFORE I click on it and look for that ~ sign and do a whois on it too. Does anyone remember the Whitehouse.com scandal? If students went to whitehouse.gov, it was ok but if they went to whitehouse.com it was a porn site! We will definitely have our hands full with making sure our students are safe on the internet and knowledgeable about how to search for credible information.
Prior to the MAPping activity, I almost never used Internet search engines to conduct research. In my high school, we were always prohibited from using Internet searches to do our research. We had to use the library's subscription databases (Gale was our librarian's favorite), and I have pretty much retained these habits trhough my college years. We were always told MOST of the sources on the Internet were unreliable, but never how to tell them apart from the reliable ones; they were just all forbidden. I think, however, after MAPping exercises, I will be able to navigate the web a little better. After learning all of the information about domain names and internal and external links, I think it will be much easier to identify valid sources. Knowing this information will also "unrestrict" my research endeavors from the library databases. All in all, I think the MAPping technique is VERY useful, and I wish it would have been taught when I was in school. I will be returning to my alma mater in the fall to teach with emercency probatioanry certification. I think I will definitely use this technique in my classes and try to break the "anti-Internet search" sentiment there. Bibliography: Crismond, D., Howland, J., Jonassen, D., & Marra, R. M. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology, third edition. Colombus: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
November Learning. (2009). Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from November Learning: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/i-information-literacy-quiz/
After reading some of the posts from my class mates, it seems to be common that we were all never taught how to "properly" conduct Internet searches. This seems strange since the Internet has been mainstream since the 1990s. I have to say I agree with Kesha, though. I searched the same way she did, but I was not happy with this method, and always ended up angry, confused, and not knowing any more than when I started. I must agree with Tracy, too. I never knew about using quotation marks in search engines. I have wasted countless hours of my life filtering through unneccessary information only to get angry and quit, and still not find the information I was looking for.
Donna I totally agree with you and Kesha. I thought that the wikipedia was a pretty reliable sight. I guess doing this activity was a big eye opener. Like mostly eveyone else said they would just google and use that information. I did the same thing because I did not know anything about search engines before this activity.
Amy I agree with you and Macy about not learning this information when you get to college. I am very inexperienced with computers and I am learning more now than I did back when I was in High school, middle etc. I agree these kids need to learn at a young age now to keep up with the technology. I am so far behind but I am trying to learn as much as I can so I will have more to teach my students. I will really teach them not to google use search engines. They are more reliable and saves more time!
Before mapping activities I did not know anything what so ever about search engines. Back when I was in High school my teacher did not teach us this. Most of the information that I look up I just google it or get it from wikipedia and I've always thought that information was valid. I knew nothing about search engines until we completed this activity. I know now that my information will be more credible by using the search engines.
I will definately use search engines in the future because it is way faster and I know the information will be accurate. By doing the different group activities trying the different sites like yahoo and etc. all of the information varied. This lead me to believe that most of these searches were not reliable and that is what I have been using for different research papers and assignments. The example used about martin luther king was a perfect example of how inaccurate or untrue information can be if you don't use search engines.
In conclusion this will greatly affect my teaching strategy in the near future. This will be one of the things I inform my students about when I assign them like a research project. I will tell them all about search engines and how much time and credible information it will offer them. I will let them know google can give them false info. and also waste alot of their time. I know this will have a positive impact on my students because they will definately learn this before they make it to college unlike me!
Cites: Meaningful Learning With Technology(2008) David Jonassen, Jane Howland, Rose M. Marra, David Crismond
I originally posted this on my blog and now I have copy and pasted it to this because I misunderstood. I hope this is ok.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Unit 2 blog bibliographies Howland,J.,Marra,R.M.,&Jonassen,D.C. (2007). Meaningful Learning With Technology (3rd edition).Alexandria, VA:Prentice Hall.
November learning>I.Information Literacy Quiz. (n.d.) Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/r-literacy-resources/i-information-literacy-quiz/ Posted by Tracy at 6:41 PM 0 comments Unit 2 assignment I thought I knew all I needed to know about search engines and search techniques. I was happy with my, sometimes frustrating, search efforts. That is, however, until this week's lesson. I feel like my eyes have been open. When I logged on to Novemberlearning.com to take the Information Literacy Quiz I was surprised at all of the ins and outs of identifying legitimate web sites. I knew to be careful at what information I trust, but I had no idea that there was actually techniques and even websites to help weed out the bad sites. Once you find the one, of many, search engines that you want to use you then you need to type in the terms that you want to search. I know now, thanks to Novemberlearning.com that if you place quotation marks around the terms the search engine will search the term as a whole. If I just type in my term the engine will bring up sites that have the words that I typed in the search bar somewhere on the site, not necessarily together. Once I have chosen a site, according to the text, I have to dissect the site by asking myself and answering a set of questions. If I can do this accurately I will have a better chance of finding and using information on the web that is reliable. According to Novemberlearning.com, other ways to check and dissect a site are to look at the URL. By looking at the URL you can decide what kind of organization the Author is with, who the author is, and if it is a personal page. I also learned to look at the links that are on the page. What do they have in common? I think the coolest thing that I found was that there is actually a site that can be used to identify and even list the latest update of a site. It is www.easywhois.com. All that has to be done is to enter the URL and the information is brought up. The next time that I have a research project or I just want to find information on something that I am curious about, I will do it with more deliberate actions. I will pick the best engine, probably google, because according to information in the text and Novemberlearning.com, it is the best. I am also more familiar with google. I will also use quotations when typing in the term that I am looking for. I will be more confident in my choice because I will implementing some of the dissecting strategies that I have learned this week. The most important thing that I got out of this lesson is teaching strategies. I teach technology in the local elementary school, and I would like to teach my students how to look at a site and dissect it. This will help them with future research and may even make them a little safer as they search the world wide web.
Before reviewing the MAPing activities, I thought that I was quite savvy when it came to online searches. Boy was I WAY wrong! Normally, I would always use Yahoo as my primary search engine. I knew there were others available, but I felt more confortable and confident with the information provided by Yahoo.
After reviewing the MAPing activities, I learned that I was basically wasting my time with many websites that did not even provide accurate information. I had no idea how to determine if the information provided was ligitimate or not. I did not know when I was on a personal page or an acutal organization/institutional/governmental website. I had no idea that alot of search engines sort their information based on the popularity of the website or the number of times it has been viewed. Now why would I care how popular a website is if I were just wanting accurate information for a research project? I now know that I need to evaluate all the information found on the internet for relevancy and credibility. Before this activity, I never thought twice about the information I gathered online.
In conclusion, I will take more time when searching for information online. I will use the little tips I learned (i.e. adding quoation marks around my search topic or using certain types of online directories) and try to get the best (and most accurate) information possible. I will review the informations sources, domain name, and entire website to ensure I receive ONLY the information I intended!
**Wow, it is only week 1 of this course, and I've already learned so much! I can't wait to see what next week holds for us!**
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
Before the MAPing activities assignment I knew nothing about search engines. I didn’t know how they worked or even how you could narrow your search. I only used Google or Yahoo as my search engines. I just assumed everything the search engines brought up were reliable and accurate. Little did I know this was not the case. I found myself on websites that had little or nothing to do with the topic I was searching for. When we began this lesson I was really shocked or rather surprised at all the techniques were finding a reliable website. I was blown away with out many unreliable sources I found. I discovered rather quickly that there was more to googling that what I thought.
After the MAPing activities I realized how many of the sites that I thought were actually reliable were really unreliable. I changed my way of searching the Internet. By using the things I learned from the text and the November Learning site I am able to achieve faster more accurate searches. Some of things I try to remember when searching the Internet are making judgments based on the URL, knowing the publisher and history of the site, and also being aware of the external links (November). These four things can and have saved me time when searching for information.
The knowledge I have gained from this assignment has been very valuable. I will teach others these search guidelines. In the future this will save my students time and their assignments will be more accurate. By teaching others I hope to encourage better use of the Internet. According to the text when students are allowed to use the internet properly they engage in learning that is meaningful and valuable (Jonassen).
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
Kesha, I also thought Wikipedia was reliable. I know I was always told it wasn't a reliable source but I never knew why. Not a single teacher could ever explain the reason why to me, so I just continued to use it. This will help me to explain the reasons why to my students someday. I realize how important this information is. It is most defiantly going to help me to become a better student and an even better teacher someday.
Amy, I also feel a little lost when comes to technology. I always rely on my boyfriend to fix my computer or diagnose a problem. Without him I probably wouldn't of been able to take these internet courses. The more I get to use technology though the more I become familiar and comfortable with it. I am really excited to learn more and maybe someday conquer technology! LOL
People always tell you to watch out for the internet. Before I reviewed the MAPing activities I still really didnt have a clue. It is so crazy how the site might look like it is a true site which might sound crazy but they are really giving you false information. This was a great way to learn about search engines. Now that I have reviewed them it will make researching more efficent. Now I will make sure to be more alert with the sites im going to. This would have been so much help in my earlier years. I hope that I haven't gotten fooled by any of the web sites iv'e been to in the past.
http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/iv-how-to-read-a-web-address/ Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
I didn't realize untill reading the MAPing notes and other resources how much I really didn't know about using the internet for research. I'll give myself credit, I did know a good bit of the information but some of it was first time reading for me. I never knew how to tell if a website was legit or not. Dr. November pointed out several good points about using the internet as resouces. I plan on sharing this information with my students so that they do not make the mistake of using illegitimate sources.This weeks lecture and links really helped me understand what search engines are the best choices to use. I'm really glad that this section was included in our class because I feel like I really took something from it.
Your so right I totally agree with you Kesha so many of us thought we knew a few things but really had no idea. It was great we had this assignment to show us what the internet was really about.
I agree with you 100% Macy I wish they would have told us this a long time ago. We have been writing papers for so long who knows what kind of false information we have gotten.
I am in the same boat with most of ya'll without a paddle most of the time!!! I thought I knew alot about the computer and how it was "constructed" but boy was I wrong. I have also become more aware of the web sies and posting that my 14 year old daughter is using on the computer.
59 comments:
My perception has definately changed. I know I am not very technology saavy, but until I did the activities for this week I sure thought a understood the internet.
Before reviewing the MAPing activities, I had always heard that people have to be careful what they believe on the internet, but I never understood how to tell if the website was legitimate or not.
After reading through our notes on MAPing and reading through what Dr. November had to say, I feel like the information I collect from the internet will be a lot more acurate (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I love the example that he gives about martinlutherking.org. It is such a perfect example of so many websites that state invalid information.
I am so glad to see that Dr. November points out important key factors to consider when using websites as a source of information (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I will definitely use these points and share them with my future students when they are to conduct research.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I was shocked at how much I thought I knew and how little I actually did know. The coolest thing I got was that if you use quotation marks in your search term you will bring up possible sites with the terms together rather than just words randomly used on the site. Do you know how many wild goose chases that I have been on because one of the words was just mentioned in passing on a site that had nothing to do with what I needed?
Before performing the MAPping activities for this week’s assignments I conducted my online searches by going straight to Google and typing in the entire bit of information I wanted to search word for word. Google would then present sometimes thousands of websites about the information I was searching for but also some sites that didn’t include much or any information on my topic at all. I would then pick a few of the sites, compare the information with each site, and use the website that provided the most information. I never thought about if the information being given to me was relevant or not, I just used what the websites gave me.
After performing the MAPping activities and searching many different engines, I found myself to be unaware of just how unsafe information can be that is given on the many different search engines available on the internet. I conducted searches on The Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus and compared information I received off of a couple of different search engines and found the information to vary on more than one occasion. I didn’t know, for example, that Powerset, Ask Jeeves, or Wikipedia could be giving out wrong information and could be unreliable. After performing these activities I also found out that anyone could post information about anything whether true or not so information I believed to be correct may have really been completely wrong. I also learned that for some search engines, people are actually behind them doing the research for you by going on their computer and finding the websites with the information requested. They don’t know how accurate the information really is they are giving you, they are just doing their job by giving you what you asked for. That to me is scary!
I will definitely be more aware of the things I search on the internet from now on. One thing I plan on doing from now on is to filter my searches. I have realized if a directory requires you to link back to them or other sites they promoted in order to be included, it’s trying to manipulate my search through linkage.“In order to target keywords in searches, use the same keywords in the text. For example, an article on design layout will use the keywords design and layout instead of using architecture and templates. However, using the keywords repeatedly does not help either,” (Website Gear, 2004). I am sure a lot of teachers and parents are unaware that the internet is giving them false information on some things so something that may have been researched in the past for children may have been the wrong information. I am thankful to find out the truth behind search engines and to become more aware of my research online because I want to make sure to provide my students with only the best and most accurate information I can. I will teach my students “rather than searching by key words, as search engines do, directories such as Yahoo and LookSmart are databases that use a hierarchical structure, listing Web pages in convenient categories and subcategories” (Jonassen, 2008, p. 16). Also, when I am teaching my students to research on the internet I will know which search engines to stay clear of. I have also found that by analyzing what I want to search for and providing only the most precise information and /or search words will limit the number of websites that appear hopefully providing me with the most accurate information.
Work Cited
WebsiteGear Inc. (Sunday, March 28, 2004). Website Gear, Tools for Your Website. SEO: Optimize Your Web Pages. Retrieved July 13, 2009 from
(www.websitegear.com).
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
I am like Tracy. I have spent hours looking for something, usually for school and getting random subjects pop up. Using quotation can completely change the meaning. Just when I think I am becoming computer savvy I learn something new.
Kesha, I was like you about assuming the information that I read on certain website was correct. I was convinced that Wikipedia was ALWAYS accurate and would even say “Oh yeah that’s correct because I got it from Wikipedia.” One day my son informed me that anyone could edit or add information to Wikipedia, making it a very unreliable resource and that you should always check the bibliography at the bottom and verify the information!
You just never know until you actually research the facts behind something that it will not help when you think it will. I always think the best of things before assuming the worst and the internet was one of those things. I am thankful for learning the truth behind searching the internet as well as ways to help eliminate garbage from my searches. I am also thankful that I have learned how to teach my students way that will and ways that will not help them when searching on the internet.
Before I read and completed all of the activites I always searched by using Google although I was aware that there were other search engines. And I normally dont trust any website therefore when I search I go to multiple websites. I will say I have never use wikipedia but all I've ever heard about it was that wikipedia is not reliable.
After doing all of the activities it's still clear to me that one can not trust sites. But I have learned that there are was of checking to makes sure that the website is legitament. Not only did I learn how to check website; I also learned how to help narrow my search. Now I know different search engine and to use quatations.
I wish that in my high school/entry-level technolgy classes would have taught me some of these techniques. These things should not be learned in college--not when we are constantly surrounded by technology and research paper. Just now as I wrap up my college career I learn how to properly use the internet.
Kesha, like you, I never thought much about a site or its history. Knowing the history will make such a difference in what sites a choose from now on.
I also like the example that November used in martinlutherking.org. That is so misleading and just one site of thousands if not millions like it. It so important in this day of the web to be search engine savy.
Kesha Jenkins, I think it is great that you "always think the best of things before assuming the worst" and u apply it to the internet as well. Unfortunately, I am your opposite. I always assume the worst in hopes that everthing will turn out good and I apply this way of thinking to searching on the internet. The point is I think it is awesome that with the same tools eventhough we have two different ways of thinking we can still function and find things on the internet.
Week 1 discussion
Looking something up on the internet, sound easy right? “ Using the Internet as a vast online library that it is, requires multiple skills page 15” “ Effective information gleaning from the Internet combines expertise in searching for information, evaluating the worth of that information , then organizing the information to make it more readily usable (D. Jonassen,J. Howland, R. Marra, D. Crismond (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology, page 15”. There is a lot to consider when you use the internet. This week I have learned several innovative things about search engines and search results. For example,“ Google is sorted not by relevance of information, but by number of hits on a website. (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/)”., When I searched the internet, like Google, for things I would use the first option they gave me. I never knew, until now why sometimes the search result would give me something totally unrelated to my search. In the future I still plan to use Google as a search engine but I will carefully choose the results to use. If I can’t find something; I know now that it can be put in quotation and that will give me a whole another set of results.
I will keep in mind what Dr. November says about MAPping “the Internet as a way of methodically critically analyzing information and points out that searching for information via the Internet is not enough, we need to learn the structure of information on the Internet (Meta-Web Information), the person or persons responsible for posting the information (Author), and the reason for the information (Purpose). (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/).”. Just this small piece of information really makes me think about the resources I use. Doing research in the past has made me aware of not believing everything I read on the internet but MAPping actually explains exactly what you should consider.
In today society we are constantly growing and changing, the internet and technology is becoming a necessity not a luxury . I encourage teachers to educate the students of tomorrow how and why technology is so essential. We are training students at a young age how, when and why we use a computer. This is a good thing but “believe that, in order to learn, students should teach the computer or use the technology to represent what they know rather than memorizing what teachers and textbooks tell them. (D. Jonassen,J. Howland, R. Marra, D. Crismond (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology, page 6”.
Donna's comment really makes you think. I use to do the same thing. It's crazy to think how many facts on the internet have been tampered with. Before this lesson I too would have assumed Wikipedia had correct infomation. It's also funny to me that our children know more about the internet than we do.
I guess you could say I’m a beginner when it comes to technology. I am a nontraditional college student that is definitely learning as I go. I knew little about search engines and techniques until I read the first two chapters of the book and read the MAPing activities. I feel that it’s extremely important to use key words when conducting a search on line. Before the MAPing activities I usually just goggle something in and hope I could narrow my search in a relatively short amount of time. However, since the MAPing activities I read yesterday I feel I will be a more complete educator.
The short video A Vision of K-12 Students Today was a real eye opener for me. I was amazed that 63% of teachers never allow students to create something with technology. I feel that is probably true for the school district I work in. I not saying we should keep students logged in to computers all day but rather than have them write a story on paper have them tell the story digitally.
To conclude, as future educators we are all aware that today’s students are more sophisticated than what my generation was so why not use their strengths of technology to all our advantage.
Bibliography
Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
Before this class, I worked for an Internet service provider, and I considered myself to be Internet savvy. Lately, using the Internet was mainly for schoolwork, checking my e-mail or looking up information on a specific topic. I frequently “surf (November)” just for fun, going from on one topic to another. Sometimes I would see a link on a page I was on and click it and before I new it, I was five or six pages away from where I began. I didn’t realize how “off task” I was until I tried to go back to the search engine.
After reading the Dr. November’s activities and trying them out for myself, I realize the importance of determining a site’s legitimacy before using the information gleaned in my work. I assumed if a page looked professional, had a date and title, it was pretty legit. I can see how a student who is building knowledge could really be misled if they didn’t have sufficient prior knowledge about a topic. For instance, Dr. November provided a link to an article, California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge (November, California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge) that is full of information about Velcro. Unfortunately, it is full of incorrect information, which is pretty funny if you know Velcro is produced in a factory, not grown in a field! Using Dr. November’s Mapping activities would allow students lacking in prior knowledge to realize whether or not the information is accurate.
While working on this assignment, I discovered things that I already knew, such as the domain checkers, different kinds of search engines, validity of ads, etc. However, there were some things I was not aware of, like the tilde meaning that the page is a personal site (November, Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key) or that search engines use quotation marks (November, Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key) to differentiate between single words and phrases. This new knowledge will be beneficial to my students and me since I will be able to teach them better, faster strategies for using the Internet and how to stay focused while searching! It is very easy to get off task while searching on the Internet and these strategies will keep students from becoming frustrated and will build their confidence.
Bibliography
November, D. A. (n.d.). California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge. Retrieved from http://www.home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro
.tyml
November, D. A. (n.d.). Information Literacy Quiz Answer Key. Retrieved from November Learning: http://www.novemberlearning.com/resources/
information-literacy-resources/ii-information-literacy-quiz-answer-key/
Amandaw, you are not alone. I too was surprised that google was not sorted by relevence but by how many hits a website has. Why does google run there search engine this way?
I feel the same way you guys do about google. I had no idea that they sorted their sites that way. I've always been the one that clicked on the first 3 because they had the most highlighted words in the sample below. Although, sometimes when I would go to the site, I would never be able to find what the sample said.
I am in the same boat as Amy Peters. I too am a non-traditional student who is somewhat new to all that technology has to offer. I can navigate my way around the internet (or so I thought) with little or no problem. You can say that I am "self-taught" as it has been many, many years between my first technology class and this class.
I had heard on Oprah one day about putting your key words in quoation marks and thought that that was very interesting (Oprah did too!)
I do believe that technology is an extremely important tool for our future generations and feel that the title that they gave the children in the video, "digital learners" is very accurate.
Prior to doing the MAPping activities, I felt that I could navigate the internet with ease and confidence (one of the few aspect of technology that I felt that way about.) But after taking the “Information Literacy Quiz”, boy were my eyes opened! Starting with the first question; name four major search engines. Well I did know Google and Yahoo, but only by default since Google is set up as my home page and Yahoo use to be the major search engine before Google. The second question; what is a Blog? Well I can honestly say I have heard of the phrase “Blog” in connection with the computer, but to actually know what it means or what it was, I did not have a clue! Then came the fifth question, and this one really threw me for a loop; Identify three Boolean search terms. I thought to myself, “What the heck is a Boolean?” I pretty much knew that I was sunk at this point, and felt that little bit of confidence that I did have was completely obliterated. How could I be living in the 21st century, the age of technology, the “information super highway” and not know what the answer to these questions were? Was I that old? Had technology passed me by when I was not looking? Apparently so.
After doing the MAPing activities (and peeking at the answers to the rest of the questions) I knew that I was going to have to be open minded and try, no not try, I was going to HAVE to know this information if I were going to be a teacher in the 21st century. I thought to myself, “How am I going to relay information to my students if I did not understand it myself?” (Truth of the matter is that the students could probably teach me a thing or two about the internet). I read with interest and absorbed as much information (that is the information that made sense to me) to feel a little more confident in my ability to steer my students in the right direction. I loved the article,”Websites to Validate”, especially the”Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.” As an adult you can see how ridiculous this sounds, but as an uninformed, young student, who believes everything that they read and hear to be true, you can see how misleading this information would be. Along those same lines it was also interesting to learn how to “find the owner or publisher of website by using the Whois? Database.” (November Learning). It states that “a good example of why you may want to check publishing information is illustrated by the web site: www.martinlutherking.org . While it states that this web address looks innocent, the information was definitely not and in doing a publisher search it is linked to a White Supremist organization. Again, an innocent student might believe what they have read on this website.
In conclusion, reading the textbook, Meaningful Learning with Technology, 2008, it makes the following statement under the subchapter -How Technologies Foster Thinking (pg.8); “students learn from thinking—thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use—just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. What kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies?”
What do you think about this statement? Do you agree? Disagree?
Bibliography
Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July16, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I feel the same way Tracy felt. I was shocked on how little I actually did know about web searches. I guess I was a little naive in my thinking that if it's on the internet than there has to be some validity to it, but unfortunatley I think a lot of us look through "rose colored glasses" or we are honestly just are to lazy to dig deeper into the fact or fiction aspect of some or our inquiries. (I am guility of that from time to time)
Before reviewing the MAPing activites, I had always been told to watch what websites that i use, and i nerve understood why. I also never understood why there were so many different websites that betrayed to have the same information, until the MAPing exercises.
After reading about MAPing and reviewing the information on Mr.Novembers website(http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/). I understand why there are so many differnt sites and that there are some sites that are not what acurate.The example about martinluntherking.org was really good, it reminded me of website that my daughter and i were trying to find for school and what came up was not school material.
In conclustion after read the material and reviewing the website I have found out that the way I was looking up information was not the correct way, but now I am proud to say I have now a better unstanding of how to look up information.
November,A.Mull,B.Wenzloff,J.Lang,D(2009)November Learning.Information Literacy Resources.Retrieved July 16,2009 From http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/).
Keasha, I was in the same boat that you were in. Looking information up on google, word for word and getting the thousands of sites that matched what I had typed in. I would also take the website with the most information do my paper or what ever else I need it for,assuming it was right. Well, I quickly found out what people meant when they told me you know what you get when you assume. In this case it surly was not the correct information.....
Tracy---
I am glad that I was not the only one that was shocked to find out that they did not know as much as they thought they did. I also did not know about the quotation marks. I tried it to day as work and one of my co-worker wanted to know why I was using quotations marks, so I showed her and she was very surprised...
I agree with what Macy said about not waiting until your a college student before you are fully educated about using the internet and being more specific with the search.
Jaelyn made an excellent point about being a teacher in the 21st. century, if we don't keep up with the lastest technology available and stay on the cutting edge we not only do ourselves a disservice but we do our students a disservice as well.
Macy, I amm right there with you when I used Google for all of my searches. I am not very good at computers so Google is all that I knew. I am glad I have learned there are more search engines available and also of what they are capable or incapable of doing. I think it's great we get to learn more about technology because as teachers, we need to provide our students with the most appropriate and useful information out there in order to help them succeed in their academics.
My internet searches have always been conducted using Google. I would just type the word or words into the search field and use the first 5 or 6 hits that came up. I always thought that the first hits had the best and most reliable information. I did not realize that Google sorted by number of hits to the website rather than relevance (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 19). I was also unaware that quotations made a difference. In reading Chapter 2 of our textbook I also realized the importance of organizing my thoughts prior to do any searches (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 15). Usually I just start searching and then build my thoughts of what I need to know. I did however, know that Wikipedia is not always a reliable source as Donna stated.
After reading MAPing activities I will definitely do more thinking and organizing before I even begin my search. I will also be more selective about the sites I choose and do more research on the authors. I also learned that there are free databases such as AskERIC, which I have used the ERIC database through school, but did not realize that it could be accessed outside of the school library (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, Crismond, 2008, page 18).
As a teacher I will use this knowledge to demonstrate to my students how to conduct online searches as well as how to find credible information. I only wish that I would have been taught more about this in high school.
Works Cited
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., Crismond, D. (2008) Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
Donna-I too just recently learned that Wikipedia allows anyone to modify its information. I know professors at this University that use Wikipedia all the time as a reliable and credible source of information. I will definitely be weary of it from now on.
Amanda, Macy and Ashley I am right there with you about Google. I had no idea until today. It's great that we are all learning this new information.
I also agree with everyone that as future educators we need to stay updated with technology. This also plays a part for me as a parent. I can only imagine the technology that will be around when my 1 year old turns 13. Hopefully being a high school teacher will help me stay updated. It totally amazes me what devices that are out there.
During my high schools years when research for papers was introduced to me, I always followed the rule that “books are better than using the internet”. I was always taught that the internet provides a lot of information, but most of it is not useful or relevant to the research topic. Throughout the years I have become more savvy in using the internet for research because of the numerous amounts of papers we are compelled to write during our colligate years, but I still consider myself a bit of an “old school” and use books for concrete evidence when looking for useful information. The use of quotes, databases, and especially online libraries are techniques that I have used in the past and have found to be very useful, but sometimes very difficult to use. Furthermore after taking the “Information Literacy Quiz” I figured out that although I know the basics of the internet, there is much I still have to learn. One thing I was unaware of was the way search engines conducted their searches, like Google searches by the number of hits on a particular website for that subject. In addition, “directories such as Yahoo and LookSmart are databases that use a hierarchical structure, listing Web pages in convenient categories and subcategories” (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008). Before performing the MAPing activities much of my research was done blindly—hoping for the perfect information to pop-up once I googled it. Most of my thought was that hopefully the people running search engine sites had it right and that the information I received was sufficient for my research.
The question whether the information I found during my research was authentic and legitimate, has been in the back of my mind every time I turned in a research paper, but after performing the MAPing activities and reading the text, I now have a better understanding of how to evaluate any information I find on the internet. The MAPing activities I found very educational and useful for later work I may have to perform. Besides the core curriculum of education, I believe that a teacher’s job is to better prepare his or her students to an ever changing world around them. The internet research strategies I found in the book can be very useful not only to myself, but also to teach my future students. After reading the text and perform the MAPing activities, I feel my knowledge and strategies for teaching are better equipped.
In conclusion, today’s students are very aware and savvy with technology and we as future educators must be responsive to their needs and also be updated with today’s latest technology. Technology should be in our classroom for our aid, but it can also hinder our job as educators if we do not handle it or implement it properly. “Using the Internet as the vast online library that it is, requires multiple skills” and we as future educators must be able to teach our students how to navigate it (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008).
Works Cited
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology (3rd ed.). (D. B. Prybella, Ed.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July16, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
I also like Ashley had always heard that “people have to be careful what they believe on the internet,” but the biggest problem is that nobody had ever really taught me how to evaluate the information presented before me on the computer. After performing the MAPing activities, I will be better prepared to appraise the vast amount of info that the internet has to offer. Not only will the MAPing activities help me in finding relevant and authentic information, but also it will hopefully speed up the process in finding that information.
I learned a lot from the MAPing activity. Before when I need to look something up I just went to google like most people in the class and I usually used to first page of so of what all popped up. I know now how the websites work and how to make sure their creditible. Next time I will pay more attention to the imformation and who is presenting it.
http://haley-etec.blogspot.com
Like Macy said “I normally don’t trust any website,” and the main reason is that there is just so much information on the internet, that one must be cautious and carefully choose his or her information. Unlike Macy though, I have and still use Wikipedia for small petty information that I may need for myself, but not for concrete evidence because of the editing format that it uses. Like Macy I wish that I had learned techniques and tactics for using the internet that would have helped me earlier on. During my high school and early years in college, I was shown the basic concepts, but nothing in-depth or substantial that I could have greatly benefited from.
Before doing the MAPping activities I thought that most websites were valid if the information was presented in a professional manner, the page looked neat and organized, and if it used proper spelling and grammar. It really seemed to throw me off when teachers and professors would say, “Make sure the websites you choose to use are creditable and valid.” I remember thinking to myself, “Sure, like I know what you’re talking about and besides how wrong can the information be?” I soon found out when the MAPping activities over the Pacific Northwest tree octopus! I would read different links and websites provided by the search engine and compare the information and use what was most common. This took a lot of time away from what I was doing trying to sort through the websites myself. As I read about Dr. November’s MAPping strategies and did them I soon learned how much time I had been wasting. Everything I learned was new to me, I am not big into computers and not up on all the technology like I should but it made sense and seemed to be a lot more helpful than my old way of doing things. I would google what I was looking for and pick off the first page because I was under the impression that the farther you go back the less creditability the website had.
After this lesson I how more about how search engines operate, how to find the authors, and to look for the purpose in the site. I learned that different search engines do not gather the same information in the same order for example, google goes off of the number of hits the website gets not by the relevance of the information you are looking for. I also learned that we are being misinformed about information about the internet and the information we find on the internet.
As a future teacher I am glad I did the MAPping activities and learned how to properly search for thing that are true, now I will be able to teach my students what it means to make sure the websites that they use are creditable and have valid information. I think that it is crazy that this is my last class and I have gone my whole school career not knowing this information and still passed.
I completely agree with Chris when he talks about how we are just expected to know if the information is creditable or not when no one has taught it to us. This is crazy but it looks like it happens all the time!!
What I know about search engines? Ha!
I am very aware of the fact that I know very little, almost nothing. I put a word in one of the little boxes at the top of my screen and see what happens. A lot of the time I get really frustrated when I can not find exactly what I want even when I have a website address. I have even wondered why this happens, if I have a web address shouldn't it take me straight to it?
I am sad to say I was right I knew nothing!! Just for starters I did not know the difference between a start engine or directory, I didn't even know the terms. I have never been one to surf the net because it is so time consuming, so I have very little experience. I read so much new information about it my mind is whirlling. I have never really doubted the information I find online, I just assumed if it was there it was legitmate. I never thought there would be people who produced the sites, I just saw it as educators sharing facts to educate people. To me it was just a way to find knowledge about a certain subject and I never contemplated wither the infomation was correct or reliable. I will always pay attention to where the information comes from now. I was also surprised to learn that internet technology remembers the user's past actions, preferences, and history and that agents interact with each other to share knowledge about their users. Something else I found interesting was how the order of the sites is decided, I had always thought the best had to come up first. I could not believe how many search engines there were and how there are certain ones for certain reasons. I will pick my search engine more careful from now on based on where I want the informaiton to come from.
In conclusion the information and knowledge I have gained so far will help me to be a more effective teacher and researcher. I will share the information I have learned with my students allowing them to be critical thinkers using the internet not just giving them a website and telling them to go to it. This will allow them to use these tools to learn to identify websites as useful or not on their own.
Work Cited
Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
Ashley I was suprised with the Martin Luther King website. I hate that people put things like that out there for people to find. I also believe that my information collected in the future will be more accurate. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Tracy I found that information very helpful also, I know it will help me element or atleast lower my wild goose chases.
Amy I am inexperienced with computers, and I feel your pain. The articles and chapters we read this week were a real eye opener for me. I liked your mention of the movie we watched. I was surprised at the infomaiton in it also. It helped me to see the current world of technology throught our students eyes and how we need to let them be creative thinkers in the assignments and activities we do with them.
Ah Haley, you bring up an excellent point about wasting time on a less than credible website. I have been tricked before and wasted time on a website only to realize a) they are trying to sell something and their link in Yahoo didn't indicate that at all, or b) click on a link and tons of spam popup or you are transported into a porn site! I feel that after completing the MAPping activities I will first be more aware of the link BEFORE I click on it and look for that ~ sign and do a whois on it too. Does anyone remember the Whitehouse.com scandal? If students went to whitehouse.gov, it was ok but if they went to whitehouse.com it was a porn site! We will definitely have our hands full with making sure our students are safe on the internet and knowledgeable about how to search for credible information.
Prior to the MAPping activity, I almost never used Internet search engines to conduct research. In my high school, we were always prohibited from using Internet searches to do our research. We had to use the library's subscription databases (Gale was our librarian's favorite), and I have pretty much retained these habits trhough my college years. We were always told MOST of the sources on the Internet were unreliable, but never how to tell them apart from the reliable ones; they were just all forbidden.
I think, however, after MAPping exercises, I will be able to navigate the web a little better. After learning all of the information about domain names and internal and external links, I think it will be much easier to identify valid sources. Knowing this information will also "unrestrict" my research endeavors from the library databases.
All in all, I think the MAPping technique is VERY useful, and I wish it would have been taught when I was in school. I will be returning to my alma mater in the fall to teach with emercency probatioanry certification. I think I will definitely use this technique in my classes and try to break the "anti-Internet search" sentiment there.
Bibliography:
Crismond, D., Howland, J., Jonassen, D., & Marra, R. M. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology, third edition. Colombus: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
November Learning. (2009). Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from November Learning: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/i-information-literacy-quiz/
After reading some of the posts from my class mates, it seems to be common that we were all never taught how to "properly" conduct Internet searches. This seems strange since the Internet has been mainstream since the 1990s. I have to say I agree with Kesha, though. I searched the same way she did, but I was not happy with this method, and always ended up angry, confused, and not knowing any more than when I started. I must agree with Tracy, too. I never knew about using quotation marks in search engines. I have wasted countless hours of my life filtering through unneccessary information only to get angry and quit, and still not find the information I was looking for.
Donna I totally agree with you and Kesha. I thought that the wikipedia was a pretty reliable sight. I guess doing this activity was a big eye opener. Like mostly eveyone else said they would just google and use that information. I did the same thing because I did not know anything about search engines before this activity.
Amy I agree with you and Macy about not learning this information when you get to college. I am very inexperienced with computers and I am learning more now than I did back when I was in High school, middle etc. I agree these kids need to learn at a young age now to keep up with the technology. I am so far behind but I am trying to learn as much as I can so I will have more to teach my students. I will really teach them not to google use search engines. They are more reliable and saves more time!
Before mapping activities I did not know anything what so ever about search engines. Back when I was in High school my teacher did not teach us this. Most of the information that I look up I just google it or get it from wikipedia and I've always thought that information was valid. I knew nothing about search engines until we completed this activity. I know now that my information will be more credible by using the search engines.
I will definately use search engines in the future because it is way faster and I know the information will be accurate. By doing the different group activities trying the different sites like yahoo and etc. all of the information varied. This lead me to believe that most of these searches were not reliable and that is what I have been using for different research papers and assignments. The example used about martin luther king was a perfect example of how inaccurate or untrue information can be if you don't use search engines.
In conclusion this will greatly affect my teaching strategy in the near future. This will be one of the things I inform my students about when I assign them like a research project. I will tell them all about search engines and how much time and credible information it will offer them. I will let them know google can give them false info. and also waste alot of their time. I know this will have a positive impact on my students because they will definately learn this before they make it to college unlike me!
Cites: Meaningful Learning With Technology(2008) David Jonassen, Jane Howland, Rose M. Marra, David Crismond
I originally posted this on my blog and now I have copy and pasted it to this because I misunderstood. I hope this is ok.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Unit 2 blog bibliographies
Howland,J.,Marra,R.M.,&Jonassen,D.C. (2007). Meaningful Learning With Technology (3rd edition).Alexandria, VA:Prentice Hall.
November learning>I.Information Literacy Quiz. (n.d.) Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/r-literacy-resources/i-information-literacy-quiz/
Posted by Tracy at 6:41 PM 0 comments
Unit 2 assignment
I thought I knew all I needed to know about search engines and search techniques. I was happy with my, sometimes frustrating, search efforts. That is, however, until this week's lesson. I feel like my eyes have been open. When I logged on to Novemberlearning.com to take the Information Literacy Quiz I was surprised at all of the ins and outs of identifying legitimate web sites. I knew to be careful at what information I trust, but I had no idea that there was actually techniques and even websites to help weed out the bad sites.
Once you find the one, of many, search engines that you want to use you then you need to type in the terms that you want to search. I know now, thanks to Novemberlearning.com that if you place quotation marks around the terms the search engine will search the term as a whole. If I just type in my term the engine will bring up sites that have the words that I typed in the search bar somewhere on the site, not necessarily together. Once I have chosen a site, according to the text, I have to dissect the site by asking myself and answering a set of questions. If I can do this accurately I will have a better chance of finding and using information on the web that is reliable. According to Novemberlearning.com, other ways to check and dissect a site are to look at the URL. By looking at the URL you can decide what kind of organization the Author is with, who the author is, and if it is a personal page. I also learned to look at the links that are on the page. What do they have in common? I think the coolest thing that I found was that there is actually a site that can be used to identify and even list the latest update of a site. It is www.easywhois.com. All that has to be done is to enter the URL and the information is brought up.
The next time that I have a research project or I just want to find information on something that I am curious about, I will do it with more deliberate actions. I will pick the best engine, probably google, because according to information in the text and Novemberlearning.com, it is the best. I am also more familiar with google. I will also use quotations when typing in the term that I am looking for. I will be more confident in my choice because I will implementing some of the dissecting strategies that I have learned this week. The most important thing that I got out of this lesson is teaching strategies. I teach technology in the local elementary school, and I would like to teach my students how to look at a site and dissect it. This will help them with future research and may even make them a little safer as they search the world wide web.
Before reviewing the MAPing activities, I thought that I was quite savvy when it came to online searches. Boy was I WAY wrong! Normally, I would always use Yahoo as my primary search engine. I knew there were others available, but I felt more confortable and confident with the information provided by Yahoo.
After reviewing the MAPing activities, I learned that I was basically wasting my time with many websites that did not even provide accurate information. I had no idea how to determine if the information provided was ligitimate or not. I did not know when I was on a personal page or an acutal organization/institutional/governmental website. I had no idea that alot of search engines sort their information based on the popularity of the website or the number of times it has been viewed. Now why would I care how popular a website is if I were just wanting accurate information for a research project? I now know that I need to evaluate all the information found on the internet for relevancy and credibility. Before this activity, I never thought twice about the information I gathered online.
In conclusion, I will take more time when searching for information online. I will use the little tips I learned (i.e. adding quoation marks around my search topic or using certain types of online directories) and try to get the best (and most accurate) information possible. I will review the informations sources, domain name, and entire website to ensure I receive ONLY the information I intended!
**Wow, it is only week 1 of this course, and I've already learned so much! I can't wait to see what next week holds for us!**
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
Before the MAPing activities assignment I knew nothing about search engines. I didn’t know how they worked or even how you could narrow your search. I only used Google or Yahoo as my search engines. I just assumed everything the search engines brought up were reliable and accurate. Little did I know this was not the case. I found myself on websites that had little or nothing to do with the topic I was searching for. When we began this lesson I was really shocked or rather surprised at all the techniques were finding a reliable website. I was blown away with out many unreliable sources I found. I discovered rather quickly that there was more to googling that what I thought.
After the MAPing activities I realized how many of the sites that I thought were actually reliable were really unreliable. I changed my way of searching the Internet. By using the things I learned from the text and the November Learning site I am able to achieve faster more accurate searches. Some of things I try to remember when searching the Internet are making judgments based on the URL, knowing the publisher and history of the site, and also being aware of the external links (November). These four things can and have saved me time when searching for information.
The knowledge I have gained from this assignment has been very valuable. I will teach others these search guidelines. In the future this will save my students time and their assignments will be more accurate. By teaching others I hope to encourage better use of the Internet. According to the text when students are allowed to use the internet properly they engage in learning that is meaningful and valuable (Jonassen).
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
November, A., Mull, B., Wenzloff, J., Lang, D. (2009). November Learning. Information Literacy Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
Kesha, I also thought Wikipedia was reliable. I know I was always told it wasn't a reliable source but I never knew why. Not a single teacher could ever explain the reason why to me, so I just continued to use it. This will help me to explain the reasons why to my students someday. I realize how important this information is. It is most defiantly going to help me to become a better student and an even better teacher someday.
Amy, I also feel a little lost when comes to technology. I always rely on my boyfriend to fix my computer or diagnose a problem. Without him I probably wouldn't of been able to take these internet courses. The more I get to use technology though the more I become familiar and comfortable with it. I am really excited to learn more and maybe someday conquer technology! LOL
People always tell you to watch out for the internet. Before I reviewed the MAPing activities I still really didnt have a clue. It is so crazy how the site might look like it is a true site which might sound crazy but they are really giving you false information.
This was a great way to learn about search engines. Now that I have reviewed them it will make researching more efficent. Now I will make sure to be more alert with the sites im going to.
This would have been so much help in my earlier years. I hope that I haven't gotten fooled by any of the web sites iv'e been to in the past.
http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/iv-how-to-read-a-web-address/
Jonsssen, D (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Rearson.
I didn't realize untill reading the MAPing notes and other resources how much I really didn't know about using the internet for research. I'll give myself credit, I did know a good bit of the information but some of it was first time reading for me. I never knew how to tell if a website was legit or not. Dr. November pointed out several good points about using the internet as resouces. I plan on sharing this information with my students so that they do not make the mistake of using illegitimate sources.This weeks lecture and links really helped me understand what search engines are the best choices to use. I'm really glad that this section was included in our class because I feel like I really took something from it.
Your so right I totally agree with you Kesha so many of us thought we knew a few things but really had no idea. It was great we had this assignment to show us what the internet was really about.
I agree with you 100% Macy I wish they would have told us this a long time ago. We have been writing papers for so long who knows what kind of false information we have gotten.
I am in the same boat with most of ya'll without a paddle most of the time!!! I thought I knew alot about the computer and how it was "constructed" but boy was I wrong. I have also become more aware of the web sies and posting that my 14 year old daughter is using on the computer.
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