One of the great 'urban myths' about education today is that "everything" is available on the internet. However, when the advantages and disadvantages of the internet are weighed, it becomes clearly apparent that the 'Net' is NOT the universal solution to every educational information need.
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Quotes by Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google)
“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that it doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” |
“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next." |
"Half of Google's revenue comes from selling text-based ads that are placed near search results and are related to the topic of the search." |
“Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it. I would argue that implanting things in your brain is beyond the creepy line. At least, until the technology gets better.” |
“Young people should be entitled to change their names on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their social media sites.” |
"The Internet has made researching subjects deceptively effortless for students — or so it may seem to them at first. Truth is, students who haven’t been taught the skills to conduct good research will invariably come up short." Search competency is a form of literacy, like learning a language or subject. Like any literacy, it requires having discrete skills as well as accumulating experience in how and when to use them. But this kind of intuition can’t be taught in a day or even in a unit – it has to be built up through exercise and with the guidance of instructors while students take on researching challenges.
It’s important for students to ask themselves early on in their search, “When I type in these words, what do I expect to see in my results?” and then evaluate whether the results that appear match those expectations. Identifying problems or patterns in results is one of the most important skills educators can help students develop, along with evaluating credibility. When students understand that doing research requires more than a single search and a single result, they learn to leverage the information they find to construct tighter or deeper searches.
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National Forum on Information LiteracyInformation literacy is a learner centric instructional template that can foster the development of independent, self sufficient learners. In fact, information literacy skills instruction cuts across all disciplines. Information literacy practice is not educator dependent.
Every learner should know how to demonstrate and utilize baseline information literacy skills. Having the abilities to define tasks and information needs as well as access and ethically manage a variety of information resources within a digital universe is key to producing the independent, lifelong learners in the 21st century. College and career readiness success is built on a platform of information literacy and digital literacy preparation. Without its specific inclusion in future educational and workforce development reform policies, our pathway to an effective economic and social recovery remains dim. If we don’t teach students how to manage their online research effectively, we create a self-perpetuating cycle of poor-quality results. To break that cycle, educators can engage students in an ongoing conversation about how to carry out excellent research online. In the long term, students with stronger critical thinking skills will be more effective at school, and in their lives.
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One prevailing misconception is that everything is available on the Internet! But in fact, only a small fraction of the world of information is available on the Internet. Think of the Web as an iceberg. Anyone can see and access roughly one-third of the information available on the open Web for free, using popular search engines like Yahoo! or Google. Wikipedia articles, for example, are open Web resources that are available online to anyone.
The other two-thirds of the information available on the Web is hidden from view and is known as the "Deep Web." The Deep Web is where information is not free and is not included in popular search engine results. Library databases, for example, are deep Web subscription resources that are available only to authorized users. Books, journals, magazines, and scholarly publications that are available online are usually not available for open access. Thus, some of the most reliable information in existence must still be obtained from library databases or traditional print sources. |
Libraries vs the Internet
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Things every student needs to know about the Internet
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You can help! Keeping the links on a website up-to-date is a very difficult thing for one person to do. So I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know (by clicking here) if you find links that are no longer active. Plus, if you find any new cool educational sites, let me know about those too, Thanks.
~Mrs. S.
~Mrs. S.