Searching on the Internet

Looking back at my first searching experiences back in 2000, I remember that I used to use this search engine called Altavista. At some point in time, Google came out and I fell in love with the possibilities. 

Lovable Google Doodles

Fast forward to 2006: I finally got internet at home. Oh my gosh, I was like a kid in the playground. You know that slogan "Life is good, LG makes it better?" Well, Life is good, Internet makes it better. 

And don't get me wrong, it's not about the videos, the email, games, etc etc. It's the INFORMATION, one click away! *gasp*

I mean, I'm the kind of person that when I hear something that calls my attention, I look it up. Seriously. One time, my hubby and I were in a hotel room on vacation and we're.. well, I am, watching some movie about World War II in the Pacific and Iwo Jima. 

And what did I do, I used my humble Nokia Express Music phone and started looking up Iwo Jima... and started reciting stuff like: "oh wow, the island is kinda small and arid" and my hubby rolled his eyes at me and said, "Ok, wikimarina, can you put away your phone now, I mean, we're on vacation!"

He's so patient with me and this whole "knowing things." I love you, John 

So, going back to the purpose of my blog today: Week 5- Searching

Searching skills are important, I think, to give you a better and more balanced understanding of the world. It's like asking everyone "what do you think, what do you think, what do you think" and then building your opinion. 

Sometimes you look for facts. Numbers. Biographies. Other times, you're just surfing the 'net. 

These skills are keys that either let you in or lock you out, depending on how you use them.

When I saw this video I felt that it couldn't be any truer. And even though we had no forum to write our thoughts into, I did copy some of the questions the teacher asked. 

• Who wrote the page?
• What's your first impression?
• Why is it useful?
• What's the main message?

and these are these are the Wh-questions and other things he mentions:

• Who wrote it?
• When was it written? updated?
• What is it about?
• Fact/Opinion
• Where does the website come from? 
• Serach for the author.
• Where does the website lead to?
• Compare this info with info from another page.
• (Love this) Check out easywhois.com, where you can look up pages (although when I checked, I realized there's appearantly a registration fee)

The skills you need have to do with looking, really looking, like challenging the information.

So, moving on to this question: What can I do to better inform my students?

Informing... yes, that's possibly a good idea. SHOW them, that's a better idea! The best way to learn something is by doing, so you may well take the video's teacher as a model and find some sites that aren't very usable and pose student similar questions. 

Daniel Cassany recommends teachers to provide students with examples AND counterexamples... and how to distinguish between them.

For some reason, J.F.Kennedy's famous quote comes to mind, but I'll rephrase it: 

"Ask not what you can do with the info, ask how appropriate the info is. "

And since this is my blog, I think it's safe to say: 

Good night, D.C.! Happy 4th of July.