Watching the video of the student trying to use his textbook as a web book was very amusing and powerful. I have had similar experiences when I use a regular text book. There have been times when I want to find a key word and my first reaction is to hit ctrl+f, to bring up a find dialog box. Once I realize I can’t search for key words like that I immediately think this would be so much easier if the text was online. Simple things like zooming in, double clicking to make pictures bigger, and searching for key words can create a much better learning environment.
I do agree that a web book can be a more powerful and thought provoking tool, but I also know there are times that it is much easier for me to read text then off a screen. I think there are advantages to both mediums but I think there are more for webbooks, especially with all the technology out there for search through text, High resolution images, Video, and hyperlinks.
What do your students need to know before going online?
Students need to know the boundaries. It is important that they understand that they are using the internet for educational purposes and not so they can play games. They need to know what they can and can’t go to on the internet.
Students need to also understand that just because it is on the internet doesn’t mean it is true. They need to be able to distinguish between correct and incorrect information. They need to know what a legitimate website is that contains information they can trust and what a website that shouldn’t be trusted is.
How will you get your students to "dig deeper" for online content?
Students need to be pushed to dig deeper into a subject. As a teacher I need to ask questions in a way that forces them to look harder for information. I need to create critical thinking questions that force my students to dig deeper.
4. How do you teach them to search for information online? Visit here first.
This site talked about being specific and using Google advanced search to help. In Google advanced search there are four ways to search for information. You can search by finding results for all the words you typed in, you can search by finding exact phrases, you can search by finding any of the words you typed in and last you can search by excluding words. Once you teach them about advanced search you can teach them how to trim back a URL that they have found and see if there is more information on other pages around the one they are on. And last you can show them how to search for similar pages once they have found a page they like.
5. How do you teach them to evaluate the information they find online? Visit here first. Then, visit here.
You need to teach the students that there are different types of websites. There are opinion, commercial, news and informational. Students need to know the key characteristics of a legitimate website such as are there spelling and grammar errors, does the author support the
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Boundaries are important! Too often, we just tell them they can't go online instead of teaching them how to do it appropriately and get important/relevant information. Diigo has a really neat tool which allows you to highlight/comment on a webpage/text on the Internet and then share those highlights/comments to people in your Diigo group. This almost makes the text clickable b/c you could provide definitions or other questions/info in the comment online right on the webpage you want your students to go to! Here is a link that explains what I'm talking about.
ReplyDelete