Education Week - May 22, 2013 - Special Report - S15

EDUCATION WEEK:DIGITAL CURRICULA > www.edweek.org/go/digital-report

Educators Make
E-Search Skills
A High Priority
CONTINUED FROM PAGE S12

words. People have a tendency to
skip over words they don’t know,
she said. But those words, when
added to search terms, can lead to
more meaningful results. For instance, if a student wanted to find
information on immigrants who
send money back to their home
countries, the term “remittances”
comes up on search results.
“When you change the search to
include the word “remittance,” immediately the type of sources are
qualitatively different and more
suited for an academic or scholarly
pursuit,” Ms. Bergson-Michelson
said.
Using search operators, words, or
symbols that join key words to form
a more complex query can make
searching more focused.
Students can put quotation
marks around their search terms
to get results that include the
exact wording. A minus sign eliminates something from a search.
For instance, if students wanted
to find information about the
planet Saturn, but not the car of
that name, they could type “Saturn-car” to narrow their results.
Using “and” between search terms
can give results that focus on two
subjects, such as Martin Luther
King Jr. and Malcolm X.

ten specifically for children.
For example, the Kentucky Virtual Library, a consortium of libraries that provides residents of the
state access to online databases—
has a portal for K-12 students that
outlines the steps for conducting
online research, including how to
use key words and how to organize
information into notes, that is written in student-friendly language
and designed to appeal visually to
young children.
The portal also allows young
users to access databases geared to
children, including Searchasaurus
and Grolier Online.
“They are more likely to get the

right information at their reading
level than simply going on Google,”
said Enid Wohlstein, the director
of the library, which is based in
Frankfort.
Ed Baklini, a 6th grade history
teacher at Albuquerque Academy
in New Mexico, advises his students when using Google to type in
a key word and the word “kid” after
it. Doing so pulls up results for
younger students. Mr. Baklini also
directs them to free databases such
as an educational site managed by
the Lone Star College System in
Texas that contains information
about American history decade by
decade.

“When you go to one of these
sites, there are hundreds of other
trusted links to go to,” he said.
“This information comes from librarians and teachers who have
taught history.”

Evaluating Websites
Just as critical as smart searching is evaluating the information
on the Web. Students can take specific steps to dissect a website, such
as checking whether its url ends
in a .com, .org, .gov, or .edu.
“If it’s from a university, museum, government, or some state
run agency, then it’s pretty valid,”

MAY 22, 2013

S15

Ms. Shaw of Butler Elementary
School said. “If it’s someone’s personal website, how do you know
what that person is saying is true?”
In any case, students should approach websites with a critical eye.
“They should ask themselves
while searching on sites: Who
wrote this? What is the perspective of the person who wrote this?”
said Rebecca Randall, the vice
president of education programs
for Common Sense Media, a San
Francisco-based nonprofit group
that studies the effects of media
and technology on young people.
“Or else while searching for
PAGE S16 >

TH E F R O NT L I N E S O F

ONLINE LEARNING

MECHANICSBURG

OHIO

Choosing Search Engines
Finding the right search engine
or database is also an important
step in conducting online research,
said Frances Jacobson Harris, a librarian at University Laboratory
High School in Urbana, Ill.
She encourages students to use
Google Scholar, which includes
academic and scholarly sources of
information. Google Books allows
searchers to read pages from books,
and if the information is useful, a
searcher can then find the book in
a library collection.
Gloria Ha, a junior at University Laboratory High School, said
she first started learning about
effective search techniques in 8th
grade. Knowing how to search has
made her more thoughtful in her
approaches to finding information
online.
“I usually start with Google
Scholar or Google just to figure out
what the topic is. Once I have a
better idea, I’ll go deeper,” she said.
“For example, if it’s a history paper,
I’ll use the online library catalog, or
sometimes there are e-books online
through the university.”
Ms. Harris teaches students how
to access the invisible Web, databases that schools and libraries
pay a fee to access. Those databases
include scholarly articles, academic
journals, online encyclopedias, archived editions of periodicals such
as The New York Times, and other
resources.
Some teachers steer students toward sites and search engines writ-

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Education Week - May 22, 2013 - Special Report

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