Do I just Google that? Tools for Teaching Search Skills in the Primary Classroom

Nowadays many pupils, when given a research task, immediately might think to themselves, “I’ll just Google that.” Internet search engines (of which Google is only one of many) are powerful tools but many pupils use only a fraction of the power of them, and then can also have difficulty finding the information specific to the task. There are many resources now available to help in developing pupil skills in searching more effectively using online search engines. And, of course, when they do find information how do pupils know it is appropriate for the task? Or how do they evaluate what is suitable, and how do they present it and show where the information was found. Tools to Help Teach Research Skills The Big 6 One method of teaching information skills for investigating sources of information from databases, encyclopedias and the Internet is that known as “the Big Six.” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The Kentucky Virtual Library How to Do Research Finding Duclinea Ergo – Teaching Research Skills

New Online Timeline Tool Available For Everyone Following in the footsteps of Storify, a new free, open-source online timeline tool is innovating storytelling on the web. Timeline, created by Zach Wise, a multimedia journalist and journalism professor, was developed in partnership with the Knight News Innovation Lab at Northwestern University, where Wise teaches. The interactive tool allows users to generate timelines on the web by curating content from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Google Maps and SoundCloud. "The tools that already exist on the web are almost all either hard on the eyes or hard to use," said Wise. Audiences can see the "elegance" Wise is referring to with the examples the folks behind Timeline have created to illustrate its potential. With the timeline, a specific date, its description and any media (if any) associated with it fills the upper two-thirds of the browser. While Timeline is similar to Storify in that it allows users to aggregate media on the web, it differs in its operation.

Next Vista for Learning web20classroom: A Prezi All About Blooms D... Googleable or Not Googleable? When we're working with schools on our Design Thinking School programme, one of the easiest ways to explain what we're looking for in the way a project is set, is whether the statement or questions being asked can be Googled easily: is this a Googleable or Not Googleable topic? Every topic, every bit of learning has content that can be Googled, and we don't want teachers wasting precious enquiry time lecturing that content. We want students, instead, to be using class time to collaborate and debate around the questions that are Not Googleable, the rich higher order thinking to which neither the textbook nor the teacher know the answers. One of our schools in Brisbane, Star of the Sea Cleveland, took my "Googleable" / "Not Googleable" to a very literal end, when they pinned up two headings and got students to post-it each and every question in the class, categorising those which could be searched quickly (the lower order questions) and those which they should dwell on in class time.