Tuesday, November 3, 2009

SEARCHing for an answer

When reading this article I recognized the students in the beginning as me. I have never been good at searching for information online. Since being in college I have improved immensely. As the article states,

"Students need new reading comprehension skill sets to effectively search for information while engaged in learning opportunities with the Internet and other ICTs."
A thing I always found would happen to me was frustration at not being able to find what I was looking for. in the article they talk about what can happen if students do not have the right skills to search online,

"... information overload can occur creating frustration with the search task and ultimately resulting in students being unsuccessful in locating information."

The six ideas for being successful in searching are;
1. Be specific- Narrow your focus.
2. Be exact- use the words or phrase you hope to find.
3. Be direct- Search for one focus at a time.
4. Be distinct- Don't repeat your focus.
5. Be succinct- Eliminate unnecessary words.
6. Be concise- Select keywords mindfully.

I agree that there needs to be some kind of instruction on how to find appropriate material for projects in school. Schools are on such a tight schedule to teach a lot of information and students do not need to be wasting time trying to search the best they can and not succeed. It will only make students more frustrated and more turned off to learning with technology.

1 comment:

  1. Halley i think your right about the frustration students feel with search engines and the way we look for info. Kids do need help so their understanding of research and projects are more accessible and done in way that helps them get more out of it. I think those ideas for success are good but there is so much to research that it takes lots of practice and attempts to learn what works best for a students understanding when search information in a book or computer.

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