ERIC EJ694018: Accessing Information: The Internet--A Highway or a Maze?

2005·7.1 MB·English

by  ERIC

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IF YOU HAD TO GO TO A Divide.” Marc Prensky (2004) uses lifelong learners, participants, and
remote area of the country and live the term “digital natives”: contributors in the 21st century
for 4 months with only the resources (Dorsaj & Jukes, 2004).
and tools available in the early 1600s I call this generation the David Thornburg (2003) warns
and you could take one modern item “digital natives,” in contrast us that we must prepare our learners
with you, what would it be? to the “digital immi- for their future, not for our past.
One of the families who part i c- grants”—those of us who are There has been a profound shift in
ipated in the PBS series C o l o n i a l older, and who arrived at the the skills necessary for success in the
Ho u s e, a reality TV show set in digital shores later in life. modern world. Our students’ world is
1628, was interv i ewed by a local This distinction is important radically different than the one in
n ewspaper upon their return to because those of us who were which most of their teachers grew up,
modern life. After enduring months not “born into” the technol- and the role the Internet plays in their
of hardships created by the lack of ogy—no matter how fluent lives cannot be understated.
modern re s o u rces and conve- we become with it—are dif-
niences, they we re asked, “If yo u ferent from the “natives.” . . . Gifted Learners
could have brought one item fro m As digital natives, they have and Technology
today with you during your colonial g rown up with electro n i c
s t a y, what would it have been?” The media; their focus is different T h e re is a wealth of re s e a rc h
adults answe red with practical than their parents and teach- re g a rding characteristics of gifted
items, such as a chainsaw and a ers who are “digital immi- learners. Delp and Ma rtinson (1974)
modern stove. The teenager would grants.” (Learning Ga m e s defined characteristics and re s u l t i n g
h a ve taken a cell phone, and the 10- section, para. 6) behaviors in gifted children, and many
year-old daughter said she would other re s e a rchers have produced lists of
h a ve taken a computer. Most adults Ian Jukes feels strongly that we, as characteristics common in gifted
would consider these electro n i c “digital immigrants,” must assume learners. These lists include items such
devices a luxury; most youths see the responsibility of ensuring that as intense curiosity, ability to learn
them as a necessity. students are prepared to be effective r a p i d l y, a tendency to want to focus
That interview illustrates what and productive and have the tools, and delve into a topic, and adva n c e d
has become known as the “Digital vocabulary, and skills to function as vo c a b u l a ry. Clark (1988) listed not
32 summer 2005 • vol 28, no 3
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only characteristics of gifted learners, widely available, most online re s o u rc e s • understand the economic, legal,
but also needs that accompany those a re free, and it is re l a t i vely easy to log and social issues surrounding the
characteristics, including the need on and find information. It basically use of information and access and
comes without a manual, and conse- use information ethically and
• to be exposed to new and chal- quently a majority of our student legally (American Library Asso-
lenging information; Internet users are self-taught. Eve n ciation, 2004).
• to be exposed to varied subjects though our students think differe n t l y,
and concerns; they do not necessarily have the abili- Incorporating
• to be allowed to pursue ideas as ties they need to navigate the maze of the Internet Into
far as their interests take them; their information-rich world success-
the Core Curriculum
• to be exposed to ideas at rates f u l l y. High on the list of these essential
a p p ropriate to the individual’s skills is information literacy, “The abil-
The Internet is often called “The
pace of learning; and ity to access, evaluate, organize ,
Information Highway,” a metaphor
• to pursue interests beyond allot- manipulate, and present information
that implies that there is a straight,
ted time spans. (including electronic information)”
clearly mapped path to obtaining
( British Columbia Mi n i s t ry of
information. In reality, it is more like
Although teachers have done their Education, 1996). An information-lit-
a maze with twists and turns and
best to provide necessary resources, it erate individual is able to
many dead ends. Efficient navigation
is difficult to imagine how any
strategies must be taught; they will
teacher could possible meet all of • determine the extent of informa- not be acquired through osmosis.
those needs in a student or group of tion needed; Schools with a strong informa-
students using only print resources. • access the needed information tion literacy component are the
Textbooks are not enough, school effectively and efficiently; exception, rather than the rule. Many
libraries often do not have the sophis- • e valuate information and its educators feel the pressure of covering
ticated references to meet a gifted stu- sources critically; the required curriculum, meeting the
dent’s needs, and the next avenue, the • incorporate selected information standards, and preparing students for
public library, even if easily accessible, into his or her knowledge base; achievement tests, and they feel that
often lacks specialized resources. • use information effectively to they don’t have time to teach any-
Now howe ve r, the Internet is accomplish a specific purpose; and thing else. It is a given that students
gifted child today 33
The Internet—A Highway or a Maze?
must acquire the basics and meet the ments. Internet assignments allow for hear a reference to what they have
national, state, and local standards; m a s t e ry of content, as well as higher “googled” recently. Google, the name
however, attaining these goals cannot l e vel thinking skills, integration of of a popular search engine (http://
be at the expense of essential 21st- depth and complexity into core con- www.google.com), has become a fre-
century skills. The current trend of tent, and advanced re s e a rch and organi- quently used verb (Du f f y, 2003),
meeting mandated core standard s zational skills. The following are some illustrating just how interconnected
indeed prepares students for our past, suggested activities for gifted learners the Internet is with daily life, espe-
not their future. But, it doesn’t have that incorporate online re s e a rch skills: cially for children and adolescents.
to be either core curriculum or infor- So, if searching the Internet is
mation literacy. With planning, infor- • Instead of a typical book re p o rt , commonly practiced by students now,
mation skills can be embedded in a students might go online and re a d what is the problem? The concern is
differentiated curriculum that meets re v i ews of a book and write a cri- that many of these self-taught stu-
both standards for gifted education tique of these re v i ews. (analysis of dents can access and use the Internet,
and required core standards. point of view, judge with criteria, but they don’t know how to find or
Information literacy is not a sep- d e t e rmine fact from opinion) use the capabilities of various search
arate subject or an add-on. Teaching • In social studies, students might engines and they don’t have the skills
research skills without also teaching take a topic and use it to compare to perform an effective search. They
the skills to use online resources is no search engines or to evaluate Web are going through the maze without a
longer acceptable. sites in depth. (critique, analysis map or navigation skills.
of patterns, trends, structure) While Google is an exc e l l e n t
Today’s youth will grow up • Science students might take search engine, there are many others,
and work in a world that advantage of the opportunity to and not all search engines have the
gives them access to massive interact with an online expert to same features.
amounts of information. expand information collected Meta search engines. These search
f rom print material. (i n - d e p t h
Anyone can publish any ver- engines, which include Metacrawler
study, interview skills, organiza-
sion of the truth. The ( h t t p : / / w w w. m e t a c r a w l e r.com) and
tion of information)
Internet is the wild, wild Dogpile (http://www. d o g p i l e . c o m ) ,
West of information, and collect the top hits from other search
there is no sheriff in town. It Information Literacy engines and compile them in two for-
is essential that students Standards mats. In one format, a student can
learn information literacy: view the “hits” in order of relevance
how to access and validate In 2003, the American Assoc- regardless of search engine. The other
information and understand iation of School Librarians published format provides a list that has been
the organization of informa- The Information Literacy Standards: categorized by the top hits from each
tion . . . if students do not search engine. A meta search engine
understand the basic gram- • St a n d a rd 1: The student who is can be helpful in attempting to find
mar of the Internet, they will information literate accesses infor- popular sites for the selected subject.
be manipulated by people mation efficiently and effective l y. Kid search engines. Se a rch engines
who do. (November, 2001) • St a n d a rd 2: The student who is such as Ask Je e ves for Kids (http://
information literate evaluates infor- w w w.ajkids.com), Yahooligans! (http://
Since student proficiency in infor- mation critically and competently. w w w.yahooligans.com), and Kids
mation literacy—including search • Standard 3: The student who is Click! (http://sunsite.berk e l e y. e d u /
strategies, evaluation of Web sites, and information literate uses infor- KidsClick!) filter material to make their
the organization and use of informa- mation accurately and creatively. hits “kid safe.” This can be helpful if
tion—must be a goal for educators, the the student is searching for informa-
obvious questions that must be Standard 1: Access tion typically re s e a rched by young stu-
a n s we red are “When?” and “How ? ” dents. Gifted students often become
One answer is to incorporate online Overhear a conversation between f rustrated with “kid safe” searc h
re s e a rch skills into traditional assign- teenagers and you will quite possibly engines because sophisticated topics are
34 summer 2005 • vol 28, no 3
often not included; they have to go to
Search Engine URL Comments
a regular search engine to find sourc e s
for topics they are re s e a rching. Alta Vista http://www.altavista.com
Directories. Some search engines
feature directories—topics listed by
Ask Jeeves http://www.ask.com
category that can be accessed directly,
rather than by performing a search.
Ask Jeeves Kids http://www.ajkids.com
Most directories feature popular top-
ics such as travel, entert a i n m e n t ,
health, and home. Some also include Awesome http://www.awesome
Library library.org
academic topics such as science, social
studies, and the arts.
Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com
Advanced search strategies. Search
engines operate on a system called
Boolean logic. Boolean logic refers to Google http://www.google.com
the logical relationship among search
terms, and is named for the British- Hot Bot http://www.hotbot.com
born Irish mathematician Ge o r g e
Boole (University of Albany, 2004).
KidsClick! http://sunsite.berkeley.
Some educators feel that students, edu/KidsClick!
gifted students in particular, should
learn how to do “Boolean searches.”
Metacrawler http://www.metacrawler.
Most, however, feel that, while bene- com
ficial, this skill is not necessary. Many
Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com
s e a rch engines have an adva n c e d
search feature that allows the student
Yahooligans! http://www.yahooligans.
to narrow their searches by a variety
com
of criteria such as a word or phrase,
date posted, or file format. Some have
a tutorial section that provides a
Figure 1. Search engines
guide to the search process.
Figure 1 is an example of a chart
that could be completed by students. tion that include special tools for teach- Un i versity site (http://www. l i b r a ry.
Students could select three or four ers. Two examples are Grokker (http:// c o r n e l l . e d u / o l i n u r i s / re f / re s e a rc h / we b e
search engines to search a topic from www.grokker.com) and netTrekker val.html#rank). A Web site eva l u a t i o n
the curriculum, analyze both the fea- ( h t t p : / / w w w. n e t t re k k e r.com). Gro k k e r form designed for use in classrooms is
tures on a simple search and the ele- has a graphic interface—a search re ve a l s a vailable from Kathy Schro c k’s Gu i d e
ments included in the adva n c e d a graphic organizer with the results cat- for Educators through Di s c ove ry
search section. In an assignment like e g o r i zed. One of netTre k k e r’s many fea- School.com (http://school.discove ry.
this, students are working with cur- t u res is that its Web sites are all c o m / s c h rockguide).
riculum content and they are discov- t e a c h e r - e valuated and -rated. They can Although the lists from different
ering the intricacies of various search be searched by subject, grade level, and sources vary slightly, the following
engines. The search engines listed in state standard . criteria are commonly suggested:
Figure 1 were chosen to provide a
variety of features; they do not repre- Standard 2: Evaluation • Who authored the page? What
sent all of the quality search engines are his or her qualifications?
available. All are free to the user. An extensive list of sources that • What organization or company
T h e re are also fee-based searc h p rovide strategies for evaluating We b sponsors the Web site?
engines designed specifically for educa- sites can be found at the Cornell • Is there a bias?
gifted child today 35
The Internet—A Highway or a Maze?
• Is the information dated? Is cur- valid—it may or may not be—but it
Features Students Might
rent information important? also may be incomplete or less than
Investigate for Each
• How can information be verified? objective. Students who use a .org site
Search Engine
• Does the page contain satire, pro- as a reference must be aware of who
paganda, misinformation, or dis- the organization is and what their
• Must the spelling be exact?
information? mission is. They can judge the infor-
• Is it easy to use?
mation they use when they are aware
• Are advanced search strate-
Can students determine the of the source. In many endeavors, stu-
gies available?
answers to these questions for each dents should be required to visit a site
• Can the user narrow search
Web site they use as a reference? One with an alternate point of view before
by date Web site was cre-
useful tool is the understanding of the using the information.
ated/updated?
URL (Uniform Resource Locator, or Higher education (.edu). Both col-
• Is it filtered for use by young
Web site address.) Information about lege and university teachers are repre-
students?
a Web site can be obtained from the sented on .edu sites. In most cases,
• If filtered is sophisticated
address before visiting the site. The the material is accurate, but there are
content available?
address or URL is divided into sec- no guarantees. Student work may not
• Are there “kid-safe” links?
tions. The URL for a page in the always be closely monitored before it
• Is reading level specified?
University of California at Berkeley’s is put on the site, and professors have
• Is it a meta search engine?
Finding Information on the Internet: the right to post material to the site
• Is there a directory?
A Tutorial (http://www.lib.berkeley. that is not necessarily in their area of
• Are suggestions given to
e d u / Te a c h i n g L i b / Gu i d e s / In t e r n e t / expertise and to link to sites that
assist with refining the
Evaluate.html) provides the following reflect their own personal or political
search?
information: bias. Students should not use any
• Is there a tutorial on search
material from the Internet without at
strategies?
• h t t p— Hyper Text Tr a n s f e r least some evaluation of the content,
• Can the user search for pic-
Protocol: Protocol for mov i n g no matter what the source.
tures?
files across the Internet. Gove rnment (.gov ). Many branches
• www—World Wide Web. A sys- and departments of the gove r n m e n t
URL is the three-letter category code
tem of Internet servers that use h a ve Web sites. All of the material on a
that follows the server name. Students
http to transfer information. . g ov site is copyright free. It can be used
should know who sponsors the Web
• lib.berkeley—The first part of the for re s e a rch; pictures and video clips
sites they access. An analysis of the
address following www. is the can be downloaded and used in multi-
URL, particularly the category code,
server—the entity that is publish- media projects. There is a wealth of
will provide useful information.
ing the information—which in information available on a variety of
Commercial (.com). This site is
this case is the Library at subjects, particularly science and social
s p o n s o red by a business, and the
Berkeley. studies.
main goal is to make a profit either by
• .edu—The category is .edu (edu- Tilde (~). A tilde in a URL indi-
cation) indicates a higher educa- selling a product or by selling adver- cates that a group or, more often, an
tion site. This page was created tising based on a significant number individual is using space on a larger
by a university faculty member or of “hits” or visits to that site. n e t w o rk. These individuals may or
student. C o m m e rcial companies’ and new may not be posting information in
• / Te a c h i n g Li b / Gu i d e s / In t e rn e t / o r g a n i z a t i o n s’ Web sites are .com their area of expertise. Students should
Evaluate—Each indicates a new sites. always attempt to discover who
folder. Organization(.org ). An organiza- a u t h o red the site and how that person’s
• . h t m l— Hy p e rtext Ma rk Up tion by definition has a bias. They b a c k g round relates to the information
Language, the language used to have a reason for being, and it is likely being posted. Un f o rt u n a t e l y, this
c reate hypertext documents. that the information found on their information is sometimes not ava i l a b l e
site reflects that bias. That does not o r, if available, it may be deliberately
An important element in the mean that the information is not misleading. Because the likelihood of
36 summer 2005 • vol 28, no 3
finding inaccurate information is (MLA), the American Psychological site with key words highlighted
higher on these sites, all information Association (APA), and The Chicago and notes taken and organized.
obtained should be verified by check- Manual of Style. Which assignment would be the
ing another site or print material. most beneficial for students: a
Objective/Assignment re s e a rch re p o rt or evidence of an effi-
Standard 3: Use of Information cient re s e a rch process? The obv i o u s
Naturally, not every assignment a n s wer is both. Tr a d i t i o n a l l y, the com-
Once the information is can include extensive time for teach- pleted product is the assignment of
obtained, how will it be used? It ing research skills. Teachers should be choice and the Internet re s e a rch skills
should be used as a resource—not clear in stating the objective before a re not the focus. Howe ve r, informa-
plagiarized—and the reference source assigning a project. If the main objec- tion literacy must be considered a
should be cited. Teachers are often tive is for students to create a final basic skill. Even if only one project a
frustrated by students who, in spite of product, then it is more efficient to year has as its focus information liter-
being told time and time again to use provide a list of links to specific pres- a c y, students will be developing a skill
their own words, continue to copy. elected Web sites for research, assign a they will use for a lifetime.
Many students do not really under- search on netTrekker where sites are “A differentiated curriculum can
stand the ethical considerations of preselected and evaluated, leave book- be the means to develop basic skills
using someone else’s work, especially marks on the Web browser that stu- and concepts of the core curriculum.
if it comes from the Internet. In addi- dents can click to access, or have The integration of the core and dif-
tion, teachers often find that their them to do an online We b q u e s t f e rentiated curriculum is the only
students do not know how to convert assignment where the process and method that ensures the rights of
existing text into their own words. links to Web re s o u rces are all gifted students to meet and exceed
Although teachers teach note-taking included in the lesson (http://web standards” (Kaplan, 2004). Differen-
skills, a number of students need to quest.sdsu.edu). In these examples, tiation requires resources beyond the
review them again each year so that the resources are provided, and the textbook or the school library. The
they don’t revert back to copying focus is on the content of the report Internet is a valuable resource that
word for word or, worse, copying and or project. allows in-depth investigation of an
pasting from the Internet right into If developing information-liter- almost infinite variety of topics. But,
their own document. It is easier to acy skill is to be a part of the process, in order to capitalize on this resource,
plagiarize than ever before, and pla- student activities that allow them to students must be given the opportu-
giarism in student work is sometimes search efficiently and make intelligent nity to master information-literacy
hard to detect. choices must be included. Not every skills.
An online resource to check stu- research assignment needs to be com-
dent work for originality is one solu- pleted into a final essay or report. If References
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also readily available online. A key- that have been evaluated accord- standards for higher education.
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Modern Language Association • a copy of an article from a Web continued on page 65
gifted child today 37
Technology inEarly Childhood Classrooms
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