I’ve seen an online presence of bloggers tackling the alphabet during the month of April. A theme is selected and each day a new post is based upon the letter of the day. Hmm, it has me thinking. Why not? I will make my attempt and see where it leads. The option to pull out the “C” card for “I am crazy, this must cease.” can be played at any moment.
Education will be the theme that propels me down this alphabetical roadway. So, start your guesses as to how far I’ll go. Will I see the circular “O” cross my path? Will the elusive slingshot shape of “Y” enter my horizon? But, before I can be graced with the presence of “Z”, we must start at the beginning with “A”.
Availability of Information.
Homeschooling means that I am responsible for knowing a vast quantity of information Ahem…I must say Google and I are responsible for knowing. You can also list librarians, coaches, family, friends along with the plethora of books we own-but, I think you get the idea.
I remember the first time my daughter wanted to know what a Wolf Spider looked like. In the ol’ days you’d trod down to the library, crush your finger in the card catalog and hope a book existed in your zip code. (Wow! I just dated myself.) Today, you grab a Smartphone. A Wolf Spider looks scary. Issue solved.
“What is the largest animal in the world?”
“What do hamsters eat?”
“How are Peeps made?”
These questions usually occur while at the checkout lane or while waiting for the torrential rain to cease long enough so you can get to the checkout lane. If lucky they happen at home where a “real” computer is nearby.
Many times merely typing the questions into Google gives you an “illusion of smartness”. Sometimes you just end up blank. Sometimes you find yourself on Bing and wonder how that happened.
Knowledge is power. Not necessarily knowledge of content, but also knowledge of finding.
When I taught high school I discovered Google Search Education. Yep, Google has lesson plans on how to use advanced search features to help you find what you need. I’d use parts of these lessons to showcase to students the power they have at their fingertips.
Google Search Education-Lesson Plans
On the site you will find five main lessons, each broken down into three levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
- Picking the right search terms
- Understanding search results
- Narrowing a search to get the best results
- Searching for evidence for research tasks
- Evaluating credibility of sources
The information in the lessons may seem to be overwhelming (they were to me) so I focused upon the “RESOURCES/MATERIALS:” section in each lesson to save my sanity. I also just pulled what I needed (I was a homeschooling before I knew it!) so I’ve not plunged in detail into every lesson.
Be sure to also check out the main Google Search Education site for even more lessons and “A Google a Day Challenges”.
Happy Searching!
I know there are other methods to search online, what’s your favorite?