This module focused on the tools needed and available to enhance our Internet searches as a way to deepen our knowledge and research new topics. Lawless and Kulikowich (1998) state there are three types of internet ‘users’, the knowledge seeker, feature seeker, and apathetic hypertext users. The knowledge seeker is a highly engaged learner who seeks out knowledge on his or her own. It could be assumed these learners are intrinsically motivated to do so. The feature seeker requires fancy features such as sound, video and animation to be drawn to a website. Once on a website they do not necessarily ‘soak-up’ any of the information presented. The apathetic user is not very engaged in the searching/finding of information and typically will skim text missing bits and pieces of important information. As teachers it is our job to discover ways to engage both the feature seeker and apathetic user in searching for content on the Internet.
To be completely honest, I would have classified myself as an apathetic user when I was in high school. In fact, I continue to struggle with this from time to time even in my 6th year of university! When I first hear the term research I probably have an expression very close to the female featured in the picture; overwhelmed and frustrated. It isn’t that I don’t love to gain new knowledge on different subjects because I do; in fact I am always looking to learn new things each and everyday. However, due to the simple fact that the Internet has such an abundance of information I often find it overwhelming. Moreover, I often struggle with the idea of finding ‘reliable’ sources on the Internet (some may call me a skeptic) – a person has to do a lot more searching if they want to ensure they are retrieving information from reliable sources. Being a University student, I knew how to do advanced searches using journal databases such as Eric and ProQuest but I never thought to carry these strategies over to a search engine such as Google or bing.
I was rather surprised at the plethora of search engines available and the uniqueness of each one. InstaGROK is a fascinating educational search engine that provides students with educational information (most of the content is pulled form educational sites) in a visually stimulating way. It gives students a really good opportunity to explore many different themes that are connected. For example, a basic search of ‘democracy’ pulls up other key words such as, politician, constitution, and revolution. If one clicks on the key word ‘politician’ other themes pop up such as Ancient Greece, Europe, and parties. I believe students would find this to be a really neat and engaging websites; however, it also risks the chance of being a distraction to students who may be overwhelmed by the visuals.
As teachers, it is important to model for students how simple advanced search features can make their lives. Students may often feel overwhelmed by the idea of doing an ‘advanced search’; however, if we display for them how easy it actually is this may given them some comfort. When broken down into small distinct steps students will be more apt to remember those strategies in the future. Furthermore, introducing new innovative search engines such as instaGROK may peak student interest.
Fig 1. Retrieved July 5,2013 from studentsperspectives34.blogspot.com
Lawless, K. A., and Kulikowich, J. M., (1998). Domain Knowledge, Interest, and Hypertext Navigation: A study of individual differences, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 7(1), 51-69.
Significant comment:
http://danuedportfolio.weebly.com/2/post/2013/07/research-and-its-implications-to-education.html#comments
http://missraychert.weebly.com/1/post/2013/07/journal-1-researching.html#comments
To be completely honest, I would have classified myself as an apathetic user when I was in high school. In fact, I continue to struggle with this from time to time even in my 6th year of university! When I first hear the term research I probably have an expression very close to the female featured in the picture; overwhelmed and frustrated. It isn’t that I don’t love to gain new knowledge on different subjects because I do; in fact I am always looking to learn new things each and everyday. However, due to the simple fact that the Internet has such an abundance of information I often find it overwhelming. Moreover, I often struggle with the idea of finding ‘reliable’ sources on the Internet (some may call me a skeptic) – a person has to do a lot more searching if they want to ensure they are retrieving information from reliable sources. Being a University student, I knew how to do advanced searches using journal databases such as Eric and ProQuest but I never thought to carry these strategies over to a search engine such as Google or bing.
I was rather surprised at the plethora of search engines available and the uniqueness of each one. InstaGROK is a fascinating educational search engine that provides students with educational information (most of the content is pulled form educational sites) in a visually stimulating way. It gives students a really good opportunity to explore many different themes that are connected. For example, a basic search of ‘democracy’ pulls up other key words such as, politician, constitution, and revolution. If one clicks on the key word ‘politician’ other themes pop up such as Ancient Greece, Europe, and parties. I believe students would find this to be a really neat and engaging websites; however, it also risks the chance of being a distraction to students who may be overwhelmed by the visuals.
As teachers, it is important to model for students how simple advanced search features can make their lives. Students may often feel overwhelmed by the idea of doing an ‘advanced search’; however, if we display for them how easy it actually is this may given them some comfort. When broken down into small distinct steps students will be more apt to remember those strategies in the future. Furthermore, introducing new innovative search engines such as instaGROK may peak student interest.
Fig 1. Retrieved July 5,2013 from studentsperspectives34.blogspot.com
Lawless, K. A., and Kulikowich, J. M., (1998). Domain Knowledge, Interest, and Hypertext Navigation: A study of individual differences, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 7(1), 51-69.
Significant comment:
http://danuedportfolio.weebly.com/2/post/2013/07/research-and-its-implications-to-education.html#comments
http://missraychert.weebly.com/1/post/2013/07/journal-1-researching.html#comments
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