Creative Classroom Online - Tech for Learning

Kathy Schrock's Tech Quest

TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH TOOLS
Research no longer only refers to printed resources. Technology has introduced CD-ROMs with encyclopedias and articles, word processing software with built-in dictionaries, and, of course, the Internet. Your school librarian is a great source of advice on how to use these tools effectively.

Let's delve deeper into some special skills needed for online research. Students should begin with print sources to get a core knowledge base of the topic and come up with some keywords. They can then browse the categories listed at a large general online directory, such as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/), to view a cross-section of relevant sites.

Next, students should learn how to focus their keyword searches with Boolean and wildcard searching. In Boolean searches, students use the word "and" between two keywords to retrieve sites that contain both the keywords, or "or" to retrieve sites with either of the words. In a wildcard search, students use special characters such as an asterisk (*), to broaden a search. If they type in "farm*" they will get results for farm, farms, farming, farmer, farmers, etc. Students can also focus their searches with "Advanced Searches" at search engines such as AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/), HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com/), and Google (http://www.google.com/).

Once students find relevant sites, they need to critically evaluate the sites' source, applicability, and authenticity. Log onto http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/eval.html for tips, and post these questions near the computer as a guide: Who wrote the pages and are they experts? What does the author say about the site's purpose? When was the site created and last updated? Where does the information come from? Why is the information useful for my purpose?

TECHNOLOGY PROBLEM-SOLVING AND DECISION- MAKING TOOLS
In addition to using technology to aid in research, students can use it to help solve problems and make informed decisions. For this state assignment, where the students' goal is to persuade others to move to a state, they can show videos of their states' highlights, use calculators to add up the costs of housing and moving, or make computer-generated charts to show school standardized test scores or unemployment rates in their states.

Many educators are also using or creating WebQuests to guide students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information rather than simply collect it. A WebQuest is a Web page or series of pages that present students with tasks, much like the state assignment in this Tech Quest, and lists of links to sites that may help them complete the task and make informed decisions. For samples, visit the WebQuest site, http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

Resources
http://205.146.39.13/linktuts/bgemail2.htm
Log on for e-mail Netiquette tips.

http://www.big6.com/comparison_chart.gif
Compare various information literacy models.

http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/index.html
Learn about the technology standards and peruse sample projects.

Kathy Schrock, a technology coordinator, created Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators at

http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/.