Reflective Searching

Last year, my family and I went on a short trip to Washington, D.C.  As we were walking past the White House, my 11 year old daughter started asking questions about the house.  "How many rooms and bathrooms?" " When was it built?"  My 13 year old son asked for my iPhone and began to "google" it.  I stood back and watched and listened while they found their own answers and discussed cool facts about the house and the presidents that have lived there.  We continued our trip with somewhat of  guided tour through the city all with the help of Google!

It is pretty clear that we are living in a time of information abundance.  Over recent years, I've become more and more comfortable as a searcher.  I "google" just about anything I need.  I'm looking for a recipe, google it.  Need to get a stain out of something, google it. Can't remember what movie I know an actor from, google it!   I find it quite interesting that the term Google meant to describe a company has quickly become a verb.  I actually looked it up and here is what it says:

 goo·gle

ˈgo͞ogəl/

verb

verb: google; 3rd person present: googles; past tense: googled; past participle: googled; gerund or present participle: googling

search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet using the search engine Google.

"I recently googled my 7th grade teacher and found his current e-mail address"

In recent years, I've  become fascinated with all the Google search tools available.  Every time I attend a conference, I look for sessions where the presenter is a Google Certified Teacher and try to gain any many new tips as I can.  Tools are being added and changed so often!  One of my favorites that I always teach my students is the ability to search in Google by "Reading Level".  When conducting a search in Google, you can click on "Search Tools" and then you can select the reading level under "All Results".

I do consider myself part of the Google generation, even though I was not born after 1993.  The more I have learned about how search engines work, like Google, the better searcher I have become.  I think about what I'm entering into that search bar.  When I can't find what I need right away, I think about what I am doing and why I have gotten certain results.  I rethink what to put in the search bar.  When I'm helping my students develop their own search strategy, I try my best to explain to them my thought process when searching, hoping that it will lead some of them to stop the habit of typing the entire question.

After watching Eli Pariser's TED Talk on The Filter Bubble, I was a bit concerned about how I can avoid this happening to me. I began doing a little searching on that topic.  I found this article about 10 things you can do to pop your filter bubble. http://www.thefilterbubble.com/10-things-you-can-do
It's an interesting read.  I'll be using some of these tips to make sure I avoid the filter bubble and have access to ALL information.



 





   

Information Overload! (Post #2)

The idea of information overload is something that I think so many of us can relate to.  The amount of information at our fingertips in quite overwhelming at times.  The short video "InfoWhelm" puts this into perspective.  The amount of digital output is 500 Exabytes.  I had no idea what an exabyte even was.  Learning that 500 exabytes would be the equivalent to 13 stack of book from the earth to Pluto is hard to comprehend!  No wonder we are overwhelmed!   This number is growing exponentially.  It is important for us to learn and teach our students how to access the information we need as well as think critically about the information we encounter. 

Learning how to organize all the information we encounter, or information wrangling as Bryan Alexander calls it, can also be quite overwhelming.  I have a tendency to want to "input" as much as I can about all of the new technologies and tools out there that teachers are using and sometimes it feels like I'm going in circles.  I have to remind myself that sometimes more is just more.  It is my goal to find a few things I feel would benefit me or my students and get comfortable using those before I move on to something different. 

Education is changing.  At one point in history, a school was the only place students went to get information.  This is no longer the case.  Students can access information 24/7 from numerous sources.  The article "Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Way to Inquiry Learning" provides great insight on how to guide students through their own learning paths.  Teachers need to be ok with letting go of some of the control and putting it in the hands of the students. Help students learn how to ask good questions and where to find good answers.  Kids of this generation are "digital natives" and in order to teach them, we need to speak their language.  

The amount of information out there can be quite overwhelming, but it is also liberating as well.  Anything I need or want to know is right at my fingertips any time I want to access it. Learning how to access and organize this information for my own learning will also help me to teach my students how to do the same.      

Blog Post #1

A little bit about me...

I've been in education in some form or another for 20 years.  I am currently working in an elementary school as the Media Resource Specialist.  It is my first year in this position and I am learning so much each and every day. 

My learning goals for this course:

It is always my goal to stay current with new technologies and resources that are available to educators.  I'm hoping that through this course I will be introduced to specific tools that I can take back to use with my students and other teachers I work with.

It is also my goal to extend my professional network and keep it fresh.  I feel that it is very important to connect with others in the same field for the purpose of gaining new ideas and inspiration.