I have to start this post by again saying, the high school I attended did NOT incorporate technology at all in it's subjects. Other than my college English class, this is basically the first time I have had to extensively research things on the internet. Prior to today, I would get get on to Google and type whatever I was looking for. It's extremely frustrating because as we all know you get tons of hits no matter what you type, and sometimes if you are looking for something very specific you have to trudge through tons of trash to get useful information. It's hard to trust a website, so finding a way to make searches more efficient is very important, especially now that technology plays such an important part in the classroom setting. All the information I have read about MAPping is brand new to me. I had no idea that you could use different search techniques to aid in what you are looking for. I will definitely need to spend a few weeks going over everything, but I am very excited to work with these techniques.
I must admit that all of the information I have been going over for MAPping is a lot to take in. I want to practice with it more, and maybe look up more articles on the subject. I can honestly say that I want to change my habits in the future, but I as I am very new to this I will need to practice, and practice often. I think one of the nicest tips was learning that you can search, and just bring up information from specific websites, such as: education (edu), organization (org), military (mil). To be honesty, this is the first time I've ever stopped to think about what those things means. I have already utilized this knowledge in one of my other classes to search for a specific topic on educational websites, and I was amazed at how different and how much more successful my results were! The way I have searched things have definitely changed. I feel much better about using the results I get as a source in my papers now. As a teacher, I want to incorporate this into my classroom because I do believe in technology, but I know it is easy for students to become confused by all of the false material there is out there, and MAPping will definitely help eliminate that.
Just for fun, I looked at some up the past things I have searched on Google. I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I saw the results. I would start with a one or two word search, and it gradually got longer, as I got more desperate in my search for information. At times, there would be two or three sentence searches! I was very surprised to learn that Google does not even give you results based on relevance. This lesson has definitely changed the way I view search engines. As of right now, I do think these techniques are complicated, but I plan to continue to better myself with MAPping, because I think it is a necessary skill before I go into teaching!
I enjoyed you post and think that we have had similar experiences! Like you, I used to do the exact same thing for Google searches and was frustrated when they didn't find any useful information or results. Now that I have learned to refine my search terms or use different strategies, it has helped so much to utilize online searches. I also learned a great deal about the "tricks of the trade" online and learned about things I didn't think existed! I know it is becoming increasingly more common for teachers to use the internet as a resource for their classrooms using lesson plans, educational strategies, criteria, games, media and much more! This activity will really help teachers learn how to differentiate material and find what is best for their students.
ReplyDeleteI like your post, and was pretty much in the same boat as you. When it came down to having to search anything on the internet I always went straight to google. I was always told Google had all the answers and that they were accurate. This whole time I have looked at the first page of results when you google something as the truth and most accurate information you can find on google. After MAPping it really opened my eyes to the fact that Google is not always accurate, and as you stated they don't always post the most accurate info first. Which blew me away. I am very excited about the new search techniques, and as you stated it really is a lot to take in, but with the right amount of practice we will be good. I'm so glad that this class has saved me from being that teacher that tells there classroom "just google it Google is going to be your best bet". Instead of being that teacher I can show them techniques that will help them find the correct information, make better grades, and fully be able to use the internet the way it is suppose to be used.
ReplyDeleteCharles Doty