What if I told you that theres more to the internet than Google. What? Theres more than Google? You're crazy. That's what you'd probably say. Maybe not you, but a normal non St. John's grad student. But there is. There is more to the world than Google. While Google is the fourth bookmark on my favorites bar, and it has become a huge staple in our generation and society (it's even been added to the dictionary as a verb; To Google) there are other search engines out there on that wondrous world wide web. This week chapter five talks about search engines and the purpose they serve.
I will be the first to admit that I rely on Google for almost every question I have that I don't have an answer to. And ya know what? Google gives me one. Google is the worlds most popular search engine, so why am I making such a big deal about it not being the center of our technological world? Well, because we as educators need to ensure that our students don't rely strictly on Google or the answers it may deliver via Wikipedia. Instead of searching through 3, 5, or 10 pages of Google results, we should teach our students that if the question(s) they posed have returned unanswered that they need to search else where. In an ironic kind of way, this is almost in line with the common core in that they need to be more cognitively active in their education. Don't stop if you don't find the answer the first time...keep looking and keep searching until you find an answer you believe to be suitable. Something that may prove to be a best practice is to keep a chart/list of search engines other than Google so your students have some guidance about where to go when Google fails to deliver.
Top 10 Search Engines
Chapter 6 this week talked about one of my favorite classroom activities, virtual field trips! Now, I'm in the TESOL program and so something like this tends to provide great access to worldly places; places we can't physically take our students.
In regards to this, I'm going to share an experience. Last semester I observed with an 8th grade ESL class and their teacher was spending a week taking them on a virtual tour of Ellis Island! It safe to say that even though plenty of us have grown up in New York, the chances that we've all been to Ellis Island are pretty slim, especially after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Ellis Island Interactive Field Trip
The reason I share this with you all is that its a great tool to use for an ESL classroom or even for a native english classroom. A unit like this will bring you amazing participation and stories from your students on their actual immigration to the US or a background on how their families came to be, which will support the use of our ELL's verbal L2.
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your blog! I admit Google first, and Yahoo second. There are more website beside google and yahoo. Teachers can go to different resources to engaged students with their project. I am not a teacher, but I am looking forward in working with technology in the classroom. Practice make perfect, and students love a challenge.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued by the idea of virtual field trips. Last year, in order to get our students to start thinking about their future, my school held a college and career week. We spent the week doing activities that broadened my students knowledge of different careers and what it takes to accomplish each one. One part of this week was the library teaching coming in an providing the students with a virtual tour of different colleges. Many of my students have only heard of Queens College and it was amazing to see how excited they were over looking at Binghampton University. They have never really seen such a large and open campus and many became fired up about college.
I think virtual field trips are a great way to get kids to experience something that may not be doable due to time and budget restraints.