I’ve been completely obsessed with Google’s new mini-site devoted to finding better ways to incorporate proper web searches into the classroom. Dubbed ‘Search Education,’Google’s new site has an array of lesson plans, videos (check a sample out below), concept maps, and other tools designed to help any educator properly integrate Google.
This is just the logical next step for the search (and basically everything else) behemoth as Google pushes its way into the classroom.
As part of Search Education, Google has shared a bunch of lesson plans that are organized by degree of difficulty.
So, if you consider yourself and / or your students Google experts, you should try out the more advanced plans. If you don’t know what ‘boolean’ means, then you probably should start with the more basic stuff.
The following are just some of the many lesson plans brought to you by Google. Check out the site for more info!
Picking the right search terms
Beginner
Pick the best words to use in academic searching, whether students are beginning with a full question or a topic of just a few words. View lesson
Intermediate
Identify unique search terms to locate targeted sources and to use “context terms” to uncover appropriate evidence.View lesson
Advanced
Explore “firm” and “soft” search terms, and practice using context terms to locate subject-specific collections of information on the web.View lesson
Understanding search results
Beginner
Learn about the different parts of the results page, and about how to evaluate individual results based on cues like web addresses and snippets.View lesson
Intermediate
Use the results page to check the quality of a search process, and explore specific strategies students can use to improve their searches and their results.View lesson
Advanced
Engage additional search strategies, such as generalization and specialization.View lesson
Searching for evidence for research tasks
Beginner
Draw stronger terms from preliminary search results, identify evidence, and explore using various media to locate specific types of evidence.View lesson
Intermediate
Investigate different page formats (blogs, news articles, wikis, etc), and how to identify the right format for the type of information students are seeking.View lesson
Advanced
Examine Google Scholar, and learn how to find specific collections of information that will contain the best evidence for students’ research task.View lesson
Evaluating credibility of sources
Beginner
Consider, tone, style, audience, and purpose to determine the credibility of a source. View lesson
Intermediate
Consider, tone, style, audience, and purpose to determine the credibility of a source. View lesson
Advanced
Track information to a reasonable source and recognize and consider the impact of bias in assessing the credibility of information.View lesson
