Web+Literacy

WEB LITERACY April 18, 2012

Much of our information for today's session is based on the book, //Web Literacy for Educators//, written by Alan November. We do have books available for check out. See Paula or Amy for availability. media type="custom" key="13546708" align="center"

Part 1: Web Basics How to Read a Web Address What is the History of a Website __Truncating a URL__ Truncate this URL. Start by clicking on the top address and remove one level at a time: @http://www.sandiegozoo.org/teachers/classroom_activities.html http://www.sandiegozoo.org/teachers/ http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ Now go to this one and try it again (truncating): @http://bigredhair.com/robots/index.html Might your students believe that a Victorian robot spent time with Pancho Villa and fought in WWI, and that the photographs are authentic? Probably not after they see the home page. Decide whether these two sites are related: The Pacific Northwest Tree OctopusBureau of Sasquatch Affairs   How do you know??? Part 2: Search Engines **Types of Search Engines** Compare some search results with different search engine types. Choose one search tool from each type and compare it with tools from the other types: Search Engine: [|Google] [|Altavista] or [|Bing] Meta Search Engine: [|Dogpile] or [|WebCrawler] Multimedia Search: [|Creative Commons] or [|Qwiki]

There are a variety of search engines out there. Here is one list of a variety of search tools for your reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines Search the term "octopus" in a variety of search engines. Where does the site for The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus end up? Interesting result! Students have to learn to be critical thinkers when searching for information on the Internet! Poll the ROOM: Is there anyone here who has used a search engine other than GOOGLE in the last week, the last month, the last year??? Part 3: Validation of Websites R: Read the URL E: Examine the content A: Ask about the author and owner L: Look at the links READ the URL: http://si.edu/ http://www.nike.com/ http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ http://seaworld.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.cam.ac.uk/

EXAMINE the CONTENT: Is the information on the Website useful for your topic? Are additional resources and links provided? Do the links work? Is the site current? Do you know when it was last updated? Do you think the information is accurate? Does the information contradict information you have found elsewhere?

Check these 3 sites for researching frogs: http://frogsonice.com/froggy/ http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/ http://froggyville.com/index.php

ASK about the AUTHOR and OWNER: Is the author's name provided? Is there biographical information provided about the author? Does the author seem knowledgeable? Is he/she an expert in the field? What kinds of results do you see when you do a search on the author's name? Find the Publisher of a Website LOOK at the LINKS: Check the External Links REAL: Split up the following websites and have groups validate them - take note of the process (REAL): http://allaboutexplorers.com/ http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html http://www.dhmo.org/ http://www.thedogisland.com/ http://improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html Part 4: Effective Searching media type="youtube" key="In-s69cfMlY" height="315" width="420" Boolean Basics For a quick chuckle: media type="youtube" key="JXkh6ho41-I" height="315" width="420" align="center"