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Getting the Most out of Internet Resources


Where would you look for resources on building classroom community?

  • What strategies & techniques were used in the past?
  • How might info to meet this need be located effectively and efficiently?
  • What new sources are available now?
  • Will these new resources require new strategies and techniques?

Hopefully, one would come to the realization that many of these answers can be found via the Internet. Not only are there thousands, if not millions, of sources of information at one’s fingertips. However, with that great quantity of of information, comes the need to make one’s searches effective and efficient. Here are some areas to consider when conducting Internet searches.

Search Engines, Directories, and Meta-Searches
There are three types of tools that can provide the results you’re looking for in an Internet search. The first is the search engine. A search engine searches for webpages and documents based on keywords. Some commmon search engines are listed below.

Directories and indexes organize information on the Internet around categories and topics. One topic leads to several subtopics that eventually lead to the information for which you’re searching. A few directories are listed here.
A meta-search engine uses a keyword search to search the results of several search engines, compiling the most popular results. Three meta-search engines are as follows.
It’s important to remember that none of these search options are always better than the others. You may find different results with various searches. It’s important to exhaust your options and try searches with several different engines.
Search Techniques
Here are some search techniques that might help to make your keyword searches more effective.
  • Identify key words and synonyms so as to narrow your search results or identify the most accurate results.
  • Be specific with your searches. Identify what you’re looking for and what you want to avoid. List the most important word first and list 3-6 words to insure the most specific results.
  • Advanced searching (phrases, Boolean operators,filters) can help really narrow your searches. Using advanced settings and Boolean operators can filter the results to fit your needs.
  • Plurals can sometimes mislead search results. If you’re not getting the results you’re after, try the singular or plural spellings of your keyword.
  • Parentheses can assist in linking specific phrases together in your searches.
  • Capitalization is not often read by search engines. However, when it is, a search engine may provide results with or without capital letters if all lowercase is used. Sometimes words with capital letters dominate results if the keywords are capitalized.
  • Similar pages are often offered with search results. These options may provide better or more accurate results.
  • Proximity operators such as “NEAR BY”, “ADJ” (adjacent), and “NEAR” can offer results with words that should be in the same document of webpage.
  • Browser find features can help one find a keyword that may not be obvious to the naked eye.
Evaluating Websites
The first set of sites below demonstrate just how important it is to study and evaluate a site’s authenticity. Follow the links and see whether you can detect the truthfulness in each website.
The next three resources provide some evaluation tools one can use in evaluating a site’s accuracy.
Bookmarks
Maybe the best way to improve one’s efficiency in conducting Internet searches is accomplished through bookmarking. Why search for the same site over and over when you have it bookmarked in a convenient location. Many Internet users have depended on browser-based bookmarks. The bookmarks are easy to access and can be (or at least should be) organized similarly to files and folders on one’s hard drive.
Another option is to use online bookmarks. These bookmarks use various types organizational systems, some similar to hard drive filing and others with tags or tag clouds. Additionally, these bookmarks use tactics like those in social networks for sharing resources. Some online bookmarking sites are listed below.

Hopefully these tools and tips will help make your next Internet search more productive.

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Five Things: Working with Authentic Data

the_data_so_far

Tonight we focus on working with authentic data. The software we’ll focus on is Microsoft Excel. This might be one of the scariest pieces of software to use. However, I’m confident you will find excellent applications for this great tool.

Anyway, here are my five things concerning authentic data and spreadsheets:

  1. Authenticity is the key. – Like much of what we do in our trainings, the authenticity of our content and teaching methods is maybe the most important factor in getting through to our students. They want to know how they can use this in the real world or why it’s important to know at all. By using authentic data, students are better able to connect data collection and analysis to their lives outside of school.
  2. Excel (and other spreadsheet software) is your friend. – Spreadsheets are there to help you make sense of data. They help organize data so that it’s easier to analyze. Luckily, software like Excel does most of the organization for us. Remember when no one knew how to use Word or PowerPoint? Give it time. Excel will make your life easier.
  3. Use online templates. – Sometimes software like Excel can frustrate us by not doing exactly what we want it to do. Don’t worry. Find a template that already contains the formatting for which you’re looking. Microsoft even provides a few templates here or you can always do a Google search for “Excel templates“.
  4. Use the Help. – When in doubt, always use the help menu for Excel. Also, I have had a lot of luck searching for tricks and tips on using Exel by simply doing Internet searches.
  5. There are alternatives to Excel. – We are using a Google spreadsheet in order to keep records on classroom visits and training sessions. A Google spreadsheet makes collaboration possible and I can embed the sheet directly into the Moodle. Another collaborative spreadsheet can be found at Zoho. The best part of these spreadsheets is that you can work on them collaboratively and transfer the data directly onto an Excel spreadsheet either through download or by simply copying and pasting. Here’s a list of almost all the spreadsheet programs out there.

Hopefully, after we spend an evening with Excel, you will find applications for you and your students.

Image Source: http://xkcd.com/373/

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Five Things: Classroom Management/Website Enhancement

classroom

My original goal was to post in time for training sessions. However, with my crazy summer workload, this did not happen. So, I’ll promise to post something here right before or right after we meet.

Classroom Management
We cover this topic at the beginning of the year because it’s the most important thing to establish at the beginning of a school year. I know it’s cliched, but it’s true. Whatever sort of expectations, norms, or procedures you set in August and September will either carry you through the year or make you want to quit. So consider your management strategies carefully.

Five Things:

  1. The difference between norms and rules – Norms are long-term behaviors that you want from your students. These are the practices that will make learning possible throughout the year and possibly beyond. Norms are what students should do. Rules, on the other hand, are typically restrictions handed down from a higher authority; in this case, it’s you. Norms help students know what they should do while rules restrict students with few options.
  2. Students help set norms. – You can set the norms in your classroom by giving one or two that are very important to you. Then, let the students determine the rest of the norms. They might just surprise you and they’ll feel more ownership.
  3. Spend a lot of time on procedures. – Spending a considerable amount of class time in the beginning on procedure will make it possible to spend more time on learning as the year moves along. Plan simple lessons or even games where students perform class procedures for no other reason than to make them more efficient, leaving more time for learning later on.
  4. Read Alfie Kohn. – Be sure to read the Alfie Kohn articles if you did not get a chance yesterday. They are extremely valuable in providing a theoretical framework to classroom discipline. The three articles can be found here, here, and here.
  5. Don’t forget community-building. – Team and community building often get confused. Team building is the work you do to get teamwork out of small groups. Building community involves getting the whole class to work together with learning as the goal. There are several great resources for these kinds of activities in the online resources or there are a few on my Delicious account.

Website Enhancement
You all spent a lot of time working on your websites last year, but now that a new school year is upon us, there’s more work to be done.

Five Things:

  1. Content, content, content – More important than anything is your website’s content. The most basic looking websites can still be the most useful if they have good content.
  2. Update and maintain – It’s super important that your website is updated. Students and teachers won’t pay it much attention if the “last updated” message is from last school year.
  3. Consistent Design – Just because we spent time enhancing websites does not mean you should adds lots of bells and whistles or mix in multiple fonts. Keep the colors and design elements consistent throughout your website in order to show cohesion of ideas.
  4. Contrast – If you have a dark background, use a light color for your text. If the background is white, use black text.
  5. Utilize Web 2.0 Tools – It’s really hard to make a website interactive or easy to update. Consider using a blog for your newsletter or announcements. Google Calendar can easily replace bulky, made-from-scratch calendars on Dreamweaver.

Again, don’t forget the resources in the Moodle and keep working at updating that website. See if you can find ways to best utilize your website to enhance classroom management.

See you all at the next session when we cover Excel and how to use authentic data in the classroom.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijames/ / CC BY 2.0

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Blog-diggity

This post is for a presentation at the Central Missouri Summer Institute held at Centralia’s new Intermediate School on August 4, 2009. The presentation is embedded below.

The following are some of the resources I find most helpful in classroom and professional blogging:

“Blog” on Wikipedia

Blog Hosting Sites:
Blogger – This is one of the two most popular sites for blogging. It’s super easy to use, but it has that pesky navigation bar.
WordPress – There is the blog host site and the open source software. Both are relatively easy to use and give you plenty of options for posting.
Edublogs – Edublogs provides a built-in community of educational bloggers. The site uses WordPress software, but one has to pay in order to avoid ads.
More

Blogging 101:
25 Basic Styles of Blogging – Need a purpose for your blog? Here are 25 great ideas.
We-Blog, Tree-Blog – This is my Winter Conference ‘09 presentation. It’s a great resource for getting started.
Reluctant Bloggers – Scared to blog? Read this article.
Web 2.0 for Newbies
Blog Basics – …for teachers.

Participate & Network
One Comment A Day – Here’s an interesting idea on how to get involved in the edu-blogosphere.
Best Teacher Blogs – This is a list of the best blogs for and by teachers.
23 Elements of Sharable Blog Posts – Give the people something to link.
Twitter – Microblogging at its finest. Also, here are some great resources and articles on Twitter.
RSS in Plain English – Need RSS explained in an engaging and memorable YouTube video? Well, here it is.

Blog Extras
Top 10 Google Gadgets
50 Great Widgets from Mashable
Widgetbox – Make your own widgets for your blog.

Safety and Other Teaching Resources
Safe Blogging for Teens
10 Ways to Use Your Edublog to Teach – These ideas will work for most any blogging site.
eThemes – It would be silly of me not to mention resources from eMINTS.
Using Blogs to Promote Authentic Learning in the Classroom – Someone has done the research for us.
Ideas from David Warlick

Now what?

Now, you will continue this conversation. Click below to leave a comment or question. The conversation doesn’t have to end because my time is up. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.