Google it!

In our second technology workshop we discussed accessing, retrieving and presenting information from the internet and how we can teach children about internet safety. We looked at different websites, including fake websites, which give false information on certain topics.This could be an issue if pupils are asked to do a research task, therefore it is important to explain to children that they cannot trust everything they read.

An ICT skill that can be taught when thinking about internet safety is Boolean Searching. This is a way of being more selective, when looking for information, through the use of quotation marks and by putting the word ‘and’ between search words. This narrows down the huge number of searches that appear when you ‘Google’ something.

We often use the phrase, “I’ll just Google it!” when we are actually referring to looking up a piece of information. There are many other search engines that can be shown to children such as:

When looking at presenting information we were shown three different resources; Fakebook, Prezi and Animoto- which I used to make the video at the top of this blog post. These are great classroom resources as children can present their research findings in an interactive and engaging way, rather than simply making a poster or filling out a worksheet.

2 thoughts on “Google it!

  1. Hi, Rachel.
    Not only is this a fab post, it is written so well I was gutted when I got to the end. Your style of writing is just so gripping. This Boolean searching is something I was aware of but have never actually used. Definitely something I will make use of from now on! I can see how it will also be beneficial to our students.
    Thanks for sharing these child-friendly search engines, off to have a look at them!
    Keep blogging 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *