Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

GTA Boulder Notes: Afternoon Part 3

These are my notes from the Google Teacher Academy, in our third afternoon session. All resources are linked from http://sites.google.com/site/gtaresources/Home.

Now hearing from Lucy Gray about the new search curriculum which Lucy and other GCE’s have created

Resource links
Her presentation slides

Search tools beyond the search
– Just Search It: Developing a Search Mindset

Developed by Kathleen Ferenz, Cheryl Davis, Lucy Gray
– based on work of Google search expert, Dan Russell (Google Search Quality and User Happiness – he has worked for Apple and Xerox Parc)
– works with teachers for search education as well

this is not just about the tool, it is about the mentality you use to approach

A new digital divide going on:
– Those who know how to “think” about searchvs. those don’t.
– Those who know how to validate soft informationvs. those don’t.
– Those who know where to find information in new “hot” channels vs. those don’t.
– Those who understand the current culture of informallanguages vs. those don’t

Above are from Helen Blowers at the Columbus Metro Library

We need to help students and teachers develop a research stance
– make research a part of everything you do in the classroom
– plan on learning new skills (nothing stays constant on the web, search engines are continually improving)

in the context of this preso, anything in red brackets is searchable

specialized results at the top of a Google search are called “1 boxes”

in last couple of months, how you look at search has changed
– (+) sign, you can limit your searches

Dan wants everyone to know how to use control-F (or command-F) to search on a page
– where does the name “Lewis” show up on a page
– even at Google in a particular audience, just 80% knew about this
– is a very basic strategy

[I LIKE HOW LUCY IS USING SOLID COLORS IN HER PRESENTATION AS BACKGROUND]

Organizing a search
– use some guiding questions when you are searching
– you have to be able to scan for information
– example “kangaroo meat name”

How do you find the names of things you don’t know the name of
– start with the simplest search you can think of
– change your keywords
– double check your work

Use search terms – define: [insert the word or phrase]

use this to double check your work
– teaching kids to validate their information and back it up is very important

Use context terms to clarify your search

Google has many different kinds of content: news, images, video, patents, maps, etc.
– looking beyond the search results will often show you what you’re wanting to find

start your query as simple as possible: don’t start with 5 words
– don’t leave out stop words (example: Lord of the Rings)
– use quotation marks for more specific searches

search for earthquake and a state to see current earthquake data

advanced search tips:
– Phrase search [ “Denver Broncos” ]
– Search within a site [ admissions site:colorado.edu ]
– Term exclusion [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]
– Term inclusion [ +how buy “cell phone” ]
– Fill in the blanks [ Tim Allen born * ]
– Related [related:colorado.edu]
– Allintitle [allintitle:rocky mountains]

searching by file type is one of the most helpful things for teachers

How do you teach this to kids?
– we have created a search curriculum off the Google Education page, in 3 modules

Recap: You need to help your kids develop a research stance on an ongoing basis (1 lesson is not going to do it)

[WOO HOO LUCY!!!]

Now hearing from Dana Nguyen about Google Apps Education Edition

So why is Google moving into the K12 space?
– problem we are moving to as we move to the decisionmakers, they are enthusiasic but teachers are comfortable in their existing email and running into implementation trouble

Google Apps community for Educators
– includes lesson plans about Google Apps
also tutorials!

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