Safe Searches

Even elementary students are well aware of how to "google" just about anything, but a blog post of Common Sense Media suggests kids need to learn how to appropriately search the internet. In the post they include ways for students to master the Google search. Great read!

Skills for Students

Here's an interesting read from Mind Shift and author Katrina Schwartz. It states we need to have better internet searching skills, reach a global audience, and show their learning. The author argues we should do all of this within the first 5 days of school.

InstaGrok

Welcome to the New Year!!! I took a blogging hiatus but am now back and ready for 2105!!

Here's an extremely interesting and helpful tool called InstaGrok. At first glance, it's just an educational search engine, but there's so much more to it. When you attempt a keyword search, it will create an interactive mind map that the user can customize and share. The concept map, or mind map, includes links to videos, links to other helpful websites, and a dictionary definition of terms.  If you create a FREE account, you can save your maps, create journal entries/note catchers, create quizzes around your maps, and share your concept map with others. I will definitely be using this tool during research. Here's Edudemic's review of InstaGrok.

Internet Search Tools

Richard Byrne has done it, again!  Here's his presentation on Google search tips and strategies.  I'll be using these with my students.

Power Searching with Google

Google has created an online course providing strategies for finding information.  It's broken down into 6 units and includes Google Hangouts.  What do you think of Google's Power Searching lessons?

Richard Byrne wrote a review of it in Free Technology for Teachers.