Google ≠ The Only Way to Research

I love Google.

But what I don’t love is when students use Google as their only research option.

And I don’t love when students focus only the first page of results (okay, let’s be honest, they may only look at the first few results- period). What about more useful websites that wind up deep in search results, outranked by websites that are commonly used but perhaps of inferior quality?

SweetSearch is one answer for those of you who share my concern about “Google as go-to.”

SweetSearch is a search engine designed with students and teachers in mind. Every single one of the SweetSearch websites has been evaluated by a core team of research experts and teacher consultants.

Not only does SweetSearch exclude spam sites, they are also constantly “fine-tuning” their search results, by increasing the ranking of websites from organizations such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, PBS, and colleges and universities.

You can find SweetSearch on the Pingree Library website as an academic resource for students. Perhaps, in the near future, students will be able to find a link to SweetSearch on your class Moodle page as well?

Google for Educators

Well, I'm sure that you all are reading this and saying to yourself, "not another thing for me to read, study, remember," etc. But please do not worry, all I am asking of you is to bookmark the link I have posted below.

Google is now providing services that Pingree, along with a thousands of other schools and businesses, are adopting. In the coming weeks, months, and years you are inevitably all going to become immersed in Google's technology.

So we, the Pingree tech team, are going to do all we can to educate and help you utilize all of the tools available. As we cannot do it alone, the address below is a link to a valuable resource that you can use to learn from other educators and to see what new features are available. When you click on the link below, be sure to sign up for Google's helpful newsletter.

http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

My suggestion to you is not to worry that this is simply another task to add to your to do list. Simply bookmark this page and make yourself aware that there are online resources available to support you.

I look forward to sharing some of the ways other educators are using Google in the classroom and beyond.

(Despite my enthusiasm for its products, I assure you I'm not on Google's payroll!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Technology at Pingree

There is a really great buzz about technology this year which is so exciting. I was going to list all the different ways technology is being used at Pingree and then I thought of a better way of doing this that might be more impactful. I'm sure I forgot a few but this is an impressive list. Click the link below to see a larger view of my Pingree Wordle. Anyone can make a wordle and publish it - try it out in your class!

4 students, 1 computer, no teacher...

Here is a Ted talk by Sugata Mitra who "...gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching."

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