Digital Information Reading Strategies

Digital Information Reading Strategies

Anyone who has been to any of my presentations in the past couple of years knows that I’m passionate about teaching search skills. Not only search skills, but how search can and is truly changing our world. Search has the possibility to change our classrooms tomorrow because we can ask interesting questions that we never could ask before. If you […]

Google Voice Search 2013

Google Voice Search 2013

I often show off a lot of these features when I’m presenting….blows teachers away on what you can do….and a great conversation on how this along changes learning…because it has to. This works on ANY device (the searching part not the “OK Google” part..that is for MotoX phones only and why I’m excited to get mine.) Android devices built in. […]

Why K-12 schools are failing by not teaching SEARCH

Why K-12 schools are failing by not teaching SEARCH

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a day with some of the faculty at Western Washington University talking about reverse instruction…or at least my idea of what that means. To get started, we did a little reverse instruction of our own where I had them read the connectivism article by George Siemens before I arrived. Once I […]

9th – 12th Grade Search Lesson

9th – 12th Grade Search Lesson

In this lesson we will focus on the following two ideas: Domain Extensions and the site: syntax (See 6-8th Grade Lesson Plan) Finding current research Set Up: Each student with their own computer or device or as close as possible. Prime the Pump: When learning to do research not only is it worth your time to do in depth research, […]

6th – 8th Grade Search Lesson

6th – 8th Grade Search Lesson

In this lesson we will be teaching about domain extensions and the Google Search Syntax ‘site’: as well as how to turn on reading levels in Google Advance Search. Together this knowledge will allow students to find the relevant information they need while doing research. Set Up: It is best if each student has their own computer for this lesson, […]

3rd – 5th Grade Search Lesson

3rd – 5th Grade Search Lesson

In this lesson we will be focusing on learning if you can trust a website based on its looks. We will use the great fake site thedogisland.com. Students in this age love this site and easily get sucked in to all the great pictures and writing about how great this island is for dogs. A fun place to start the […]

Kindergarten – 2nd Grade Search Lesson

Kindergarten – 2nd Grade Search Lesson

In this lesson plan the idea will be to introduce students to Google and the search syntax ‘AND’. It will also begin the discussion about where ads appear on a Google Search result as well as other websites. At this age, every time I show a web page I take a couple minutes to have the students point out where […]

Start The Year By Teaching Search

Start The Year By Teaching Search

As the new school year is upon us and I find myself not in a school for the first time since I started Preschool so many years ago, I was thinking about what I would be doing if I was starting this school year teaching a class of 4th graders (still my favorite grade). There would be all the usual […]

Power Searching Class From Google

Power Searching Class From Google

Google resently announce a free course they are offering in mid-July. I have signed up for it as I still believe search is the most important skill any of us can learn and teach our students. The course is taught by one of Google’s top search engineers and will be held in the format of a MOOC (Massive Open Online […]

Change at the pace of Google

Change at the pace of Google

Google anncouned Google Instant today…or was that yesterday….today to me, yesterday to you? Anyway, sometime in the past 48 hours Google launched their new search engine. Some people have been asking does this change mean anything to educators and education? The answer is: Absolutly! It changes the way we teach search. When teaching search skills to 2nd graders (You do […]