Activity 2- Art & Science of Searching

When I do searching activities at the start of a unit with middle level students, I am a broken record as I rotate from one student to the next. I find me reminding myself of my teachers. They were nuns that did things rigid and were not flexible to change. ( Do not stare at this image...it moves...or maybe it is me and nuns!!!)

I got a lot out of these videos. I have a lot of experience working with kids and searching the web. I have been looking for good "Straight to the Point" videos that tell it like it is! Searching your results, using filters, searching sites by text (WOW!), translating, patent searching (WOW AGAIN!), etc have a lot of worth to me as an art teacher and fellow artist. One stop shopping but you really need to see these options or you would over look them because they are not in the center or common used daily functions of the web.

Students seem to have trouble completing unit background worksheets for a few reasons. It puzzles me that students struggle with one of the simplest activities on the web other than Facebook. If you asked me or others, you would guess that kids are good at computers. You think they must be good at searching the web for facts/information but it turns out to be like getting blood from a rock. My hope is to give them an easy way to make connections prior to starting a new unit without a large percentage of students not completing the task assigned.

What do 75% all do when faced with a task like this? Students type in the entire questions rather than the main point. They become frustrated when the results do not show up instantly. It might sound crazy but, they want their worksheet filled out in the click of a few buttons. I am looking to refine the process of searching to help them get straight to the point early on in the marking period. I know that I will be adding some of these videos to my web page prior to the end of this course as part of my project.

 I look forward to seeing how students will be using these videos to help tackle the problems I mentioned.  Please look at my final project to see the connections made from the three videos shown in greater detail and understanding.