There is a new digital divide on the horizon. It is not based around who has devices and who does not, but instead the new digital divide will be based around students who know how to effectively find and curate information and those who do not. Helene Blowers has come up with seven ideas about the new digital divide – four of them, the ones I felt related to searching, are listed below.
The New Digital Divide:
In an age of information abundance learning to effectively search is one of the most important skills most teachers are NOT teaching. They assume students know how to conduct a search, and set them free on the internet to find information. They assume that students have the skills to critically think their way through the searching and the web. Sadly, this is not the case and everyday we are losing the information literacy battle because we often forget to teach these crucial searching skills in our schools.
Teachers – especially in the elementary grades -need to develop a shared vocabulary around the skill of searching. They need to make sure their students learn some basic search strategies and keep applying them until they become almost automatic.
Here are some of the searching skills and vocabulary we should be teaching students :
Quotation Marks:
Students should always use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This is useful when you want something like quotes, song lyrics or text from a an exact historical time period.
Example: “The Great Chicago Fire”
Dashes (or minus sign):
Use this symbol directly before a word to help exclude unwanted information from your search
Example: Great Chicago Fire -soccer
Two Periods:
Use this to help you find information between those two numbers. For example you might want to try:
Example: Great Chicago Fire October 8..10
Site Search:
For a look through the Chicago HIstory Museum site only
Examples: Great Chicago Fire site:chicagohs.org
site:Chicagotribune.com
This helps students and teachers to develop information literacy skills so they can become competent finders, evaluators, and users if information mastering the art of curating.
