How I Researched...and how Tonight Changed that

The way I approach research depends on what area of my life I am researching in. I take distinct approaches to looking for information for my personal life, school (my education), and my students/lesson. The common element in all my forms of research is a computer-more specifically one with the internet.

I am a huge google user for personal research. What can I bake with two overly ripe bananas and whole wheat flour…whatever google tell s me to do. Where is the closest book store that might have the elusive “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for classrooms?” Once again google is going to have to find the store and make a map to get me there. For my own scholarly research and former job in a lab I use library databases, ebsco host, etc. These are the sorts of source that were approved by my professors and boss. I began the school year using basic search engines to look for supplementary materials like google, yahoo, dogpile, etc. I have found however that these sources often lead to sites you must pay for, or expired links. Thus, I have moved on mainly to education specific search engines that my district subscribes to.

As a reflection on the evening’s lesson (I do not yet have the book) I think that understanding how search engines work is very important both as an educator and in general. I am afraid at some point or another I have taken fiction for fact when quickly looking for information. I certainly see myself using the REAL method and some of the links you have provided to verify information. I, too, am certain that my students have or will come across bogus websites and taken them as fact. In order to help my students not become victim to false information I will probably do a lesson early next year using some of the invalid sites to teach my students the “REAL” method of validating sites.