The Importance of Understanding How to Search the Web

These days nearly every student is using the internet as a resource - and why not?  There is an incredible wealth of information available online.  The challenge today is no longer how or where to find information, but it is deciphering what is accurate and what is not.  The internet has been mainstream for about 20 years and today's college students do not remember a world before the internet (scary, isn't it?), but surprisingly they are not necessarily entering college prepared with the basic skill of web searching -an essential 21st century skill.  It's important that all instructors understand the finer points of web searching so that we can help our students be more successful in their search for information online.

The basics:

When getting started with a web search, students need to understand how to pick the best search terms and how to interpret the results they find.  This is a skill that takes time to fine tune, but it's growing more and more important in today's world of information overload.  Google has a great site that, although geared toward K-12, has great tools and information about search education.

Assessing the accuracy and reliability of a resources:

There are many clues on a website that can help viewers tell if the information is likely to be accurate - things like clues in the web address (URL), the author, and the type of website the information is on (a personal blog, for example). I once read a great article written by Alan November entitled "Teaching Zach to Think".  It deals with this very topic and shows the scary side of students not knowing how to detect misinformation on the web.

It's important that we all, as educators, understand how to search the web effectively so that we can help students do the same.  The internet gives us the opportunity to find a great amount of information at our fingertips whenever and wherever we may be, but there are many potential dangers when students do not have an understanding of how to find and interpret this information accurately.