Emerging Tech Class

Today I visited Emily Letras’ Emerging Technology classes to discuss evaluating information and effective Internet searching. It’s one of my favorite classes to work with because her students are always up to something fun and interesting. When I got there, the girls were just about to sample some delicious Vegemite for the first time. It was sent to them by their Australian "tech pals” with whom they have been communicating through Edmodo this semester. Emily’s classes are just beginning work on a project which entails researching the history and future of a technology, and creating a web presence to convey what they’ve learned. They rely heavily on websites, blogs, wikis, videos and other information in “newer” research formats for this project, so it’s a great time to have a refresher lesson on searching for and using reliable information. Planning for Emerging Tech classes gives me the opportunity to reassess my knowledge, as well as the girls’, and to see what’s new that will help them with their research. In recent years, many new search engines and directories have emerged that are maintained by teachers, librarians and information specialists who are committed to helping students find reliable, quality information on the web. Here are a few that the students used today to practice searching. Sweetsearch is great for finding information in all academic disciplines, but it has proven to be particularly helpful for Emerging Tech as well as for the Seventh Grade SWI Project. InstaGrok has a visual interface that is useful for identifying keywords. It provides a concept map and links to key facts, websites, videos and images. Visual learners might find InstaGrok easier to work with than other search engines. Internet Public Library (IPL2) is a tried and true consortium of libraries and information professionals who have been gathering and indexing reliable, academic information on the web since 1995. IPL2 is great for locating information from the "deep" web which isn't always retrieved with a Google search. The next time you get into a search engine rut, try one of these resources. For those times when nothing but Google will do, find one of Emily’s students and ask her for some search tips! Patti Rickert-Wilbur

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