RESOURCING THE CURRICULUM

This resources curated below are to support teachers to locate resources to teach students about THE RESEARCHING PROCESS  and some of the resources that we have at St Andrews in the Junior School.

The resources provided for teachers and students include:

  • the research process
  • researching tools
  • referencing and academic honesty
  • and links to the units of inquiry
  • curated materials specific to the units of inquiry
  • use of the library management system (Oliver) to support reading through the creation of reading lists and materials

Other pages that may be useful are:

INFORMATION LITERACY – WIKISPACES

SEARCHING THE INTERNET – WIKISPACES

RESEARCHING (VIRTUAL LIBRARY)

 

QR code Resourcing the curriculum

 


 

Random Sharing – research, websites, apps and Geography!

Some great new finds…..

 RANDOM SHARE

Research tools and websites, Goolge Docs and Apps for Geography.

STUDY VIBE – Fantastic site!

 

Resources for teachers

 

 

GOOGLE DOCS FOR LEARNING

 

Slideshare – Geography and Apps.

Note taking, Edshelf and Blendspace

Note taking is something that we all need to do.

Enclosed in the Blendspace below is an excellent tutorial that guides the listener in good practice and ways to improve and be more effective and efficient.

The skill of note taking is one that can be developed with practice.

The Blendspace below has interactive tutorials, suggested guidelines and images of how notes can be set out.

How good are your note taking skills?

See Blendspace reviewed here.

More of my Edshelf collections.

Some researching tools and note taking apps


 
Continue reading

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT YOUR INQUIRY AND ONLINE RESEARCH

Students often find it difficult to know where to begin when searching on the internet.

I have put together Steps to Online Researching with suggested search engines for students on my JSSALC Library wiki.

jssalc wiki searching

SEARCHING THE INTERNET is a collection of Youtube videos, internet links, search hints and tips all gathered in one handy location.

Additionally, the JS Library Virtual Library ONLINE TOOLS for INFORMATION LITERACY has ICT tools matched to the research process.

More links can be found at INTERNET SEARCHING TUTORIALS  (my DIGGO JSSALC bookmarks).

The skills outlined in the following tutorial videos are essential for all users of Google (as most of us are!).

ADVANCED SEARCHING IN GOOGLE

ADVANCED SEARCHING FOR IMAGES

 

AND

REWORDIFY is a website that simplifies the content to assist you to read complex webpages.

 

SEARCHING… SEARCHING… SEARCHING…

LET’s BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING…

St Andrews Lutheran internet MOODLE

Each year level page has starting links to general information about the topic for inquiry.

These resources have gathered using tools like DIGGO (bookmarking) and LIVEBINDERS.

These are sometimes known as curation tools.

Yr 4 has been using SYMBALOO to easily share their resources with the students. This is another example of a bookmarking tool.

GENERAL SEARCH ENGINES

GOOGLE

An awareness that Google is not the only search engine is important. Each search engine has a different purpose (such as wikipedia). Later in this post are some examples of search engines for younger children.

WIKIPEDIA and its usefulness

Wikipedia can a starting place to get an general understanding of a new topic or concept. It is now improved in its quality control (as content needs to be substantiated) and often can be the most current source of information on a topic. Weblinks and references to supporting information can assist students to explore more deeply about a topic. It is a springboard tool in my opinion.

Like all sources ACCURACY of content needs to be assessed and this is a skill that students need to develop.

Some teachers are still concerned about using wikipedia, but it should be viewed and assessed like any information source for:

  • CURRENCY
  • RELEVANCY
  • ACCURACY
  • BIAS

One way to do this is using RADCAB – an acronym for Relevancy, Detail, Currency and Bias. This is an excellent online tutorial for students designed to teach them about these key aspects.

OTHER TOOLS

NOODLETOOLS – is a student research platform.

READY TO DIG FURTHER?

The following search engines are designed for younger students in mind. I strongly encourage younger students to use these.

Duck Duck Go

Sweet Search

Schoolr

Fact Monster

Other recommendations

GOOGLE SEARCH HINTS

Understanding how to research and locate relevant information is a life skill. Students need to understand how different search engines work in order to be successful and efficient in their searching.

When searching students (at the very least) need to understand the following

– Key words and designing a search query

– Identifying what they need to find!

– Relevance to inquiry

– Ability to scan and re-assess the research process.

OTHER TIPS & TRICKS

Using simple ‘tricks’such as using CONTROL F – to find a key word in a webpage or a lengthy PDF saves time and can be helpful to analyse the usefulness of a resource to the current inquiry.

Designing a search query is also where some students struggle. This tutorial explains how to do this.

Additionally, the following video looks at the importance of key word order when searching in Google.

Why Word Order Matters in Google Searches created by Google’s Search Anthropologist Daniel Russell.

Another great resource is the list of 10 Google search tips.

(These last two resources came from Richard Byrne’s Free Technology for Teachers site.)

Image attribution

Danard Vincente’s photostream < ;http://www.flickr.com/photos/danardvincente/ >;

Visual Literacy, iPhone app, iPad resources, and Glean

Literacy and Visual Literacy in particular are key areas in the Australian Curriculum and General Capabilities.

Recently I presented about some ways to incorporate Visual Literacy with an iPad at the recent Apps Galore joint Mini-Conference (BCE and Lutheran Education).

These resources can be found here.

iPhone App for the session

Visual Literacy resources (JSSALC wikispaces)

Apps

Additionally, the Glean website has some excellent resources to support the development of literacy skills in its various forms.

Glean Learning Tools are free information literacy, data literacy and math teaching tools produced by Public Learning Media, Inc.

 

See http://www.glean.org/information-literacy

 

Curation tools for Students & Teachers

Don’t Bookmark, Curate Online Content

“A content curation tool, in simple English, lets you easily pull videos, images, presentations, tweets, blog posts and other web content into a collection which you can then embed, publish or share online. I have been testing a few online curation tools and here’s a quick review of them all to help you pick the right one for your needs.”
Blog post by Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration)

Joyce Valenza also discusses the place of curation tools in researching.She called curation “the new search tool“.

AND check out this LIVEBINDER by Carolyn Jo Starkey.

This concept seems like a great way to share easily from many places.
I use a variety of tools but this seems like the way to go. Anything that makes researching and collaboration simpler is a good idea.

Image Source
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8f3oOk91HCY/TOFCOIxOgDI/AAAAAAAAHIg/5QEF1bzk8A8/s400/searching-for-info.jpg