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EDTECH 240 Online Companion

Module
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Module 2:
Searching the Internet for Lesson Plans and Educational Websites
Session Objectives: After this learning module, you should be able to:
  • identify and differentiate between Internet search engines appropriate for young children as compared to those appropriate for older students and adults
  • generate an appropriate search string (using the format suggested in class) for use in an adult search engine to locate lesson plans and age appropriate, educational websites on a specific topic
  • locate lesson plans and age appropriate educational websites using a search engine designed for children 
  • copy and paste a hyperlinked URL from a browser's address window and the text of the online lesson plan into a Microsoft Word document and email this document as an attachment to a classmate
  • receive, open and print out an attached Microsoft Word document 
Completing these tasks contributes to your continued growth in the following areas: 
  • ESPY Course Objectives
  • Connecticut Technology Competencies for Level 1 Exam
  • National Technology Standards 

SETTING THE SCENE
 
SCENARIO #1: 

Your teaching colleague down the hall has been given permission to attend a two day professional development workshop outside of your school next week.  Your school's policy states that substitutes should be given detailed lesson plans for each of the subjects they will be teaching.  She's got plans set up for reading, math and science, but Social Studies is a bit of problem, since she is just finishing a unit on the Civil War and doesn't want to have the substitute introduce the next topic.  She's hoping to get her hands on a few good activity ideas that the substitute could use to reinforce what her students have already learned about the Civil War.  She's heard from other teachers in your grade level that there are some incredible lesson plan resources on the Internet, but she's not sure where to begin looking.  She knocks on your door at the end of the school day and wonders if you can provide any help.  What are some of the best online websites that have good lesson plans related to your school's curriculum?  Would you recommend she use a search engine designed for kids or one more appropriate for adults? Is there a particular search engine that is best for this type of topic? Do you have any tips about how to quickly find lesson plans for fifth graders about the Civil War? 

 
REQUIRED TASK: 

During this lab session, you'll have an opportunity to practice searching for lesson plans and educational websites using a specific search strategy to save you time in locating the most age-appropriate materials.  You'll explore search engines designed for adults as well as those designed to protect children from inappropriate content and pictures.  Finally, you'll be asked to copy information from a website with a good lesson plan into Microsoft Word and email it as an attachment for later access. 

After class, for homework, you'll be asked to repeat this process to locate an additional lesson plan related to your topic and email it to a classmate as an attachment.  You'll print out the lesson you receive from someone else and bring it back to class the following week. 
Beginning Strategies for Locating Educational Resources
  • Indicate the subject area or specific topic.
  • Use quotations to group two or more words together as a phrase.
  • Indicate Internet project, lesson plans, webquest, quiz, or class project using quotations as needed.
  • If level not appropriate, include the grade level or grade range in quotes (spell it out e.g. "third grade")
  • Connect all items, including the first, with a plus sign and no spaces.  If the search is too narrow, remove plus signs.
  • Look for keywords in annotations of links located from a similar search.
  • Follow links on one web site to locate other related links. 
SEE THE EXAMPLE BELOW...
 
Example: 
For information and activities about whales: 
Instead of whales, try...
+"lesson plans"+whales
+"second grade"+whales+
+whales+quiz
+whales+webquest
+whales+cyberhunt
+whales-"pilot whale" (to not get pilot whale sites) 
+whales+"clip art" (or click Images button)
+whales+images (or click Images button) 
Search Engines for Adults (Teachers) 
  • Google is an impressive search engine that locates relevant links quickly with very little clutter on its page.  It features an automated method that ranks web pages according to their popularity and number of times they are linked to other similar pages.  Its "I'm feeling lucky" button runs your search and then takes you straight to the web page of the number one hit.  http://www.google.com
  • Dogpile is a type of  meta-search engine searches 15 popular search engines (e.g. Alta Vista, Yahoo) all at the same time and reports results with the top 10 from each search engine.  You can continue using just one search engine or can customize your search to include only some search engines or customize the order the results are reported to you.   http://www.dogpile.com
  • See also the Educational Databases with Search Engines below to try a different search route. 
Search Engines for Children (Students) 

Try out the strategies we just used with the "adult" search engines to see the different results you'll find with these kid-friendly search tools.

    1. Yahooligans:  The information at this site is indexed by general categories. You can follow the categories to more specific information or you can just do an open-ended search through all the categories at that site.     http://www.yahooligans.com 
    2. Ask Jeeves for Kids: This search engine encourages children to ask questions in "plain English" and then helps learners fine tune their questions with a series of pull down menus and more specific questions.There is also an adult version of this site called Ask Jeeves. http://www.ajkids.com 
    3. Kids Click: This web search for kids was designed by librarians and search results are reported back in reading levels!  It also includes nine Internet searching lessons that teachers and parents can do with learners. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/ 



EXTENDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
You are not required to visit any of the resources listed in the following section as part of this course. These links are available to enrich your own use of technology in this course and as you move through the IBM program and out into your field experiences. 
Educational Databases with Searching Functions
  • ProTeacher allows you to search their entire collection of educational lessons 
  • MarcoPolo Search Engine provides access to all of the educational resources created by the MarcoPolo partners plus partner reviewed materials. 
  • Teachers Homepage from Scholastic.com includes grade level lesson plans, online activities and much more to search through. 
  • Gateway to Educational Materials provides searchable one-stop access to high quality lesson plans, curriculum units and other education resources on the Internet! 
 Other Search Engines for Teachers
  • FindArticles  Search through an archive of published articles dating back to 1988 from more than 300 magazines and journals.  This is great for locating research articles about educational topics. 
  • Microsoft Design Gallery Live:   Search and download clip art and import directly into your Microsoft clip art gallery on your computer.  Use in your word processing documents, slide shows and on web pages.  Good search terms for school related clip art are reading, books, teacher, and student. 

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