-INDEX OF ADVENTURES-

INTRODUCTION

As you are probably aware, the amount of information available to you through your computer is growing at an exponential rate. Today, everyone can be an author. All you need to do is write up your idea and post it online. With the advent of blogs and wikis, it is even easier. So how do you make sense of all this information? How do you search the endless web and find information that you can trust and use?

These questions are addressed in what has now become known as information literacy. Literacy used to mean you were able to read, comprehend, write and speak a language. However, that is not enough any more. Now we talk about multiple literacies that include Digital Literacy, Media Literacy and Information Literacy.

This collection of adventures will help you explore aspects of these three literacies and 21st century skills related to each.

Adventure 1: Visualizing Information
Adventure 2: How can I improve my ability to verify information on the web?
Adventure 3: Can you spot the "Fake"? How to spot a hoax web site.
Adventure 4: Understanding the strengths and weakness of both open internet searches and paid databases
Adventure 5: How do you know if it's plagiarism?
Adventure 6: What was published in the New York Times on your birthday?

ADVENTURE 1

Objective: This adventure will give you a chance to explore a new way of viewing information-the visualization of information.

DIRECTIONS

With the incredible amount of information available to you through your computer, how can you effectively search and sort through the information? One aspect of 21st century information tools is the use of Tags. Tags are simply words that are used to categorize information. If you use any “web 2.0” tool, you have seen tags. Picture and video sharing sites such as Flickr and Youtube as well as most blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking sites use tags. Since tags are assigned by the users, they are a form of taxonomic system known as a folksonomy. There is also no formal standard for the use of tags. This means that tags can be messy.

This adventure will allow you to explore the use of tags in multiple environments. Look through the following sites looking for information of interest. Each site has its own characteristic so descriptions have been provided to help you in your journey.

Universe: This site is a new form of software that allow you to search news stories. Enter a word and see what happens. The word you enter will become the center of the universe and any news story that is related to that term will enter into orbit around the term. Move your mouse around the universe and you will see shapes or constellations appear. At the bottom of the screen, check out the links to shapes and secrets.

  • What happens if you click on a shape or secret?
  • Can you continue to click until you get the story?
  • What is this tool doing?
  • How might it be useful for visualizing information?

Del.icio.us: You can explore this site more through the adventures related to social bookmarking. This is a wonderful site with rich information. Conduct searches in the del.icio.us environment. The terms you enter should be single words. Del.icio.us uses single words as tags. This means that there are many compound words used as tags. You can also combine tags. However, don’t use quotation marks when searching del.icio.us. Try the following tags and build your own searches on the following topics:

  • Educationalblogging
  • Education blogs
  • 21stcenturyskills
  • Search terms of your choice
  • Share tags or search another person's tags: http://del.icio.us/bigenhoc
  • What happens when you click on the pink link “saved by ### people”?
  • How does this change the way you do research?
  • What new skills are necessary with these new tools?

Queens Library: This site demonstrates how a library has organized its collection so that it can be viewed through tag clouds. Enter a term in the search box and see what comes up. Follow the tags on the left.

  • What happens when you click on one of the tags?
  • How is this similar to Universe?

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ADVENTURE 2

Objective: This adventure will walk you through several special search techniques which will help you to evaluate sites and information you find through Internet searches. Each search activity below provides more information that you can use to judge the value of a site.

DIRECTIONS

Characteristics of Search Engines

Search engines have different search formulas that provide different results. Try the following searches in several search engines. Compare your initial results.

Search Terms

  • “American Revolution”
  • Hitler
  • “educational blogging”
  • Try your own search term

Search Engines

Limiting Searches by Country

You want to do a paper on the American Revolution? Type “American Revolution” in Google and look at your results. Pay attention to the country domains in the web addresses. If you do not see any country codes (i.e. mx= Mexico, uk=United Kingdom etc.) the web site is then from the USA. Now enter the following search term to your Google search and see what you get.

Now you are looking at sites that come from the United Kingdom. You can now read about the American Revolution from a British perspective. What other types of searches can you think of where this could be helpful? Want to try more?

Here you will find a list of Internet country codes that you can add to your searches. Create your own custom search. How about child soldiers in Sri Lanka? Build the search and you will get news stories and other sites from Sri Lanka on the topic of child soldiers.

Who Links to a Web site?

Knowing who links to a web site can help you determine the bias or validity of the information. Try the following search patterns:

  • Start a Google search with the following term:

    • Find and follow the link shown below

What does it say about the bias of the site? Go to the site and read the introduction. Now we want to see who is linking to this site.

  • Use the search string below:

What type of sites are linking to this page? If this does not give you a clear picture, try another type of search which will allow you to search a specific site for specific content.

What specific information is on a specific web site?

You can learn more about a web site by searching for information that you know should be there.

  • Try the search below:

What does this tell you about the bias of the site? Try these techniques with other search terms.

How do these searches enter into new literacies for the 21st Century?

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ADVENTURE 3

Objective: This adventure will introduce you to ways that you can spot a "fake" web site.

DIRECTIONS

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ADVENTURE 4

Objective: This activity will give you a chance to compare information available freely on the Internet and that which is available through paid databases.

DIRECTIONS

  • Learn what the Fibonacci sequence is by comparing a Google search to a search on Brain Pop
    • Click on Google and type in “Fibonacci sequence”
  • Compare a Google search to research in an online subscription database.
    • Search “Martin Luther King” on Google
    • What are the sources for the first four hits?
    • What do you know about the reputation for reliability for each of these sources?
    • Which ones have information that you feel is reliable to use for writing a paper on this topic?
  • Search “Martin Luther King” on Ebsco’s History Reference Center
    • Directions:
      • Go to: http://search.ebscohost.com
      • Username: nais
      • Password: EBSCO
      • Select History Reference Center
      • Click on History Reference Center again
      • Type “ Martin Luther King” as your search term and click Search
    • What are the sources for the first four hits? What do you know about the reputation for reliability for each of these sources?
    • Look at the tabs across the top. What other kinds of sources besides articles come up with your search?
  • Compare a Google search to research in an online subscription database.
    • Type the word “Obama” into Google
    • What are the first 5 hits that come up? Why?
    • Of the hits on the first page, which would have the most biased information? The least biased?
  • Type “Obama” into Ebsco
    • Directions:
      • Go to: http://search.ebscohost.com
      • Username: nais
      • Password: EBSCO
      • Select Academic Search Premier
      • Click on the “Advanced Search” tab at the top
      • Type “ obama” as your search term
      • Check off “Full text” and “Cover Story” then click “Search”
    • What are the first 5 hits that come up? Why?
    • Of the hits on the first page, which would have the most biased information? The least biased?

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ADVENTURE 5

Objective: This activity will introduce you to a couple of tutorials that will walk you through the process of understanding plagiarism and how you can mitigate plagiarism in your classroom. How do you know if it's plagiarism?

DIRECTIONS

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ADVENTURE 6

Objective: Find the front page of the New York Times on your birthday

DIRECTIONS

  • Go to: http://trials.proquest.com/ptc?userid=2552237
  • Password: nais
    • Click on “ProQuest Historical Newspapers”
    • In the box on the right that says “What Happened on…” type your birthday in mm/dd/yyyy format, click search
    • Use the advanced search features on the left to select the New York Times from the “Publication” drop down menu
    • For “Article Type,” check off “Front Page” and uncheck any other article type
    • For the first article, click on “page map”
    • If you do not see the front page, use the drop down menu next to “Page” and click on 1
    • Read the news for your data of birth.
    • Click on the headline of any news story to read the entire news story

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Link to Universe Link to quees Library Link to del.icio.us Link to del.icio.us