Can I drop a google bomb on some teachers?
Nov 3rd, 2007 by Cathy Nelson
Problem Background:
I am new in my district this year, even though I’m a 22 year veteran. This week I had a couple of sixth grade science teachers ask about using the library computers (20 in all) for a webquest they were completing, because there were some unavailable times in the computer lab to them. I of course agreed to have them, and the teachers assured me there was nothing I needed to do. Trying to be accommodating, I suggested at the bare minimum, I could have the webquest bookmarked, add it to the library’s home page for one click easy access, or just downright already have it loaded to save the teachers and their kids time. I received no follow up from the teachers, and quite honestly worked on other issues or projects when they came.
But I was alarmed at the neediness of the kids. Problems ranged from not having enough computers to students unable to locate the webquest. I looked at the handout and found a very long crazy URL, and understood completely why so many were having a hard time. But in the middle of this class was not the time to explain how I could have helped avert the issues. So I tried to help as much as I could, and just kept my mouth closed. Obviously I need to have a sit down talk with the sixth grade science teachers. NOTE to self: get with these two teachers. I didn’t need to wait long, as one of them came to me Thursday, asking about bringing a class back to the library one more time since the lab was booked for the next day. The problem she had was that she was going to be absent, and so the class would be with a special ed teacher who normally only works with a few kids in the class who are being served with special services in the “inclusion” format. She wanted me to be available to help. GREAT! Here’s my opportunity to at least explain how to better address this project, and how I could make it easier for the kids to not only find the webquest, but also find answers to the questions. I discovered that the teacher had planned for the kids to “google” their questions, and then copy/paste answers (as well as the URL where it came from) and appropriate pictures. Aye-aye-aaye how wrong! But it was too late to change this, as apparently the kids had been doing just this in the lab across the hall all week. I asked her why not have them use Discus (our state virtual library), Ebsco ( a subscription database), and pictures from United Streaming? She confessed she didn’t understand those resources, and she had been able to find everything they would need just using Google, so she felt they would be able to as well. She said next time they have a similar project, we could talk about those resources, and she would decide for her self whether or not to use them, but for the next day, they were to use Google. So I asked to at least send me the URL so it would be ready for them. She assured me she would. Late Thursday PM I got an email saying here is the URL, but there was no URL. Bummer. She didn’t respond when I replied with that information that there wasn’t a URL.
To say that when the kids came was a train wreck was putting it lightly. They did not know how to find the information, they were copying and pasting everything, and were not even remotely interested in anything accept Google. It was quite ugly how frustrated the kids were.
So here is my action plan:
• Meet with teachers regarding the project
• Show how Discus, Ebsco, and United Streaming would have been a lot easier to use for the research
• Talk about the inappropriate way kids were citing sources, and how teaching that material in ELA classes will not help them in science. Demonstrate that the content about citing should have been taught in the context of this lesson when it was needed (like while doing the webquest in Science)
• Finally, explain how including me in the planning stages will give them a third person who has a totally different perspective and might be able to offer suggestions and/or solutions to potential problems. (Had I known the plan was to turn kids loose on Google in the pre-planning stages, I would have given them good options for research that would have been safer, refereed, more authoritative, and probably closer to the kids grade level too.) And I could have taken the chance to actually teach the kids (and their teachers) about better quality searching.
So—I have my work cut out for me. I hope they are receptive to this. And I am shocked that my teachers do not know about Discus, Ebsco, or using their teacher librarian as a teaching partner. Totally caught me off guard, this did. But it also excites me to no end! I have so much to share.
This happens so often. A teacher will decide to “use Google” but doesn’t do any pre-work or does their own search and assumes it will work for the kids as well.
Is there a “computer teacher” at your school? It sounds like it all falls in your lap. Inventory too? Wow.
I have similar things happen. Two years ago, a teacher gave students a project to research minor prophets from the old testament. The kids had huge problems, but I turned it into a research lesson the next week on how to improve searches. I didn’t really start looking at online databases until I heard a Teachers Teaching Teachers podcast in the late summer. This is something I will be working on during the year.
At least you have plenty to teach the teachers and students. It’s so hard to try to help in the middle of a project when pre-planning could have made it so much more effective.
Cathy,
This is your chance to reach these teachers and kids. It may be a great time to introduce RSS feeds which can be very powerful when doing a long-term webquest. It sounds as though these teachers may not be familiar with anything but Google. This brings up the important fact that before we expect our students to learn from the internet, we need to be learning from the internet. Google is easy, and these teachers seem to be trying to find the easy way to do this assignment.
Cathy,
I feel your pain!
Very few of our teachers know how to properly set up an online research project – across all age and experience levels (younger teachers are no more savvy than their older counterparts).
Since we’re a small district (600 kids, K-12), I’ve been able to address this problem on a class by class basis. As staff members come in to request library research time, I offer to find appropriate sites on their topics. Then I save hotlinks on a filamentality page and create a tiny URL for it. I have mentioned EBSCO at faculty meetings and in emails, but very few of our classes use its resources (still working on that promotion, since we get EBSCO free through our state library).
My main problem is with teachers who (a)bring their classes to a computer lab when I’m not present or (b)send individual students to the LMC to “look something up”. In both cases, Google is the search engine of choice.
I use Google a lot myself, but it is not the best site for inexperience searchers! The person in charge of our school website asked me for suggestions for the library page. I requested links to our online catalog, the BOCES union catalog (for ILL), EBSCO, Clusty, Ask, Library Spot, KidsClick, Fact Monster, Copyright Kids, and Son of Citation Machine.
We’ll see if this helps the situation at all.
diane
Cathy,
I visited your school 2 years ago as a master teacher liason for the program the 8th grade was doing with Clemson. I used the media center to teach the teachers how to search for the information they needed and told them that students were required to use DISCUS and EBSCO to begin all searches and could only use Google Safe Search as a last resort and should only access it through the Student Page on the HCS webpage. Needless to say – they were amazed, knew nothing about using these resources or what was on the HCS webpage. Good luck in your endeavors!
I have a slightly different view to share with you that you may not have considered… What happens when the DISCUS, EBSCO or other school resources are not available to the kids when they grow up and have to research things outside your neat and tidy little environment? I’ll tell you what would happen… They wouldn’t know how to find a thing. Having them use the freely available, widely known, internet resources that are found everywhere and accessible everywhere will teach them the skills they actually need to get things done. Unfortunately it seems that for a long time now schools get far too isolated from reality.
Bill, I do not advocate steering kids completely away from Google, I just think the assignment in question here would have been more successful if the students had been encouraged to use the databases first. Also, I saw first hand how students were accepting anything they ran across in Google, whether it was authoritative or not. I wrote not really to dismiss Google, but instead focus attention on the lack of collaboration, and how some collaboration could have offered me a chance to provide guidance on searching refereed resources, or in the very least, if Google was insisted upon by the teacher, to give some direction in deciding if a google site was accurate (evaluating web sites.) I’m sure my topic was misleading.