Find What You Need Online: Where to Access the Internet and How to Search for Resources - Mobile Learning Remix
Lesson Title
Find What You Need Online: Where to Access the Internet and How to Search for Resources
Abstract
This lesson is geared toward adult learners who have limited or no experience using the internet to find information. Students will be able to use what they learn in this lesson to find a location in their community to access the internet as well as use search strategies to narrow down search "hits" in order to find relevant resources when researching a topic or idea.
Learner Audience / Primary Users
The intended audience for this course are adult learners who have limited or no experience using the internet to find information and may need to use public locations (e.g. the library) to obtain access.
Educational Use
- Curriculum / Instruction
- Informal Education
College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) Alignment
- Level: Adult Education
- Grade Level: A
- Subject: English Language Arts / Literacy
- Strand: Writing
- Standard Description:
- CCR Anchor 8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
- A. With guidance and support, recall information from experience or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Language
English
Material Type
- Instructional Material
Learning Goals
The purpose of this lesson is for learners to be able to:
- Identify places in the local community where a computer with internet access may be available for the public to use.
- Apply modifiers to an internet search to find resources that will most likely contain relevant information to a topic or idea being researched.
Keywords
- Designers for Learning
- Adult Education
- Internet search
- Internet access
- Search terms
- Search modifiers
- Internet research
- Mobile Learning
Time Required for Lesson
45 minutes
Prior Knowledge
None
Required Resources
It would be ideal to conduct this lesson in a computer lab where each student has access to the internet on his or her own computer. However, this lesson can be modified to a space where:
- The room has one computer accessible by the instructor with an overhead projector or screen.
- Instructor and students bring whatever mobile devices they have from home and access the internet via wireless connection.
- Instructor brings mobile device from home and class passes around.
- Small group gathers around a computer at a local library with instructor demonstrating initially and then class breaks out to smaller groups to practice on other available computers.
Lesson Author & License
- Lesson Author: Jill J. Giacomini
- License: Creative Commons License; Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license
Part 2: Lesson
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
- Identify places in the local community where a computer with internet access may be available for the public to use.
- Apply modifiers to an internet search to find resources that will most likely contain relevant information to a topic or idea being researched.
Lesson Topics
Key topics covered in this lesson include:
- Public Places to Access the Internet
- How to Use Modifiers to Find What You Need Online
Context Summary
This lesson helps learners, regardless of their experience with using the internet, to understand that there are public places where the internet is available to them and to learn how to use modifiers to conduct a search online to find information that they need for any purpose.
Relevance to Practice
The key issues addressed in this lesson are relevant to learners because, despite the prevalence of the internet, there are still many who do not have access in their home and are not aware of public places where it is available to them. Further, once they have gained access, it can be overwhelming to sort through the thousands of “hits” and know how to zero in on the information that is needed.
Key Terms and Concepts
- Internet
- Online Searches
- Search Engine
- Assess Websites for Quality
- Modifiers
Instructional Strategies and Activities
Warm-Up
Time: 7 minutes
Ask students to recall a time when they needed to find information about something specific. The need could be for school or their personal life. It might be that they needed to find information on a particular topic for an assignment; they were trying to figure out how to pay for a ticket they received; or their son had a rash on his arm and they were trying to decide if he needed to go to the doctor. Give students a few minutes to brainstorm, on their own, as many topics or ideas as they can think of and ask them to make a list.
Introduction
Time: 5 minutes
Ask students to look at their list and identify what they did to find the answer. Did they ask a friend? Did they look in a phone book? The discussion will likely move to looking up the answer on the internet. Explain that this lesson will focus on accessing the internet, finding relevant information about a topic or idea, and evaluating what you find on the internet.
Presentation / Modeling / Demonstration
Time: 8 minutes
Begin with a discussion about how they typically access the internet. Home computer? Phone? Somewhere else? Ask the class about where one could access the internet if he or she does not have access on their own phone or at home. Be prepared to prompt students if needed by doing some research prior to class to identify specific places in the community where your students could go and what they might need to do in order to gain access (i.e., at a library may need to sign up for a library card first or if have a wireless device would need to know how to connect to the WiFi network). Make a list that all students can see that records their responses.
Guided Practice
Time: 10 minutes
- Distribute the “Better Searches. Better Results.” worksheet created by Google which lists multiple modifiers that allows an individual to refine searches using things like exact phrases or similar words. (In the event that the included link is broken, this worksheet can be searched for and is posted in multiples places on the web, or a similar worksheet listing modifiers can be substituted.)
- Go through the list and discuss what a modifier is and how students can use it to refine their own search results.
- Select a topic from the brainstorming session your students completed in the Warm Up Exercise.
- Demonstrate how to open a browser window and use a search engine to search for specific terms.
- Demonstrate how to use modifiers to progressively refine results.
- Compare the number of "hits" that are listed when simply putting keywords into the search engine v. using modifiers.
- Once a relevant resource is found, explore the source to determine if the information that was being sought is included.
- If you have time, you may choose to have a brief discussion about what to look for to generally assess the reliability of a particular source. See Protecting Your Data on the Web: Evaluating Websites in Supplementary Resources.
Evaluation
Time: 15 minutes
Complete the Guided Practice exercise listed above again, and ask the students to “drive” the exercise. Ask students to use one of the topics or ideas from the list they came up with during the brainstorming activity to conduct their own internet search. Distribute an Internet Search Worksheet for students to use to complete their own search (assuming there is access to computers) that asks for topic, keywords and modifiers used in searches, number of hits, and if search was effective. Explain the Mobile Scavenger Hunt Assignment for the students to do at home before the next class (refer to attachment below). Explain that students will need access to a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. Explain they will need access to the internet as well. If students do not have a mobile device or internet access at home, they can be allowed time next class to use mobile devices brought into class by the instructor. (Assignment uses Facebook, however, if the instructor uses other online means to generate group discussions outside of class, those can be used as a substitute).
Application
Time: N/A
Next class, students will have completed their Mobile Scavenger Hunt Assignment using a mobile device. Students will also bring in their list of three topics or ideas they want to know more information about and use it in class to conduct internet searches.
Part 3: Supplementary Resources & References
Supplementary Resources
Better searches. Better results.
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//educators/downloads/Tips_Tricks_17x22.pdf
Protecting Your Data on the Web: Evaluating Websites
https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=348478&p=2347798
References
Better searches. Better results.
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//educators/downloads/Tips_Tricks_17x22.pdf
Protecting Your Data on the Web: Evaluating Websites
https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=348478&p=2347798
This course content is offered by Designers for Learning under a CC Attribution license.
Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted. Page
(Design Guide effective March 29, 2016)