1. Teaching Ten Steps to
Better Web Research
Fall CUE
October 25, 2013
By Mark E. Moran
Dulcinea Media

2. Links to studies & articles discussed
are at the end of this presentation and
at
http://bit.ly/FallCUE

3. Dulcinea Media provides free content & tools that
help educators teach students how to use the
Internet effectively.
http://www.DulcineaMedia.com
SweetSearch, A Search Engine for Students
www.SweetSearch.com
Sign-up for our free daily newsletter:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/info/newsletter.html
Follow us on Twitter:
@findingDulcinea

4. Educator Reviews of Dulcinea Media

5. Educator Reviews

6. Educator Reviews

7. Our generation

8. Their generation

9. “Digital natives are
extraordinarily sophisticated
and strangely narrow.” 1

10. In 2010 Dulcinea
In 2010 Dulcinea
Media Surveyed
Media Surveyed
300 middle and
300 middle and
high school
high school
students in New
students in New
York. 22
York.

11. Conclusions….
A majority of students:
 don’t know how to form a sound search query;
 don’t have a strategy for dealing with poor
results;
 can’t articulate how they know content is
credible;
 don’t check the author or date of an article.

12.  “Students’ high level of
browsing… at the expense of
thinking about information
need, planning for strategies
and evaluating obtained
information.”3
-- Shu Hsien L. Chen (2003)

13. College Students in 2010
 “[S]tudents’ level of faith in their search engine
of choice is so high that they do not feel the
need to verify for themselves who authored the
pages they view or what their qualifications
might be.”4
-- Eszter Hargittai, et al
Northwestern University
Int’l J. of Communications 4 (2010)

14. • Not one of the 600 college students surveyed
“could give an adequate conceptual definition of how
Google returns results….the word ‘magic’ came up a
lot.”5 --ERIAL study (Illinois)

15. • “Electronic media can “overwhelm youth with
information that they may not have the skills or
experience to evaluate.” And literacy skills
overlap with safety skills.6
-- Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
March 2010

16. Students’ Primary “Strategy”
... wildly firing random
terms into a search box,
and hoping they’ll get
lucky.

17. Why Teach Web Research?
“[T]he [b]illions spent to wire schools
is of little
use unless students know how to retrieve useful
information from the oceans of sludge on the
Web.”7
-- Geoffrey Nunberg
UC Berkeley School of Information

18. “Participation Gap”
 Students with
support are
finding ways to
thrive in complex
digital information
environment.8

19. • Students without access to librarians teaching
Web research skills show up at college “beyond
hope”….”they have learned to ‘get by’ with
Google.“9
-- University College London

20. A “New Divide”
 Students with access
to librarians teaching
Web research skills
“take prize of better
grades” in college.9

21. An Informed Internet Citizenry
“Initiatives that help educate people in this domain…
could play an important role in achieving an
informed Internet citizenry.” 4
-- Eszter Hargittai, et al

23. Improving Search Skills Starts With
Educators

24.  Emerging research indicates that many teachers
do not have the necessary skills to navigate the
Internet.
-- Barbara Combes, Professor,
Edith Cowan University, Australia

25. “Students see educators
modeling an effective
research process and
learn from it.”
-Colette Cassinelli
librarian/ technology teacher
Portland, OR

26. There is No Quick Fix
 Effective web research skills cannot be
learned in a week, a semester, or a year.

27. Must Be Integrated into Curriculum
 “[L]leaving information literacy to librarians alone
suggests a failure to understand the scope of
the problem.” 7
-- Geoffrey Nunberg

28.  Web research skills must be taught throughout
primary school years to break the “culture of
use” currently seen in this generation of users.
-- Barbara Combes

29. A New Approach?
 Educators must teach broad concepts and
strategies, not how to use specific tools.
-- Authors of ERIAL study

30. “Use better interfaces and more sophisticated
indexing methods to nudge students, incrementally,
toward competence.”5
- Casper Grathwohl
Oxford University Press

31.  “Unless we can
demonstrate some
measurable payoff to
searching, students
aren’t going to do it.”5
- Lisa Rose-Wiles, Librarian
Seton Hall University

32. A New Approach?
“We have shown the importance of looking at the whole
process of information seeking and content
evaluation…
from the first decision about which search engine
or Web site to consult initially…
to the final stage of settling on a page with the
sought-after content.” 4
---Eszter Hargittai, et al

33. How Do Effective Researchers
Behave?
• Start general with several keywords
• Try new combinations in a systemic manner
• Use more precise, or even natural language.
• Look well beyond the first few results, and return
often to favorite, reliable sites.

34. Habitudes
• Curiosity
• Perseverance
• Adaptability

35. Step 1: Where to Search
• The Internet may not be the best place to
start; databases may help you find what you’re
seeking far faster.

36. Step 1: Where to Search
• Students should not count on search engines
exclusively.
•Educators should recommend individual sites.
• Use student-friendly tools for aggregating
your own favorite sites. e.g. Symbaloo or Diigo.

37. Step 1: Where to Search
• Give students a list of
10 sites.
• Students must defend
their sources before they
start writing.
-Michelle Baldwin
-Anastasis Academy

38. Step 1: Where to Search – Learn from
Others

39. Step 2: Try Several Search Engines

40. Step 2: Use Several Search Engines
• Suggest a two-week “Google Holiday” to
lessen dependency.
• Introduce meta-search engines (eg. Zuula).
More about search engines: http://bit.ly/bO7FbB

41. Step 2: Try Several Search Engines…..
• SweetSearch searches
35,000 websites that research
experts have evaluated and
approved.
• SweetSearch4Me features
sites for emerging learners.
•We created these, yet don’t
use them exclusively– we use
the full range of resources.

42. Step 3: Think Before You Search
“If you don’t know
where you’re going,
you’ll probably end
up somewhere else.”
- Yogi Berra

43. Step 3: Think Before You Search
Students should rewrite
assignments in their
own words.
Next, students should
write out the questions
they want their research
to answer.
-Angela Maiers,
- Digital Literacy expert

44. Step 3: Think Before You Search
 Writing questions helps
students explore the
topic from different
angles.

45. Step 3: Think Before You Search
Writing questions helps students focus in on
the area of interest to them.

46. Step 3: Think Before You Search
Thorough questions
let students know
when their research
is complete–when
their questions have
been answered.

47. Good Questions --> Good Search Terms
 Extract keywords from your questions.
Pair main keywords serially with lesser
keywords.
 Choose nouns instead of verbs.

48. Take a bottoms up approach.

49. Cover the Whole Field
 Use 2 or 3 keywords;
 in many combinations;
 important words first;
 adjust incrementally;
 cover the “whole field.”

50. Search Engines, Not Answer Machines
The goal:
 Provide keywords in the search box
 that help you find documents
 that are helpful to your research.

51. Match Words in Search Box to Words on the
Page
“Imagine your dream document.
What words would the author of that
document definitely include?”
-Joyce Valenza
Never Ending Search
School Library Journal

52. Teach students not to
expect magic “answers.”

53. Instead, they want to
find relevant and
authoritative sources
from which they can
extract their own
answers.

54. Step 4: Dig deep for the best results
• Many websites rank high for reasons
unrelated to the quality of their content.
• Professionals and academics don’t “optimize”
their content for search engines, so it usually
does not appear at the top.
• Don’t stop at the first page!!

55. Step 4: Dig deep….
• Google and other search engines optimize their
results for adults, who want to know “what
happened today.”
•Google continually strives to deliver “fresher”
results.
• For school research, “fresher” is not usually
better.

56. Step 4: Dig deep….
• With Yolink users can browse search results in
context without opening them.
• Integrated into SweetSearch, Yolink can be used
on other sites through a browser add-on.
•SweetSearch = “better indexing,” Yolink = “better
interface” suggested by Oxford University Press.

57. Step 5: Make Search Engines Work for You
• Quotation marks are a critical tool students
should know when to use.
• But advanced search options are the best way
to mandate or exclude certain words.

58. Step 5: Make Search Engines Work for You
• Learn the AROUND function.
• Search “Kennedy" AROUND(10) “moon” and
the top results will be ones in which Kennedy
appears within ten words of moon.
•NOTE: both search terms must be in quotes,
AROUND must be capitalized, and the number
must be in parentheses.

59. Step 5: Make Search Engines Work for You
• As you search, add new keywords.
• Avoid “looping” by documenting your search
with a bookmarking tool, or keep a written
record.

60. Step 6: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Students should think like a detective.
•A dose of healthy skepticism is required.
•Information is only as good as its source.
• No single element determines credibility.
•ALWAYS verify critical information with
several sources.

61. Step 7: Find Primary Sources
•Think of primary sources such as photos,
diaries and newspapers as “eyewitness
accounts” – which are generally more reliable
than second-hand information.
More: http://bit.ly/6CnTrq

62. Step 7: Looking at the Original Source?
• If you suspect a site may not be the original
source of information, google a key phrase.
• If the phrase appears on another site,
evaluate the credibility of that site.
More: http://bit.ly/9k6a2v

63. Step 8: Who Published the Article?
• Do editors or experts review the information?
Is it thorough?
• Do the author and publisher have a wellestablished reputation? Search their names in a
search engine.

64. Step 8: Who Published the Article?
• If the site does not provide the name of the
publisher and its editors you
on it.
cannot rely
• Even if it “looks good or sounds good.”

65. Step 8: Who Published the Article?
• See 10 Reasons Why
Students Can’t Cite
Wikipedia.
More: http://bit.ly/dlxX6i

66. Step 8: Who Published the Article?
Assessing the top level domain (.com. .gov,
.org, .edu) is not as useful as commonly
believed.
•
• Be wary of sites containing words like
"free/discount/best/your/Web.”
• Be critical of sites where advertisements blend
with content.

67. Step 9: Why Was the Article Written?
• Always ask, “why did the writer write this?”
• Is the site trying to sell you something?
• Does the site have any social or political
biases? Eg. WhiteHouse.gov is not a neutral
source for information on U.S. Presidents.

68. Step 9: Why Was the Article Written?
• Many websites that appear to offer valid
information but were created for another
purpose.
•More: http://bit.ly/9dzELE

69. Step 10: When was information written
or last revised?
• Determine when an article was published or
last updated.
• If you can’t, then confirm the currency of the
information elsewhere.
• Use a news search engine, add the current
year as a search term, or Advanced Search
Options to restrict dates (imperfect).
More: http://bit.ly/9dzELE

70. The End?
Yes, but it’s only the beginning of our efforts to
help educators teach students how to use the
Web effectively.
In Fall 2013, Mark Moran and Angela Maier will
release their co-authored book, “Digital
Literacy: Lessons for Leaders and Learners.”

71. Works Cited:
1. Born Digital, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
2. Mark E. Moran and Shannon Firth, “A Study of Students Online Behavior,” March 2010.
http://blog.findingdulcinea.com/2011/06/a-study-of-students-online-research-behavior.html
3. Shu-Hsien L. Chen. “Searching the Online Catalog and the World Wide Web.” Journal of
Educational Media & Library Sciences, 41 1 (September 2003) 29-43
4. Eszter Hargittai etal, “Trust Online: Young Adults’ Evaluation of Web Content,” International
Journal of Communications 4 (2010), 468-494, 1932-8036/20100468
5. Steve Kolowich, Searching for Better Research Habits, Inside Higher Ed, September 29, 2010
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/29/search
6. On “Empowering Parents and Protecting Children in an Evolving Media landscape” Berkman
Center for Internet & Society. February 24, 2010. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5951
(cont’d)

72. Works Cited:
7. Geoffrey Nunberg, “Teaching Students to Swim in the Online Sea,” The New York Times,
February 13, 2005.
8.Project Information Literacy Smart Talk, no. 3, John Palfrey, "Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital
Age?" September 1, 2010. http://projectinfolit.org/st/palfrey.asp
9. . UCL. “Information behavior of the researcher of the future”: 11 January 2008.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf
10. Media Post: Google Research Focuses on Search Failures, September 21, 2010
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=136114&nid=118854

73. Survey:
Dulcinea Media Links:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/82BM99Z
SweetSearch 10 Steps:
http://www.SweetSearch.com/TenSteps
Yolink:
http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/
Primary Sources:
http://bit.ly/6CnTrq
Original Source?
http://bit.ly/9k6a2v
Can’t Cite Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/dlxX6i
Who?
http://bit.ly/9dzELE
Why?
http://bit.ly/aTfAPo
When?
http://bit.ly/cZDEig