Thing 9 - Google Blog Search

I guess that I should get over my Google fasination - but this is the search tool that I like best. It follows the form that Google searching has - so it would be familiar to students. I like that it has a time element showing - this gives the searcher some idea how current the item is. Also, it makes it easy to connect to your RSS reader.

I just think that there is something to be said for familiarity especially when you are dealing with little kiddos. They need that support - so for me, I think I would use the Google blog search. Now, another thought occurs. I think this opens another kettle of worms to deal with as far as the kiddos are concerned.

It is already difficult for them to understand that everything that they read is not necessarily gospel truth - blogs are going to often be oppinions. Now, for dealing with fact and opinion that is great - but when searching for FACTS, we really do need to be careful.

I sometimes think we need to create a cheatsheet checklist for the kids of what they can "trust" for factual info and what not. The list is getting extremely long - so I guess that begs the question that is behind all of this - we are moving from just learning how to "find" info into a time where we need to really begin to teach students, at a very young age, to evaluate what they find. That can be a very difficult concept for adults much less young pumpkins.