Google as an Instructional Search Engine
Welcome back for more about Google!
I have been using google for a long time now, and I imagine that many of you, if not all, use it as well. I open Google when I need to search for different topics, pictures, books, places, and more. But when I think about how my students can use Google search in a way they understand what they are doing and get what they need, it always concerns me. Even though Google makes searching straightforward, we need to remember that word choices and order are highly relevant to the results, and even when doing it right, we might end up getting undesirable content. That has probably happened multiple times to all of us.
I know it has happened to me. I was in the middle of a vocabulary lesson with my adult ESL students when one of them asked me if I could quickly find a particular picture for a word that he couldn’t translate in his own language. I was so engaged with the lesson and excited to show them how useful google search is that I didn’t think about what the possible outcome of that search could have been, and I quickly did it. I cannot explain my embarrassment when the results were showing explicit images using a common word. I had to quickly scroll down to find a more appropriate picture while everybody was laughing and my face was turning even redder. In the end, my students understood the meaning of it, but for me, this was a reminder of how important it is to be proactive by educating ourselves first to have better results later.
Going back to Google search, because in instructional setting things can go very well or very wrong in a second while working on the internet, it is always a good idea to take some time to revise what we know and what our learners should be aware of. I also think that it is essential to use different ways of delivering this type of instruction. I mean, that it is not only visual, but exploring other types of learning styles so all learners can have access to the same information.
So getting further in this topic, I found that the Google educational team has posted a series of instructional videos to prepare professionals in a variety of subjects to help to get the best out of our search, which are very detailed and fulfill many questions and concerns. In one of the videos, the authors suggest that it is critical to stop for a second and think what are you really looking for and search for your answer instead of for your question. It was also pointed out that just by typing your keywords is not enough. They recommend using the left side bar to refine your search even more. I found this last suggestion very helpful and I wanted to use it, but it was not accessible on my computer by using Safari or Google Chrome. Instead, I found right below the search bar a button called Tools that will open a drop-down menu from where you can select specific search criteria. There is also the Advanced Search link where you can specify what are you looking for when the Tools one doesn’t give you the options you want. If you try this, please let me know if you could see the left-side column with the option of color and more and what did you do to access to it.
Here is the link to a series of videos about google search:
https://www.google.com/intl/en-us/insidesearch/searcheducation/training.html
While searching for interesting information in this particular site (written in the above line), I also found that there are much more tools for educators and learners that can frequently be performed in the classroom using Google search. In the lesson plan section, for example, there is a variety of activities to engage students in learning about the culture, geography, history, and science according to their level of literacy. These activities, which they call “A Google a Day Challenge ” drive students through a set of instructions to help them to get to the bottom of their research for a particular question. These activities involve background knowledge, hints, how to find answers, more information with further questions, and follow up questions and more activities.
I think that this hands-on tool can enhance the way students search and will defiantly teach them to use Google search more efficiently. Here is the address for the A Google a Day Challenges https://www.google.com/intl/en-us/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html. I also attached below a couple of short videos that give a better explanation of what A Google a Day activities do and look like and a couple of PDFs that can be very handy.
Effective Googling
http://www.umsl.edu/~naumannj/Geography%20PowerPoint%20Slides/learning%20and%20study%20skills/Effective%20Googling.pps.
Better Searches. Better Results.
http://www.codlrc.org/sites/default/files/Google%20Better%20Searches.pdf
Overall I think that learning should be happening all the time and this is very possible using Google search. Once learners learn new things, they will take them back home, to friends, other teachers, and more.
And lastly, write a comment with your questions, ideas, additions to this topic and own experiences. I can’t wait to connect with you and learn more!
Thank you.
Kennia
9 Responses
Kennia, thank you for sharing your experiences with Google tools from your own classroom, and for sharing links to learn how to use these exciting tools. I've used Google tools for collaborating with other students and colleagues, but I really haven't used Google as a teaching tool, except for a few library instruction sessions this fall when we used Google Feud: http://www.googlefeud.com
As a librarian, I'ma also very interested and thankful that you have worked with students to develop search strategies. My belief is that today's big issue isn't a lack of information, but a lack of understanding about how people can get the information that they need. Search strategies are key!
My only question for you relates to the example you gave about inappropriate pictures appearing on the class search. Did you try to turn this into a "teachable moment" for your students, or was it something that you were too embarrassed to address and just moved on? Thank you for your blog!
Hello John, Thank you for your comment. It is good to know that I can be useful in this way.
I totally agree with you about the fact that nowadays students have many resources available to learn, but many don’t understand how to use it effectively.
And yes, I turned that “technology embarrassment" into a "teachable moment" after we all laugh a lot!
In my case, one of the most important component of my class, besides the instruction, is to build and maintain a very strong classroom community where everybody feel a sense of belonging so we can enjoy learning in many different ways. Serving immigrants from many countries is an amazing opportunity, but at the same time very challenging, principally because of the language barrier and the different cultural standards. But when I feel I have that, any mistake while teaching is easily turned into teaching and/or to show that because I am facilitating learning it doesn’t mean that I do all perfect. By contrast, me as a facilitator, have the opportunity to learn as well.
Once more, thank you for your input.
Kennia.
Kennia,
Thanks for sharing your experiences and appropriate guidelines to using google. I have been using google for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the "internet era" if you needed to know something quickly, you"d just "google it". It's been extremely efficient for me and I continue to google things daily.
Have you used the google docs function at all? It has been extremely helpful for me in my career. It enables a group of people to all work on the same document at the same time. As a football coach it has worked out great in terms of finding and evaluating recruits.
Looking forward to reading more about this.
Hi Kennia,
Great blog! I run Google Apps (or G Suite now) for education in a couple school districts that I work for. It has been a great resource not only for the faculty and staff but also for the students. Utilizing the Google infrastructure users have unlimited storage and can collaborate anywhere they have a web connection. It has extending the learning opportunities beyond the confines of the building and outside of normal school hours.
Looking forward to reading your blog throughout the course.
-Matt
Hello there!
As you said, Google has been a great addition to our life. From searching quickly for pretty much everything to the convenient use of many applications all in one place. Yes, I have used google docs and many other apps for personal reasons and as teaching tools. Soon I’ll be talking about many of those.
Thank you for your reply. 😀
Hi Matt!
It’s true! I love Google for teaching. I try to use most os the apps it offers as teaching tools and resources for my adult students. I don’t use Google Classroom though. I think you have to pay for it. Instead, I use schoology.com as LMS for one of my classes and it can be easily integrated with Google apps. Check that one out, you may like it.
Thanks for your response.
Hi Kennia,
I like your blog. I always use google as my search engine.
can we put youtube which is part of google as one of the learning tools for google?
Emmanuel.
Hi Emmanuel!
I believe so. YouTube is a great tool in nowadays classrooms and as you said it belongs to Google since 2006, I think.
Thank you.
I use google almost every day and I never really though about some of these points before. Sometimes I do not find what I am searching for and I have to try a few different searches until I get the results that I need.