Teaching students how to really use the Internet

Hello!

A few days ago in class we started to learn about how we should search and research on the internet responsibly. To learn to do so we did a few activities. We first used Google A Day. Google A Day asks you to figure out an answer to a question without using any spoilers. This helps teach us how to search for things using the correct phrases to find an answer. The second activity we did was go over website accuracy, authenticity, and reliability. This second activity helped us identify good websites to use for research and searching to find good information.

So the first activity we did was Google A Day. The link to this website to learn even more is right here: http://www.agoogleaday.com/#game=started. Google A Day is a website, obviously run by Google. It works by asking you a question and you have to find the answer without using any spoilers. Surprisingly it is very hard! It was a lot of fun because we got to work together in groups and it was like we were all on a mission. Plus we had a bit of a competition going with other groups. It was a bit frustrating because some of the questions asked were hard to understand and therefor hard to find answers to. We learned a lot of good things from this activity including what were good phrases to research and what reliable websites were to use for the answers.

Accuracy, authenticity, and reliability are three key words to think about when looking at a website and trying to find reliable sources. Accuracy according to Google definitions is "the quality or state of being correct or precise" so for a website this would mean it had correct information on it. Authenticity, also according to Google definitions, is "the quality of being authentic" but what is authentic? Authentic is genuine, true, and real. Authentic for a website doesn't just mean the information is real but you have a good author of the website. Now reliability according to dictionary.com is "...depended on, as for accuracy, honesty, or achievement". This would mean for a website that the source is able to be depended on for the information given. It means that it is true, up to date, and usable. Now many people have heard of the website for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. This website is all about the FAKE tree octopus that someone has made up. The information seems accurate and authentic and reliable but it is not true. You can't use it as a school website because it reaches none of the words listen above. To learn more about the FAKE Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus go to this website here: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/.

Julianna