Cultural Competence in the Classroom

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"Why Do I Have To Memorize This, When I Can Just Google It?"

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"If we teach today's students, as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow" - John Dewey

I bet you've heard this one before: "Why do I have to memorize this, when I can just Google it?" We should listen to our students ... I think they might be on to something!

We as teachers need to stop wasting our time feeding students with trivial facts and information that they can easily get online from reliable sources. 



Any of these sound familiar? They should, because students today are STILL being required to "memorize" these facts. Why? Because of standardized state testing! Having students memorize useless information is a complete waste of their time and education, when they can easily get the answers to these questions in a matter of seconds, online. We as teachers need to spend more class time on the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy such as Application, Analysis, and Evaluation, rather than focusing on Remembering by regurgitating facts.

If we as teachers are going to make our students memorize anything, we should be teaching them how to memorize where they can find the answers to these questions. 

Its like the old saying, If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time. 

I am suggesting that if we teach students how to successfully harness their inquiry by conducting effective research, then we are empowering them to take ownership of their own learning, thus becoming life-long learners.

Students today need to know how to successfully conduct research in order to solve their own problems. Moreover, in order to efficiently perform research, students need to know HOW to access the fastest, most reliable resources to get information as 21st century learners. To help with this issue, I have provided some helpful resources, tools, and "research" on the topic of research.

Below are some excellent research tools and resources that students can use to conduct effective research.

Research: Reliable Resources

Practice
agoogleaday.com/

 Research

For Video
http://www.youtube.com/education
http://www.schooltube.com/
http://www.teachertube.com/





Below are some helpful tips to tell if a website is reliable. These are tips that ALL students should know when conducting research online!

Eight Ways To Tell If A Website Is Reliable

"The Internet can be a wonderful reporting tool for journalists. Data that once was only found in paper documents can now often be accessed with the click of a mouse, and research that once took hours or days can be done in minutes.
But for every reputable website there are probably 100 that are full of information that's inaccurate, unreliable or worse.

Here are eight ways to tell if a website is reliable.

1. Look for Sites from Established Institutions

The web is full of websites that were started five minutes ago. What you want are sites associated with trusted institutions that have been around for awhile and have a proven track record of reliability and integrity.

2. Look for Sites With Expertise

You wouldn't go to an auto mechanic if you broke your leg, and you wouldn't go to the hospital to have your car repaired. I'm making an obvious point: Look for websites that specialize in the kind of information you're seeking. So if you're writing a story on a flu outbreak, check out medical websites, and so on.

3. Steer Clear of Commercial Sites

Sites run by companies and business - their websites usually end in .com - are more often than not trying to sell you something. And if they're trying to sell you something, chances are whatever information they're presenting will be tilted in favor of their product.

4. Beware Bias

Reporters write a lot about politics, and there are plenty of political websites out there. But many of them are run by groups that have a bias in favor of one political party or philosophy. A conservative website isn't likely to report objectively on a liberal politician, and vice versa. Steer clear of sites with a political ax to grind and instead look for ones that are non-partisan.

5. Check the Date

As a reporter you need for the most up-to-date information available, so if a website seems old, it's probably best to steer clear. One way to check - look for a "last updated" date on the page or site.

6. Look at the Site's Look

If a site looks poorly designed and amateurish, chances are it was created by amateurs. Steer clear. But be careful - just because a website is professionally designed doesn't mean it's reliable.

7. Avoid Anonymous Authors

Articles or studies whose authors are named are often - though not always - more reliable than works produced anonymously. It makes sense: If someone is willing to put their name on something they've written, chance are they stand by the information it contains. And if you have the name of the author, you can always Google him or her to check their credentials.

8. Check the Links

Reputable websites often link to each other. See which sites the website you're on links to. Then go to Google and enter this in the search field:

link: http://www.yourwebsite.com

This will show you which sites link to the one you're on. If lots of sites are linking to your site, and of those sites seem reputable, then that's a good sign."

Reference

http://journalism.about.com/od/reporting/a/Eight-Ways-To-Tell-If-A-Website-Is-Reliable.htm

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