I see myself as a horizontal information seeker and a skimmer. I definitely go to Google first. I also feel as though I am part of the Google Generation. After reading and watching all of this week’s articles and resources I really started to realize that I am just like my students in some ways. I realized that I actually do some of the things that astound me about them. When I did the Google Challenge the first places I went were Google and Wikipedia (as much as I hate to admit it- but hey- I found one of the answers on Wikipedia!) I definitely realized I am a skimmer and a horizontal research seeker. I skim to find what I want to see or if the page even has what I’m look for and then I’m on to another page, probably never to return.
I remember when I was in college working on my bachelor’s in history and having to write research papers I would love to go to the ASU library and find any book that had to do with my research paper and check it out. I would leave sometimes with at least 15 books! Of course I wouldn’t read them all!! I would find what I was looking for or what I needed for my paper and then I was done with that specific book, most times for good. Sometimes I would find articles on Galileo or EBSCO, but my favorite place to start was the library. I liked to be able to actually hold the book and bookmark a page. Since starting my Master’s in Instructional Technology I realize there has never been a time that I have gone to a library for anything related to my work on this degree. EVERYTHING has obviously been online. I feel as though I have adapted to this rather well. I started thinking that even though when I was working on my Bachelor’s degree I went to the library and now I go to the internet, my method of finding information has stayed the same- skimming! I feel as though my students, whose ages range from 15-18, research the same way. They skim for key words or something that “sounds right.” The main difference between my research methods and those of my students is the fact that most of them cannot differentiate between a reliable source and a bogus one. I am a news junkie and some of my students know that. Sometimes they will come in with outlandish news they read on the internet. I ask them what website they found it on and ask them have they read it on more mainstream, credible news websites also. Usually we “Google” it and then they will realize their “news” is incorrect.
This module has given me ideas for teaching my own students about filtering websites and refining searches. I had no idea you could upload an image to Google images and search for a match. I also had no idea you could choose colors in a Google image search. I also had never really used the advanced option search in Google. I definitely will be teaching my students how to search for things in Google using the different symbols that help refine a search. (That was too awesome for me- I knew you could do it, I just didn’t know how!)
After watching the ted.com video on filter bubbles I was really shocked. I knew that websites had memories and that even your email account knew what you searched for. I usually have ads that appear to the side of my gmail account for items that I have previously searched for. But, I did not know that I could research something and my friend could research the same thing and we could get different results. That was really shocking to me and kind of freaky honestly. To make sure we don’t stay inside our own little filter bubble we need to make sure we look at different viewpoints on things. If you google something don’t always go to the same news source. Also, you could use different search engines. The main thing to remember is to keep your mind open always try to learn something new everyday. If you are content staying inside your own little filter bubble, then that's where you'll stay. It takes a conscious effort to bust down the barriers of your filter bubble!
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