Do you remember the last time online research skills helped you evaluate information on the internet? Maybe it was difficult to tell whether a news article was factual or the writer’s opinion. Knowing what to look for and where to look helped you separate facts from misinformation.
Teachers play a crucial role in helping students learn how to conduct online research. With the vast amount of online information available, it’s challenging to know where to start. Help your students by teaching them these best practices for conducting online research.
Give Students Opportunities To Practice
One of the best ways students can learn to find and evaluate quality digital information is by diving into online research headfirst. They learn to think critically about sources and look for details in individual sources, such as publication type and the author.
Focus practice assignments on the research process rather than the content itself. You can ask your class to explain why one source is better than another and list a source’s most important information.
Every student must have the opportunity to practice on or off school grounds, so consider that not everyone has access to the internet at home. Your school can partner with a nonprofit organization that provides hotspots for students and mobile hotspots for schools to give everyone the chance to practice their research skills in and out of the classroom.
Make Time To Cover Basic Research Skills
Teachers may have a lot of material to cover in their curriculum and limited time to go over everything. Still, it’s essential to prioritize teaching students the fundamentals of online research. Your class can better understand and appreciate subsequent online research lessons with a solid foundation.
Students use social media platforms and digital apps every day. Despite that, they may not fully understand how to use search terms, search engines, and online databases. So, before your first online research lesson, schedule time to review or teach basic search skills.
Show Examples of Reliable and Unreliable Sources
To conduct effective research, students must know how to separate reliable sources from unreliable ones. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation online, so it’s important to use reliable sources for research. Some good places to start include government, educational, and reputable news websites.
With each example, explain the difference between sites that end in “.org,” “.com,” and “.edu.” Breaking down how domain names work helps your class understand which sites have unbiased and factual information.
While looking at unreliable sources, show examples of biased language, opinion vs. fact, and bias. Students must understand what it means to take everything they read with a grain of salt.
Show Students How To Be Specific
If you’ve ever searched for “best coffee shops” rather than “best late-night coffee shops in my area,” then you understand the importance of using specific search terms. So, teach your class how word choice affects online research quality.
General search terms, such as “who wrote The Great Gatsby?,” can help your class discover specific information. They can use the newly discovered information to create specific search terms to conduct additional searches. How can you demonstrate this idea to your class?
Give students a research topic to explore. Then, have them list the topic’s main ideas, such as who, what, where, why, when, and how. Have them use those ideas to create specific search terms. For instance, two specific “why” search terms could be, “why did F. Scott Fitzgerald write The Great Gatsby?” and “why is The Great Gatsby a great American novel?”
Teaching students how to conduct online research can be challenging, but it’s an important skill for them to learn. Following these best practices can help your students become more savvy researchers.
