16 - Outline of Internet Information

1.     From Safe Practices for Life Online: A Guide for Middle and High School (2008) - D. Fodeman & M. Monroe

a.        Lookstoogoodtobetrue.com risk tests

b.        Chapter 2 Protecting Your Privacy Online

                                                             i.      Pop ups and Banner Ads - an ad that displays in a new browser window (MarketingTerms.org)

                                                           ii.      Spyware - any technology, such as tracking software, that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge (TechTarget.com)

                                                        iii.      Zombies and Botnets - a number of internet computers that, although their owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward spam to other computers. (TechTarget.com)

                                                         iv.      Cookies - information stored on a user's computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests (MarketingTerms.org)

                                                           v.      Drive-by-Downloads - programs that are automatically downloaded to your computer without your consent or knowledge (TechTarget.com)

                                                         vi.      Cramming - the addition of unauthorized or unexpected charges to a bill for landline or mobile telephone services (TechTarget.com)

                                                      vii.      Trojan Horse- a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained within seemingly harmless data or programming in such a way that it can get control and do damage. (TechTarget.com)

2.     From Transforming Learning with New Technologies (2011)- R. Malloy, R. E. Verock-O'Loughlin, S. A. Edwards, &B. P. Woolf

a.        Take Pew Internet & American Life Project “What Kind of Tech User Are You?” quiz. - I scored better than 95.3% of the public, below 1.3%, and the same as 3.4%.

b.        Uniform Resource Locator (URL) aka Web Address – What is the purpose of the following URL designations? Answers from DomainRegister.com

                                                             i.      .com – commercial business

                                                           ii.      .org – nonprofit groups

                                                        iii.      .gov – federal, state, and local government agencies within the US

                                                         iv.      .net – network related organizations

                                                           v.      .edu – regionally accredited, degree giving institutions of higher learning

                                                         vi.      .mil – US military

c.        Specialized Search Resources for Teachers

·        Criteria for Evaluating Web Resources

a.      Accuracy – reliability of the information on the site by providing a description of who authored the site and for what purposes

b.     Authority – credentials of the author or authors as well as the nature of the site itself – commercial or not for profit

c.      Objectivity – tests whether the information on the site is fair and non-biased, and free of advertising

d.     Currency – up to date with recent information and updates that are clearly indicated

e.      Coverage – information on the site can be viewed easily without difficulties or commercial messages

                                                                                                                                     i.      Internet Public Library

                                                                                                                                   ii.      Voice of the Shuttle

                                                                                                                                iii.      Technorati

                                                                                                                                 iv.      Webopedia

                                                                                                                                   v.      Artcyclopedia

                                                                                                                                 vi.      Encyclopedia of Educational Technology

                                                                                                                              vii.      California Learning Resource Network

                                                                                                                            viii.      Library of Congress American Memory

                                                                                                                                 ix.      University of Texas at Austin Perry – Castaneda Library Map Collection

                                                                                                                                   x.      Newslink

                                                                                                                                 xi.      Good Search

                                                                                                                              xii.      Score (Schools of California Online Resources for Educators)

                                                                                                                            xiii.      Search Engines 2

                                                                                                                            xiv.      Wayback Machine

                                                                                                                               xv.      Open Library

                                                                                                                            xvi.      Viewzi.com

                                                                                                                          xvii.      VueToo.com

                                                                                                                       xviii.      LibriVox

d.        Internet Search Tools for Students

                                                             i.      KidsClick!

                                                           ii.      Ask for Kids

                                                        iii.      Search 22

                                                         iv.      Clusty

                                                           v.      Yahoo!Kids

                                                         vi.      QUintura

                                                      vii.      FirstGov for Kids

                                                    viii.      NASA Kids Club

                                                         ix.      The Why Files: The Science behind the News

                                                           x.      U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Kids’ Pages

                                                         xi.      Time for Kids

                                                      xii.      Smithsonian Education

e.        Questions

                                                             i.      What is the meaning of information literacy for teachers and students? Information literacy is a crucial skill in the pursuit of knowledge. It involves recognizing when information is needed and being able to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, effectively use, and clearly communicate information in various formats. (Wesleyan.edu)

                                                           ii.      What are search engines and how do they work? Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a search engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites. When a spider is building its lists, the process is called Web crawling. Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed. The engine might assign a weight to each entry, with increasing values assigned to words as they appear near the top of the document, in sub-headings, in links, in the meta tags or in the title of the page. Regardless of the precise combination of additional pieces of information stored by a search engine, the data will be encoded to save storage space. (HowStuffWorks.com)

                                                        iii.      What pieces of information do students need to know about Internet searching? The Boolean operators are:

AND - All the terms joined by "AND" must appear in the pages or documents. Some search engines substitute the operator "+" for the word AND.

OR - At least one of the terms joined by "OR" must appear in the pages or documents.

NOT - The term or terms following "NOT" must not appear in the pages or documents. Some search engines substitute the operator "-" for the word NOT.

FOLLOWED BY - One of the terms must be directly followed by the other.

NEAR - One of the terms must be within a specified number of words of the other.

Quotation Marks - The words between the quotation marks are treated as a phrase, and that phrase must be found within the document or file. (HowStuffWorks.com)

                                                         iv.      How can teachers and students thoughtfully evaluate online information resources, including the online encyclopedia Wikipedia? Never use Web sites where an author cannot be determined, unless the site is associated with a reputable institution such as a respected university, a credible media outlet, government program or department, or well-known non-governmental organizations. Beware of using sites like Wikipedia, which are collaboratively developed by users. Because anyone can add or change content, the validity of information on such sites may not meet the standards for academic research. (Owl.English.Purdue.edu)

                                                           v.      How can teachers respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

·        Give students a clear and explicit definition of plagiarism at the beginning of the semester, preferably on the syllabus.

·        Make a clear distinction between acceptable collaboration and plagiarism, preferably on the syllabus. Because this distinction can vary from discipline to discipline or from department to department, students can become confused unless the distinction is spelled out explicitly for each class.

·        Create assignments that encourage originality and discourage plagiarism.

·        Create assignments that are unusual or that take a different slant on the material, thus eliminating "canned papers" that can be easily purchased or even found for free on the Web.

·        Create writing assignments that have several parts (e.g., a proposal, an annotated bibliography, a first draft, a second draft).

·        Request photocopies of all sources used in a paper.

·        Have students email you a copy of their essays as well as hand in a hard copy. The email version will be easier to submit to a plagiarism search engine, and the very fact that you make this request might be enough to deter some students from plagiarizing. (CMSW.MIT.edu)