{"id":51188,"date":"2020-02-24T11:27:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T19:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=51188"},"modified":"2020-02-24T11:27:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T19:27:50","slug":"homework-how-to-make-the-most-of-search-engines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/homework-how-to-make-the-most-of-search-engines\/","title":{"rendered":"Homework: How to make the most of search engines"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nDoing research on the Internet is a very formative activity.\u00a0For example, a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0has shown that young people who develop real online research strategies also have better grades at university.<\/p>\n

But these skills\u00a0are not acquired<\/a>\u00a0automatically by spending more time surfing the web.\u00a0On the contrary, students need\u00a0explicit <\/a>advice<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0instructions<\/a>\u00a0to be able to do more effective research.<\/p>\n

Young people tend to think that they have\u00a0already mastered<\/a>\u00a0these tools.\u00a0Their\u00a0teachers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0parents<\/a>\u00a0assume this too.\u00a0This assumption is often coupled with the\u00a0mistaken belief<\/a>\u00a0that all research is bound to be fruitful.\u00a0And while digital tools are often integrated into classroom research, we rarely focus on learning the research methods themselves.<\/p>\n

Many<\/a>\u00a0teachers do not explicitly guide their students in their online research.\u00a0On the contrary, children often form\u00a0by themselves<\/a>\u00a0and are reluctant to ask for help.\u00a0This does not allow them to acquire the necessary skills.<\/p>\n

For six years, I studied how\u00a0young people<\/a>\u00a0use search engines.\u00a0Among the groups I have followed, whether they are studying in a traditional establishment or studying at home, there are a number of bad habits.<\/p>\n

For example, everyone spends far more time on sites that are not relevant than on quality sites that would be really useful to them.\u00a0And, quite often, they give up searching until they find the information they need.<\/p>\n

Here are three things to keep in mind to really benefit from online research.<\/p>\n

Expand your queries<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Young people should explore, synthesize and question information found on the Internet, rather than just spot it, and move on.\u00a0Search engines offer endless learning possibilities, but students tend to\u00a0focus<\/a>\u00a0on a few specific points.\u00a0This does not allow them to achieve better results than they would have had forty years ago in a printed encyclopedia.<\/p>\n

It is important to use different keywords and cross search queries, sites and search tabs, especially news or images.<\/p>\n

Part of my thesis work (being written) consisted of observing young people and their parents using a search engine for 20 minutes.\u00a0In one of these sessions (the situation is quite typical), a family practicing school at home typed in the Google search bar: “How many endangered tigers are there in Sumatra” .\u00a0They then click on a single site, on which they locate an explanatory sentence.<\/p>\n

The parent copies this response and goes on to the next subject: growing seeds.\u00a0The research would have been much richer if they had also asked themselves:<\/p>\n