Learning oriented browsing

Part of these packages: Learning in teams

Supported by these technologies:

Developing 21st century skills includes building the ability to use the internet in a focused way to find relevant information from meaningful sources. In this activity, the students use the internet in a structured way to collect information about a specific topic, and to locate online learning resources that they can be critically used in their inquiry.

Recommended frequency: at least two times

1. Preparation

Identify example sources to present to students.

Decide how the browsing session results are used in the project.

2. Introduction

Discuss situations and modes of using the internet: entertainment or playing games, social or following friends, finding one specific piece of information or learning about a wider topic. Emphasize the need to identify and separate these modes and purposes in school.

Discuss the students’ understanding of a learning resource. Present your example sources. Each student composes a plan of the kind of information they browse for (i.e. scientific research or articles, commonsense explanations, pictures, videos, or animations). What will they do with the found resources?

Together with the students identify sources (i.e., online repositories, news sites, blogs, video sites, community forums) where to look for information.

Show Diigo to the students, let them create an account, and show them how to link their Diigo accounts to their Twitter accounts. If you have a Diigo Educator account, you can create accounts for your students as well.
3. Activity

The students search the internet according to their plan. Whenever you recognize that the students’ browsing behavior differs from their intentions, start a discussion about their reasons.

Students annotate their findings, including how and for what they intend to use a resource.

For additional browsing cycles, students explain how this cycle will differ from the previous.

Ask the students to read the comments on online news articles and blog entries, and to explain the purpose of each commenter in their annotations.
4. Assessment

Evaluate the appropriateness of the sources that the students identified as relevant.

Review the quality of annotations, and pay special attention to their qualitative and quantitative fluxes throughout the pilot

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