Module 3

Module 3 was about Searching the Web and Cyber-Lesson 5, “Information Fluency & 21^st Century Skills.”

 

In Chapter 3, I learned all about how to search the web. I learned about search engines, searching strategies, the searching process, searching with Boolean Logic and searching the Deep Web. When using a search engine, you aren’t actually searching “live” web, you are searching through web pages on the database of the search engine. There are certain strategies that should be followed when searching. They are: search, can, find, or keep revising. There is also a process that should be followed and questions you should ask yourself. What exactly are you looking for? When do you need this information? Where do you think you could find this information? How would you find this information? Why did you receive these search results?

Another type of searching is called Boolean Searching. Boolean searching used the words “and”, “or”, or “not”. Using “and” means both items must be present in the web page, “or” means either or both items will be present in the web page, and “not” will help find one but not the other.

Than there is the “Deep” or “Invisible” web. The deep web consists of web pages the “crawlers” could not see, they either missed it, the area may be password protected, or they may be non-html resources such as images, audio, animation, and pdf files. To find these web pages, you have to find an “Invisible Web Database”. To find these resources, you can use any search engine, you just have to add keywords like database, archive, or repository.

In Cyber Lesson 5 “Information Fluency & 21^st Century Skills” I learned about information fluency, digital citizenship, how to identify the proper and improper digital etiquette, how to search a web page, how to use a social bookmarking site and to cite web articles in MLA format. I also learned what the Life and Career, Learning and Innovation, and Information Media and Technology Skills required for the 21^st Century.

Information fluency includes information, technology literacy, and critical thinking. This is also known as “21^st Century Skills.” Information fluency follows a flow chart of ideas that include: What information am I looking for? Where will I find this information? How will I get there? How good is the information? And how will I ethically use the information? There are “nine elements” to digital citizenship and using technology appropriately. The nine elements are digital: etiquette, communication, literacy, access, commerce, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness and security.

My participation this module was better than the last. The web lab helped with that because our response was tied in with completing WL6 – Social Bookmarking. Social Bookmarking is a great tool to have and I am so glad we went over it in this module!

• Boolean Operator – is a conjunction used in logical expression.
• Web Crawler – browses the Web, automatically adding the URLs and other information about Web pages to a searchable index.
• open-ended search – seeks information on a broader scale, using a simple keyword.
• primary source – is any document, item, or other data that provides firsthand information about a particular topic.
  
  

Life and Career and Media and Technology Skills required for the 21st Century:

• Learning and Innovation Skills – 4C's: Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity.
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology) Literacy
• Flexibility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Self- Direction
• Social and Cross Cultural Skills
• Productivity and Accountability
• Leadership and Responsibility