Google: Power Searching Course

Details

Activity Description

All students need to know how to effectively and efficiently search the Internet for information they need. These instructional videos made by Google can be used to in and out of the classroom to help students learn this skill. For an in class activity, show each video and then discuss it and do the activities. There are also two assessments that can be helpful - one after the third class and one after the sixth class. Each "class" has several videos and activities to do.

Preparation

1. After selecting the Web Site link above, scroll down the page to see the Table of Contents for this course.
2. In the Class 1 - Introduction 1.1 video, the instructor makes reference to needing to complete assessments by a certain date. These references can be ignored. This was originally a synchronous course, but is now posted more as a tutorial than a facilitated course. You may not want to show the first Intro video to your students since it's more really as information for you. It would be better for you just to explain what students will be learning about searching in the remaining videos.
3. Preview the videos in your classroom before showing them to your class to be sure they are not blocked at your school. Glean any vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to your students and prepare to preteach.
4. Each video also has a text version in case your students prefer to read the materials rather than view the videos. You should print these out if you plan to use them.
5. Google also provides some slides that could be useful for your discussion after each video. Preview them.

How-To

1. Preteach any unfamiliar terms (such as filtering, query, etc.).
2. Using a projector, show the 1.2 video on "Filtering image results by color" to the class.
3. By selecting the "Next" button, you can complete the activity questions as a class and then check to see if you answered correctly.
4. If time allows, continue to the next video and activity until all are completed.

Teacher Tips

If you do cover all the videos as supplementary material to be completed over the course of a semester, students will be learning searching skills that will help them with their other subjects.

More Ways

• If you want to assign this activity to individual students, you could have them work through the videos and activities on their own and take a quiz at the end of the material to determine their level of comprehension.
• Show the "Hangout on Air" videos (if they are available at your school - these are posted on YouTube) which are answers to questions students asked in the synchronous classes if they seem appropriate.

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• Intermediate
• High

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