Chapter Five

Chapter five discusses the engagement of learners using digital tools, as the title states. The chapter discusses different search engines and how to use them, how to properly evaluate online sources, and how to appropriately use the internet as, as the texts states primarily on page 117, “digital citizens”.

Search engines can be used for different types of inquiries such as an information search, information research and retrieval, a free text search, a keyword/ exact match search and a boolean search. These inquiries can be used to research topics or further student learning in and outside of the classroom. 

Although there can be many useful websites online, a search engine may produce a website that can be age inappropriate or may have information not exactly relevant to the student’s inquiry. Several strategies to conduct effective searches include introducing search engines designed specifically for students, to use visual tools and to teach students to critically evaluate search results.

When students are able to evaluate search results they are able to avoid troublesome internet content such as misinformation, malinformation, messed-up information and mostly useless information.they should be evaluating for several different characteristics, but the characteristic that stands out above all in my opinion is accuracy. If a site cannot pose facts with accuracy then they cannot be a credible source therefore other criterion is immediately thrown out. With these evaluating factors in mind students are able to further evaluate a website’s credibility by the URL.

I think the value of internet users behaving as responsible digital citizens is seriously under credited in our society in a multitude of different contexts. On one side there is the disservice of plagiarism and cheating; both allowing the student to cut corners and deceptively pass off information as their own, and then there is the issue of being able to hide behind the computer screen. Over the last few years there are more and more cases of cyberbullying that are becoming so serious that students are choosing to take their own lives rather than face the torment of their peers. There are arguments that cyberbullying isn’t as severe as bullying in the real world, but what students don’t understand is that once something goes up on the internet, there is no deleting it. Students must be taught, above all, to be responsible online and how to safely and effectively use the internet and technology.