How to Teach Social Studies Without a Textbook:

Web Literacy and the Social Studies Classroom

Source of Information

Alan November

Grammar of a Web page

• Web addresses are read left to right• Unlike in books, there are no page numbers.

The way you find a specific page on a site is to have the right address that points to the one page you are looking for.

• There are no spaces in URLs. Slashes are always forward (/).

What is in a name?

thibautconsulting.weebly.com/

Sub-domain Component Two

Component One

Top Level

Common Extensions• .K12 Schools in the US• .edu Educational organizations (most US colleges)

• .ac Academic institutions (outside US)• .com Commercial• .org Any organization• .gov Government agency• .net Network• .mil Military institution (In US)

Grammar of a Web page

• http://www.moma.org/

http://www.moma.org/education

http://sandiegozoo.org/teachers/classroom_activities.html

Country Codes

• If navigating to a site that is hosted in another country there will be an additional extension, called a county code.

• Examples:• Sahistory.org.za (South Africa)• Kiwirecovery.org.nz (New Zealand)• Culture.gr (Greece)• tv-tokyo.co.jp (Japan)

– http://www.cam.ac.uk/

• http://www.exportbureau.com/country_codes_lists.html

Frame Your Searches for Better Results:How do Search Engines Work

• Anyone with deep pockets can get to the top of a results list by purchasing key search terms.

• Avoid sponsored results• Different Search Engines work differently. Select the

engine based on you needs:– NoodleTools

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html • Will help you choose the best search engines for your needs

– Technorati – searches only within blogs– Podscope – searches for audio and video

The REAL Thing

R

EAL

Read URL

Examine the content

Ask about the author and owner

Links

Read URL

You should ask three basic questions when reading a URL:1. Do you recognize the domain name?2. What is the extension in the domain name?3. Are you a on a personal page?

Here are a few hints to identify personal pages• A name• Tilde (~)• Percent sign (%)• The words users, people, or members

Examine the contentHere are a list of guiding questions for judging the content of a Web site.

1. Is the information on the Web site useful for your topic?

2. Are additional resources and links provided? Do the links work?

3. Is the site current? Do you know when it was last updated?

4. Do you think the information is accurate?5. Does the information contradict information

you have found elsewhere?

Ask about the author and ownerAsk yourself these questions:1. Is the author’s name provided?2. Is there a contact person or an address provided?3. Is there biographical information provided about the

author?4. Does the author seem knowledgeable? Is he or she an

expert in the field?5. What kinds of results do you see when you do a search on the author’s name?

If there is no information about the author, students should be careful about wholly trusting the information on the Web page. They may need to validate more. http://www.easyswhois.com/ is a site directory that collects information from the Internet to tack who owns and is responsible for a domain name.

Links

• When looking at forward links ask these guiding questions:– 1. What are the URLs of the forward links?– 2. Do the domain names change?

• When searching for back links ask three guiding questions:– 1. Who is linked to the Web site?– 2. Why are they linked?– 3. What do other sites say about the material on

the site?• To generate a list of back links use

http://www.altavista.com with the link: command

In Conclusion

It is not only about validating information; it’s about finding quality resources that are “safe” and bypassing unwanted materials on the Web.

−Alan November

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