Notes that computers challenge teachers to find ways to incorporate technology in support of curricular and pedagogical goals. Profiles two primary grade students' discoveries and struggles as they negotiate the Web and related technology. Illuminates the tensions between guidance and freedom in the instructional process, and suggests some…

Reports on the development of a visual search interface called "SearchKids" to support children ages 5-10 years in their efforts to find animals in a hierarchical information structure. Investigates whether children can construct search queries to conduct complex searches if sufficiently supported both visually and conceptually. (Contains 27…

Describes a study of eighth-grade middle school students that was conducted to determine whether varying the amount of learner control and interactivity through the use of different navigation tools (linear, menu, and search engine) would influence the achievement and attitude of learners of different academic abilities. (Author/LRW)

Presents strategies for researching topics on the Web that are controversial or current in nature. Discusses topic selection and overviews, including the use of online encyclopedias; search engines; finding laws and pending legislation; advocacy groups; proprietary databases; Web site evaluation; and the continuing usefulness of print materials.…

Explores a user-centered approach to evaluating the Web search engine Inquirus. Inquirus was rated highly by users on various usability measures; all users experienced some level of shift/change in their information problem, information seeking, and personal knowledge due to their Inquirus interaction; and different users experienced different…

Lists 13 different Internet search engines that might be of interest to educators, including: AOL Search, Alta Vista, Google, Lycos, Northern Light, and Yahoo. Gives a brief description of each search engine's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses and includes Web addresses of U.S. government offices, including the U.S. Department of Education.…

Become a Goggle Power User was developed for incoming students in Sackville High School, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2003, and has been adapted for use in other local schools and in several universities, it is an instructional program designed for first-year high school students that was integrated into the English Language Arts curriculum, the…

This study explored college students' perceptions regarding their use of search engines. The main objective was to determine how frequently students used various search engines, whether advanced search features were used, and how many search engines were used. Various factors that might influence student responses were examined. Results showed…

Current search engines--even the constantly surprising Google--seem unable to leap the next big barrier in search: the trillions of bytes of dynamically generated data created by individual web sites around the world, or what some researchers call the "deep web." The challenge now is not information overload, but information overlook.…

Like a search engine for science teachers, How to... "Weave the Web into K-8 Science" is a custom-made guide to bringing the best of the Internet into the classroom. Author David Wetzel has done the work of locating online materials. The book offers resources for Web-based science teaching and learning plus online technical help for both…

This paper is designed for teachers of students in grades Pre-K through 12 and will introduce them to the numerous curriculum resources on the Internet. More often today supplements to course curriculum can be found on any text book company web site. Even more important is the amount of curriculum resources available for free on the Internet.…

Reports on a project that proposes and tests a comprehensive and systematic model of user evaluation of Web search engines. This article describes the model, including a set of criteria and measures and a method for implementation. A literature review portrays settings for developing the model and places applications of the model in contemporary…

Presents the third part of a research project that investigated information-seeking behavior and success of seventh-grade science children in using the Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory. Children were more successful on a fully self-generated task than one two fully assigned tasks and were more successful when they browsed than when they…

Discusses Internet plagiarism and includes an outline for a presentation that library media specialists can use with teachers. Highlights include an overview of the problem; helping teachers recognize the signs; pinpointing the source, including the use of search engines and Web sites; and prevention, including more control over the research…

This article looks at the information literacy (ILS) skills of graduate students and is based on an audit at the ANU in 2003 which included database searching, web searching, information management and word processing skills--vital to all graduate students. Each student who completed the audit received a "training needs profile". Staff…