Information: To filter or not to filter?

Making it easier for children to use digital information does not always prepare them for real life tasks.

Filtering information to make it more kid-friendly takes several forms. A recent Japanese study found that students were more successful when given information that was presented in an organized way. For example answering a multiple choice test based on what different sources said, by providing the students with four sources. But when asked to determine the answer to a simple question that involved selecting relevant pages from a fictitious Website, the majority of students--more than 90% of elementary and 88% of middle school students--could not answer the question.

Analyzing the results, professor Kazuo Nagano concluded, "(students) need to acquire skills to filter disorganized pieces of information to find solutions, whether online or in the real world." Read more

What information do you provide your students? Disorganized or filtered?

Try this challenge with students: What is the year-round temperature of Fauntleroy Creek? Start here--http://www.fauntleroy.net/http://www.fauntleroy.net/  This is a real Website and the information is only three clicks away. For younger students, start at #1 or #2.

start: http://www.fauntleroy.net/
1. http://www.fauntleroy.net/issuesprojects.html
2. http://www.fauntleroywatershed.org/creek/news.html
answer: http://www.fauntleroywatershed.org/creek/about.html

This is a browsing activity--searching through "disorganized" (unfiltered for students) that is bound to be frustrating. If the students know the answer is only 1 or 2 clicks away, it helps. This is one way to scale the activity without overly filtering it. What links are most promising for getting to the answer?

White House Browsing Challenge

Since most of the Search Challenges on 21cif require using a search engine, it was time to create a browsing challenge.

Email Challenge

What makes browsing challenging is keeping keywords in mind that you are searching for and skimming for links that are relevant. In this case, the challenge is to find the URL of the whitehouse.gov page where you can write an email to the President.

The challenge starts at the home page of the White House. From there the solution is three clicks (actually four if you count the anti-spam control feature). This shouldn't take a careful reader more than a couple of minutes, which is how the timer is set.

Browsing presents novice searchers with problems. It's easy to click on useless links and get lost. One of the most challenging assessment tasks a couple years ago on Information Researcher 4.0 was a browsing task where the answer was only two clicks away. I was surprised how many students and parents couldn't find their way.

Fortunately, browsing can be accomplished using multiple routes. Some are longer; the goal is to be efficient, taking as little time as possible.

This is a good activity to see what keywords students have in mind for finding a way to write to the President. In this challenge, students can find a form to use to write to the President. Interestingly, the email address of the White House is elusive!

Reflections from ISTE

The Blogger's Cafe is nearly empty.

Most conference-goers have left the building for the River Walk and dinner plans. I had a late lunch so I've got a little time on my hands. Time for some reflection.

I presented at one session here in San Antonio. It was actually a BYOD workshop entitled "Five Mini Lessons in Information Fluency." From what I could tell it went well. Later tonight I'll email the participants and share with them more resources for taking the ideas home.

The hardest mini-lesson to get across, in my estimation, is browsing. The concept of browsing isn't difficult, although it can be a tricky way to search. Using a search engine is the other way and that is more oriented to efficiency and results. Browsing is an adventure and it's hard to define what strategy always works best, other than to say that this way of searching is like playing a game of "hot or cold" where the objective is to keep getting warmer until the information being sought is found. Unlike the childhood game, there is no one to tell you if your browsing is getting you to a warmer or colder place. It's an activity where interpretation and evaluation happens with every click. It seems a lot easier than that, but an incredible amount of time can be wasted by browsing.

Squeezing five lessons into 90 minutes should have been snap, but we were rushed. Consequently, a teaching method I would like have used with browsing was passed over while we talked through the steps. Talking isn't a great way to teach browsing. It's ultimately a hands-on activity.

But the big danger is that when a class full of students starts to browse, whether they are in fifth grade or teachers and librarians at an ISTE conference, the "aha" moments are hard to capture. That's why I recommend using a tag-team approach to browsing practice. Provide only one computer. Assign a challenge to the group. Ask for a volunteer to come up to the front to drive the computer for one decision. View the result of the student's choice as a group. Decide if things are getting warmer or not. It's unlikely the student will get the information needed with one click. Therefore, the other decision this student makes is to select the next driver (or just go down the aisle or around the circle, as you wish).

After each click--no student gets more than one mouse press--elicit a group response: warmer or colder? If colder, the next student might merely want to hit the BACK button to return to a warmer place. As an alternative, you could spice up the activity by providing a "phone a friend" option if someone is really stuck.

Here's the challenge I used at ISTE for which I could have used this approach. I showed a typical Language Arts assignment to write a paper on the American Dream. Other than financial prosperity, I required the participants to identify other themes using a Subject Directory. The top level of the Subject Directory lists categories like Home, Research, Sports, etc. The challenge is to mine down into a category (not all will be effective) to discover themes. It's a good use of browsing as a brainstorming strategy. In the workshop, this approach would have eaten up some time, but I think participants would have benefited from the interaction a lot more than the solo searching they did. It's an activity that works on a lot of levels: skimming, recognition of relevance, finding relevant and new keywords to follow in the results, failed attempts, persistence....

Here's a link to the Lesson prompt I used. Perhaps you can find ways to use an activity (not necessarily the American Dream content) like this with your students.

Tomorrow morning I head back to Chicago and home. It was good to take a moment to reflect in the Blogger's Cafe.

Students Use What They Know

When your search skills consist of Googling and Browsing, you must make the most of them.

There are other search skills, of course, but you can't use what you don't know.

Try this, for example: who is the registered owner of General Delivery University (easy)? And what is the address of the registered owner (not so easy)?

This is a Deep Web search, if you use Google as your starting point. Google can access the information, but the owner has two addresses. One is easy to find by googling. The other is easy to find using a Deep Web search (searching a different database).

This is an item I included in the current version of Information Researcher. When students give me the wrong answer, I know they've been googling. When they give me the 'right' address, I know they got it from a different database. Students find the wrong address by fact checking the copyright holder's name. Students find the address registered to the domain using something else.  Hopefully, they learn there's more to searching than Google along the way.

I leave this as a Challenge. I'll be changing the assessment item in Information Researcher soon, because the registered owner is 1) now deceased and 2) his ownership of the domain is due to expire within a year.

Browsing Practice

Browsing takes practice.

Browsing, or surfing, is easy to do: just click a link. Using browsing to find information efficiently is not easy. Querying is almost always quicker. That being said, most searches end with browsing, homing in on desired information by clicking links and scanning.

The Zeus Bunnycam is a challenge that can be used to demonstrate the difference between querying and browsing. I've recently updated the Bunnycam challenge because Google no longer supports its subject directory, which was the basis for the browsing experience. Subject Directories make excellent (safe) playgrounds for browsing practice. The challenge now uses the dmoz.org subject directory instead.

Becoming a proficient browser involves making increasingly 'educated' guesses. The breadth of one's vocabulary directly impacts one's success, but chance also plays a large part. Much of the time it is impossible accurately to predict what link points to the desired information: an author uses a different word than you would use or the information simply isn't available.

Rather than frustrate learners with challenges for lack of information, browsing challenges that use subject directories focus on word choices: what link is most likely to get me closer to the information I need?  Additionally, subject directories expose the differences between querying and searching.

Try it.

Open dmoz.org, the open directory project. Look for information on the Zeus Bunnycam.

1. There are two ways to search: click on the categorical links provided or enter a query in the database's search engine. Querying is by far the quicker method. This can be experienced by dividing a class in two groups: Query and Browse. The Query group only uses the search engine. The Browse group only clicks on words (no typing).
2. Another group experience is to make everyone browse. Stop the action after 1 minute. Find out where members of the group are. In what section are they browsing? There is bound to be a wide variety of responses. This demonstrates the difficulty in making educated guesses as to where someone else 'filed' the information. Two people are not likely to put the information in the same place. Why?  This question would be good to explore with middle school students and older in the context of language arts.
3. Browsing is deeply connected to scanning: looking at the results for clues that suggest one is getting closer to the desired information. It is often enlightening to ask students why they click one link rather than another. Ask them to explain their choices to the group. Hearing others' explanations is a learning experience.

Browsing is also a heuristic strategy. Many find it an enjoyable activity that leads to surprising results. You start looking for one thing and find something new. This is a good application of browsing that requires little practice: you see something interesting and follow it. Since browsing is the final step in most queries, getting better at accurate guessing takes practice.

Medical Approval Challenge

News articles tend to introduce (incomplete) information that make good search challenges.

Here's an example from the Wichita Eagle posted on Sept. 6: Robot surgery now offered for head, neck procedures

The part of the article that ping'd my search radar was this:

"The da Vinci surgical system is now approved for use in surgeries of the head and neck."

Search for the missing information. Who approved it and when?

This search requires a keyword query, browsing, a deep web query of a specialized database and careful reading.


Post your answers in the comments: Who approved the device (I left a clue in this post) and (here's the real challenge) WHEN was approval granted? Provide an official date.

What problems do you encounter in this search?

Blue Moons

If you live in the Western Hemisphere, New Years Eve was a blue moon. (Readers in the Eastern Hemisphere still have a month before their blue moon occurs.)

Lots of news sources (example) acknowledged the blue moon, citing that it is 'blue' because it is the second full moon of the month. There's no doubt this is a very popular answer, but its trendiness doesn't mean it is completely accurate. Blue moons have occurred on the 20th day of a month.

Fact: it takes the moon 29.5 days to go from full to full. Hmmm. There's no way a second full moon can happen in 20 days. What's going on?

The modern definition of blue moon is the result of an interpretive mistake, one made long before the Internet made the transmission of such errors immediate and widespread. The challenge is to use the Internet to track down the name of the individual who reinterpreted the definition and the year it happened.

This is a good example of how erroneous information, when picked up by a reputable source, becomes entrenched.

Good hunting!

Tools for Evaluation

While browsing through library sites today, I came across a link to Human Cloning, The How To Page. The message on the library site (http://lib.nmsu.edu/staff/susabeck/checs98.html) offers the cloning page as an example why students should be taught to evaluate.

I wasn't familiar with the Cloning page or its author, Arthur Kerschen.  Not many sites link to Kerschen's pages (so using the link: command is not particularly useful). But good evidence can be found by browsing the site.

The challenge is for you (and your students) to determine whether this is a deliberate hoax or not and back it up find a page that supports your conclusion.

Something I'd like to create is a matrix of hoax sites and the techniques useful for investigating them. This is one example where browsing may be the most effective method.

Santa Challenge

If you are looking for a quick challenge to involve middle schoolers or high schoolers in a keyword search with browsing and evaluation, have them identify:

1. The name of the airline that did this
2. Whether this information is accurate (is it real or photoshopped?)

Don't necessarily take the url as the answer (I chose this location of the photo on purpose).

This activity will likely lead to a Web 2.0 search (blogs), where clues can be found. You will find that people disagree about the credibility of the photo; whether the information is trustworthy is debatable. I'd have the students discuss why or why not they think the photo is real or fake. What do they use as the basis for their decision?

Sesame Street Challenge

As you probably know, Sesame Street is 40 years old. Here's a challenge to test your ability to find reference information about the show.

On what show did Ernie trick Bert into saying, "I ate the sandbox?" Provide the number of the show.

Before you start, think about a search strategy. There's lots to think about here:

• What keywords are provided?
• What keywords are good as is?
• How important is that phrase?
  
• What words are not needed?
• What words may be needed that aren't given? (this is always the hardest part of the strategy and may rely on seeing results first).
• Who might know the answer (where would an expert put the information)?
• How do I get close enough to "home in" on the information?
• How can I check the credibility of the answer?

Thinking about how to search is often lost in the activity of searching. Everyone makes choices about terms, operators and where to look. What choices are you making?

Find the Sculpture

I'm taking a few days off from work after cataract surgery.

While trying out some glasses for reading--my distance vision was 20/20 the day after the surgery!--I came across some interesting finds. One of them is this magnetic sculpture:




Warning: some sites that have embedded this video may contain objectionable material for school-aged children.

There's no explanation on the site above about the sculpture, how it works, who created it or where the video was filmed or if this thing exists at all. That's the challenge: let's say you'd like to know where you can see this sculpture for yourself. Where is it located?

Use your search skills to track down the geographic location of this apparent marvel.

Challenge level: Easy.

Once you located the hyponym* keyword, you'll find more videos!

* in this case, it's the scientific term for the material used in the sculpture.

Yes, There's a Need - Part 3

When people aren't sure what else to do, they resort to browsing.

While using a query or truncating a url might be a faster solution to a search problem, if a person isn't sure what else to do, he or she will browse. Even the best searchers do this. (And almost every search ends by browsing.)

Browsing is typically the least efficient of the three main search methods. Using a search engine is the quickest and using a subject directory (0r menu) can get one closer to the target in fewer clicks. But there's something fundamentally satisfying or comforting about browsing that makes it a preferred method.

In terms of satisfaction, browsing provides immediate feedback. You still have to scan the surroundings to determine what the feedback says about getting closer or not to your objective, but it's a bit like low stakes gambling and pretty addictive.

Nonetheless, browsing is not a good substitute technique much of the time. For example, I got an email recently about a link being changed on one of the pages associated with a particular search challenge. The page to be investigated really didn't call for browsing, but that's what this individual was doing when he or she discovered the changed link (it wasn't dead, it now pointed to something unrelated). The optimal technique is a string search of a statement to see if it is considered truthful by external sources. Following page links will not achieve this. In fact, browsing tends to confirm the truthfulness of the statement because the links provided on the page reflect the bias, not the objectivity, of the author.

Here's my advice: think before you browse. Ask yourself, is there another technique I know that might be more efficient or suited to the task? If not, ask yourself, what keywords am I looking for that will tell me I'm getting closer? You don't need to compile such a list first. Just being sensitive to the question will help you evaluate the keywords in the links you come across. Some will bear a closer relationship to your target than others.

I ended up removing the page with the (misleading) links from the tutorial challenge. It hadn't occurred to me that anyone would try to follow them, so I hadn't vetted them. Some led to objectionable content. Now the page has no links. The only way to answer the question is to use the preferred technique. Of course, if you don't know what that technique is, you're sunk.

Here's the challenge: http://untaughtgeneration.com/obama-quote.html

Finding the Black Box

Homing in on information online is similar to locating a downed aircraft's black box in one respect: both send out signals. In the case of the black box, the signal gets stronger as you approach. In the case of information online, the contextual evidence (think clues) gets stronger.

Detecting those clues and interpreting them can be very difficult.

Homing in on information online depends on browsing for keyword evidence. Some people have a distinct advantage in this regard. Masterful browsers tend to have fairly developed language skills. This, coupled with a disposition to read carefully, puts them far ahead of otherwise skilled computer users. I know adults often feel inadequate when working with kids with lightning fast computer abilities. But adults, despite their technological shortcomings, tend to outperform prodigious children and teens when it comes to homing in on information.

I witnessed an example of this last evening when my wife pilot tested an assessment that Information Fluency is preparing to use with Center for Talent Development students at Northwestern University. Pat, not a computer user from birth, took about an hour to complete the 10 item pretest, most of which depends on careful reading and browsing--after all, investigative searching relies on being thorough and examining lots of clues. She only missed 2 items, which is typical of an adult who has mastered searching and evaluation. Middle school and high school students will take about half that time and miss the majority of the items.

The major difference boils down to reading and browsing carefully. Sure, there are other techniques in a skilled online investigator's toolkit, but careful reading and browsing can be used to solve most search challenges.

1. See every word as a clue It's really easy to overlook important keywords when skimming. The words and terms that matter most are typically nouns and numbers. Adjectives become important in detecting bias. Spotting these is easier by slowing down. If you have the attitude that words are clues--not just the specific keyword(s) you are looking for--you will probably have to adjust your speed.

2. Recognize and follow possible connections Here is where terms you weren't looking for become important and why it helps to have a good vocabulary. Synonyms and words used in the context of what you are looking for are all possible connections. It may help to think about what some of these other words are before reading. In terms of the Digital Information Fluency Model, this is known as finding better keywords as you search. You can't predict with 100% accuracy what keywords are necessary before you search. You have to pay attention and find them as you search.

An example may help Let's say you're looking for the publisher of this site: http://www.spacetoday.net. First steps are usually to read the header and footer for the name of an organization or copyright information. Not seeing those, what stands out is the About Us link. Let the browsing begin. The name of the publisher is in the text of this page. In this case, it's an individual: "Spacetoday.net was founded by Jeff Foust." This wasn't a particularly difficult challenge, but many students will miss it because the name is embedded in the text. Moreover, Mr. Foust's role is represented with the word "founded" rather than "published." You have to know what these words mean, how they are used and related. Is the founder always the publisher? Not always. To make sure we've got the publisher, another source of information is required.

Here's your Challenge: Can you find another source of information that confirms that Jeff Foust is actually the publisher? It might take another technique in addition to careful reading and browsing.

Butterfly House Search Challenge

It's time for a new Search Challenge. Before I list this as "Just Added" on the Information Fluency Website, I invite you to try it out and give me some feedback. For example, are there other pages that provide an accurate answer? Did you solve it in way less time than suggested?

The idea for this Challenge, like many of them, came from an exploratory search for something with kid-appeal, and then browsing my way to an interesting page. As with most Search Challenges, this one can be solved by using keywords alone with minimal browsing. However, this particular challenge would also be good by starting with a landing page (the home page of the site) and browsing one's way to a solution.

The essentials of keyword searching, found in the 10 item Query Checklist, are pretty simple: Don't search with more than three words. Each word is important. If one or more of the words has multiple meanings, careful browsing may be required.

While finding more specific words for the query might help this search, I think the real challenge with this one lies in keeping the query uncomplicated (not too specific), scanning the results for relevance and then homing in by browsing.

The Butterfly House Challenge

I'd like your feedback!