Managing Research on the Web

In order to make the best use of classroom time, teachers must effectively manage student research on the Web. Most educators agree that student searching takes too much valuable learning time and may lead to inappropriate material on the Web. Unless you are specifically trying to teach searching skills, it is important to find appropriate Web sites in advance that students will use to complete their research.

For the sake of time, it is best if students are not required to type in long URLs. Therefore, teachers must develop methods to focus student research and prevent "unproductive" time at the computer. Below are a few suggestions that may help students make the best use of their time.

Bookmarks/Favorites

Hotlists
A hotlist is a Web page--or even a word processing document--of sifted links that have been chosen for their excellent content match to a particular topic or a project. Each link is annotated so that the user knows what he can expect to find. When creating a Hotlist, be very selective. Choose only a few sites, and point your students immediately to the appropriate pages on the site..not just to the home page.

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/class/hotlist.html

Curriculum Hotlists

Spanish Resources

Scavenger Hunts/Treasure Hunts

Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Hunts guide student research by providing a series of Web Sites to be researched, as well as questions to be answered at each site. These activities are very popular. According to Linda Starr in an article published in Education World , there are many reasons for their popularity.
Among them:

• Online scavenger hunts are easy to create and the resulting interactive searches are both fun and informative for students.
• The hunts can be geared to virtually any curriculum area, simultaneously providing students with technological and subject matter knowledge.
• Online scavenger hunts can be used as a whole class activity, as a team activity, or as a means of providing individual students with review or challenge activities.
• Scavenger hunts can be as simple or involved as circumstances dictate. Younger students may be provided with only a few questions, along with the links or URLs necessary for finding the answers, while older students may be given only a broad topic and asked to find their own sources for obtaining necessary information.

http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/archives/hunt.shtml
Organized by month

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/shunts.htm

Nursery Rhymes

Mammal Make-up

Internet Hunt Activities by Cindy O'Hara

Scavenger Hunt Template

Hillside Scavenger Hunts