Monday, September 8, 2014

Using Technology to Teach Us about Technology

We started off the year learning more about the technology that we use almost every day. Recently in class we did a couple activities that were meant to teach us how to search and use online resources responsibly.

The first activity we did was a Google a Day. A Google a Day is a website that asks you some questions and you use the website to search to find the answers. The one thing that I really liked about this websites is the tips and tricks tab in the top right hand corner. When you click on it, it brings you to a list of advice that will help you find what you need faster and more efficient. It was a little bit frustrating because our iPad was working a little slow so we unable to finish during the class period. I am not sure if that was a website problem or a poor Wi-Fi connection. From this site, I learned to not type in a long sentence to search for something but rather to use keywords.                      Link to a Google a Day :http://www.agoogleaday.com/

The second activity we did to educate ourselves more was define a couple of terms. Then, we used the terms to evaluate a website. The terms we had to define were accuracy, authenticity, and reliability. Accuracy is having correct information. Authenticity is the quality of being real and genuine and reliability is a trustworthy source. Once we figured out the definitions we had to then use them to check to see if the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus was a good source to use for school. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, we later found out, is a fake website about an endangered octopus. There were pictures and videos on the site that looked really fake. In the end we figured out that this would not be a valid site to use for school.                                                                                                Link to Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/


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