Helpful Activities for Learning Responsible Searching and Website use

          In my history class we did two activities. One was Google a Day where and the other was an activity on Accuracy, Authenticity, and Reliability. Both activities were supposed to teach how we can use search engines responsibly and how to use websites for research responsibly. Now I'll inform you about the two activities a little bit more.

          First, we did the Google a Day activity. Google a Day is an activity on the internet where it gives you three questions. The three questions get progressively harder and you can use google to help find your answers. The catch is you can't just search the question and have the answer show up. You have to search certain parts of the question and then progressively get closer to answer until you get the answer. What made this activity fun was being able to work in groups and being able to have multiple separate brains try to think of a good phrase to search. I also liked it because it was a fun way to learn interesting facts. Some things that I didn't like were the score and timer because it was a little distracting. Also sometimes when I went to back out of a website that I got or tried to get information from it sometimes backed me out of the whole activity. This activity helped me learn that just because google can't find nothing for one certain phrase doesn't mean there isn't an alternative phrase or phrases that will get me the answer. Google a Day is a great activity and I highly recommend it for everyone.

          Second, we did an activity on the accuracy, authenticity and reliability of websites. The website we did was a website about the rare Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The website is supposed to raise awareness of the endangered octopus species and explains how you can help support the octopus. However, this is not a good website for students to use because it is not authentic. The author is not authentic and there are no other websites about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus besides websites that call the original website a hoax. Also the pictures just look very fake. It looks like a stuffed octopus thrown in a tree. The website about the "rare" octopus was very helpful in being able to identify a fake website                

Google a Day: http://www.agoogleaday.com/#game=started

Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html