Google Knowledge Graph

Google Knowledge Graph is being launched to enable you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about, for example landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art to instantly get information that’s relevant to your query.





This will mean that students and teachers will find information more quickly as well as giving better results and information.

Skills we need to develop in our students

I frequently think about the ICT skills students need to develop while at school. I have found that at tertiary level it is assumed that the students already have these skills but the fact is that a lot do not - it is like reading secondary schools assume that students will have developed reading skills during their primary schooling but sometimes this does not happen. These are some of the skills I think are important in today's world.

Typing skills: so many students are at a disadvantage as they do not have typing skills so to type an essay takes them a long time. Today typing skills are essential.

Creating and formatting a document: the skills required to format documents are often transferable so while Office Suite is still the most commonly used package other suites are also used but the skills are similar. Students need to be able to create, format and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Internet: I have found all the students are able to use the Internet but generally for social networking and playing games. They need to develop strategic skills to enable them to search the Internet to find the information they need.

File management: including saving files and knowing where they have been saved so that they can retrieve the files at a later date. Many people just click the save button without having a clue where the file is being saved and often have difficulties retrieving the file at a later date. Included here is having back up copies of files.

Social media: Social media has become part of everyday life, it is important that people use these sites appropriately and understand such issues as cyberbullying and what material is appropriate to put on these sites (particularly as employers also look at the sites).

Emailing: using language appropriate for the situation e.g. if it is a friend or if it is a boss. Understanding the etiquette of emails such as capital letters denote shouting. 

Citing your sources: understand the copyright laws and that when they are using part of someone elses work that they must cite their source. They need to know how to do this.

Using Help: Many people seem to think that they shouldn't need to use the Help feature, I am not sure why this is but the Help feature offers many solutions to problems people face.

Twurdy

A Beta version of Twurdy is available to use for searching.

A really great search engine to use in schools to help children quickly see which of their results are written in such a way that they will be able to manage the text. It gives an approximate reading age for the text.

In the example on the left you will see the first result needs the viewer to be able to read at a higher level: about 18 years. The second result the text is written at a 10 to 15 year level and the last result shows the text is written at an 8 to 10 year level. In the classroom this enables the teacher to help the children go to sites they are able to read to gather the relevant information.

Getting good with Google

In the global world we need people who are able to access, evaluate and use information.

Something I find many people are not good at is using search strategies. On Google docs is a document, Getting good with Google, to help people become efficient at using the web.

I have always felt that these strategies should be introduced in the primary/elementary school and then reinforced and built on each year. In this way they will become adults who are able to access the information they want quickly and effortlessly.

The first thing they suggest is that the settings are changed to 'safe search' - this is something we need to ensure our children are doing.

A lot of the ideas are from the Google Help page but I find that many people don't even know it is there!

At the bottom of the document is an online quiz for the children to complete to see how good they are at doing efficient searches. Great ideas here for teachers in their classrooms.