Searching for that "Diamond"?

It's amazing how much information is on the internet. Really! If you do a search on just about anything, you'll usually get thousands to millions of results! Now, if we want information at our fingertips, this is the answer, but how do we sort through it all? How do we find the "diamond in the rough"?

Just like traditional library research, good online research takes time effort and focus to produce good results. It's not often that the first search result is exactly what we're looking for, or even the first page or two (or ten!). While using specific search terms can be effective, even that doesn't guarantee good results - we also need to be mindful of the sites we get our information from. Just because "somebody's" blog somewhere (hehe...like this one?) says something is true, doesn't mean that we should take it at face value - but it doesn't mean that we should automatically discredit the information either.

Teaching students these important methods of researching online is essential! For although students may think that the internet has made their research assignment easier, they may find that the amount of information they have to sift through before they discover the real "gems" is more than they bargained for.

All in all, this week has been a lot of research - searching, sifting, scanning, exploring, and saving - hoping to stumble upon the "answer" to my questions, while realizing that often the real answer isn't out there in the way you want it. More often, it's a combination of many thoughts and ideas that you have to consolidate and piece together for it to really make sense.