if we want our students to critically evaluate all the resources they view and to be able to address questions like who, what, why then exposure is the key. how then, can you restrict students to particular search engines and would this in fact be killing their development of critical literacy skills. obviously depending on age there needs to be some level of scaffolding, guidance and supervision of use of the internet, but perhaps simply teaching the rules of internet etiquitte, what can go wrong with research on the internet, and how to make use of certain search services will be enough to not have to supervise and scaffold too much?
i think if you stop students from using certain searches then you are stopping then your preventing them from the notion of learning through experience.
"what we have to learn we learn by doing" - aristotle.
establishing an understanding with students first about searches on the internet and using information literacy will give them the skills to be able to evaluate when they are left on their own to research. if they can ask the right questions, have a prior baseline of knowledge established by the teacher and can triangulate their research well then they shouldn't need to be confined to the walls of one search engine.
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I agree Kate, I wouldnt want to restrict the students from search engines in my classroom. They are just going to go home and use all the search engines anyway so why not teach them HOW to use a search engine. We should be teaching students everything they need to know, so that when they leave the boundries of the school they can function as adults.
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