Reflective Blog #5

I found the mapping information activity quite interesting. I am guilty of often simply selecting something from the first page when searching for something.  It is often hard to determine the validity of the information found on the Internet. I already knew how to dissect a URL to discover what is means, such as a ~name at the end of an URL often means it is not a dedicated website and the information there should be suspect. I also knew how to find the owner of an URL which is helpful to help determine the purpose for the website by looking at the owner. What I did not know how to do was find an archive of a website.  I can see how useful this is to determine how long the website has been around and how recently it has been updated.

I could see how the different search engines use different criteria when conducting a search. When trying some of the different search engines I discovered Excite.com did the worst job by returning quite a few shopping or search sites. I was impressed with Google and how some of the top choices were relevant and reliable sites. 

With these updated tools my searches should produce more reliable sites and the information I learned will help me teach others how to use these tools. It is vital to teach our students today the tools to search for trustworthy and credible information on the Internet. In technology education I often think this is the biggest hurdle to overcome. I am always struck when my mother sends me crazy scary emails to “warn” me of this or that danger without checking to see if they are accurate. If we do not train our students how to ascertain credible versus made up information, we will be a society of misinformation.

I really liked the Delicious site because of three features. The first feature I really liked was the ability to view my bookmarks from any machine. I don’t know how many times I have lost my bookmarks only to recreate them later and never find some. The second reason is the way you tag your links so it is easy to search by key words. When I organize my bookmarks on my browser, I place the bookmarks in folders and subfolders. Sometimes I have to click around to find a bookmark. By using tags, I simply have to search by keywords to find relevant bookmarks. The third great feature is the networking ability. I can find great sites by networking with other professionals in my field or with others interested in a specific topic.

As a software trainer, I see great potential in my department for a site such as Delicious. We could easily share bookmarks with the other software trainers and also share tutorial and tips sites with the employees. This would also model this technology to the college employees and get the word out about the use of Internet bookmarking on sites such as Delicious.