How do we research?

How do we research? How do we teach students to research? What makes a good resource? can we use google? What results on google are useful and trustworthy? Can we use Wikipedia? These are all things discussed in my MIT class on technology in education. I have found today that there are so many good answers to these questions that I did not know before and that would have made my learning better in the past. I'm not going to use this space to talk about the old ways though, I want to focus on how amazing the internet can be and the importance of using it to our advantage. Google, especially when used with the techniques we learned today, can be very helpful. I found that searches that may have been frustrating in the past can be narrowed in helpful ways I didn't think possible. This combined with the new knowledge that we can search by country or state will also be very useful for my future in teaching. There was a lot today that I am still unsure about its application, especially to elementary school; however, the research information is something I'm excited to teach my future students. I remember doing research projects in elementary school, a specific one in second grade stood out to me while learning today. We each had to research an animal, mine was the swan, and it would have been so much easier with the resources we have available now. I would have enjoyed the process of research so much more if I would have had Google and YouTube. The information about Wikipedia, and how to find the ratings on their articles was also helpful and encouraging. I use Wikipedia all the time and it is good to know that I will not have to change that as I start teaching students how to do their own research. There is so much useful information out there and the internet has made it so easy to access that information, we should definitely be using that resource to enhance our teaching and learning.