You may want to teach them that “internet” and “the web” are not the same thing.
My mother had never been able to learn her way around computers, finding them extremely technical and imposing. And then I introduced her to Skype (i.e., 10c/min as opposed to 3€/min phone calls to her daughter abroad, or even 0c/min) and gee, now she’s able to remember what the three little buttons on the upper right corner do!
Chat and teleconferencing programs are used in more and more companies. I’ve seen factories where the lab moved from calling Production with results (which could mean several calls until you caught the foreman not-too-busy and near pen and paper) to dropping an instant message (which blinked the data on a screen visible both by the foreman and by the reactor’s operator).
That is actually a very good page - and although your are correct and the school administration might frown on the language, I might just take the time to “clean it up a bit” and use this (giving credit to the original author). Thanks - the guy really did a good job of putting it out there!
More on phishing scams. I got one today that appeared to be from the USC Credit Union, and they mimicked the look and feel of real emails from the Credit Union very well. It said that I had to log in for some bullshit reason, and said “click here” to do that. I rolled over the link to see where it went, even though I knew it was a phishing scam. The address was http://www.uscceditunion.org/ Yes, “cedit” union. Which is easy to miss. So just be really careful.
Only enter your information if you initiate the action. In other words, you type in the Credit Union address yourself, you don’t get there via a link from an email or anywhere else. If you receive an email like this, there should be somewhere you can forward it to so that your bank (or whatever) can take the appropriate action.
Anyway. If they don’t know how to use Google Maps, you could show them that. I can’t think of much else.
Could you tell us a bit about your audience? Are the students in your class in high school? Returning adults?
You mentioned email etiquette, and one specific thing to raise is the topic of emailing professors. There seems to be a big disconnect between the email expectations of students and professors. Students should ask for clarification at the beginning of the course. It seems like many students expect a short time frame for response, while many professors may be in the habit of checking their email once per week. Some professors prefer that questions about the material, schedule, or exams go to the TA (if there is a TA). There are still professors who prefer that any questions about course content be raised at designated office hours, not via email.
Back to the internet, online academic journals. This is content that they’re not going to get on google. Colleges will have subscriptions to these journals, and often a specialized portal through the library or academic department to access the content. Also information on how to find a full article from an abstract – you might get an abstract on google and then have to track down a hard copy of a publication in an actual library.
One other research trick is to check the references of articles/papers you use for other articles, books, and papers that may be of use to you.
I’d also like to emphasize that students should be sure to go to any offered library orientation sessions, or, failing that, ask a librarian for one. While people these days think that everything on the planet can be found on the Internet, that’s not true in the least.
Research takes certain skills and a good knowledge of available resources that librarians develop through years of experience. However good a researcher you may be, your librarian is probably better so if you really want to make the best use of the best resources, be sure to avail yourself of the expertise that your librarian has and learn about the treasures that the library has available.
One thing I notice when I’m training people on how to research and find stuff is that there’s a tendency to be way too specific in search terms. This wastes time, since what one person thinks is the perfect set of terms to reach a given item is probably not nearly as close as they think. Teach your students how to cast a broad but targeted net and then use their brains and judgement to winnow through the results–not only will they find what they’re looking for faster, they will also find ancillary information that increases their overall understanding of the subject at hand. This also helps quite a bit in forming critical judgements regarding the reliability of sources, since finding a consensus point will help in shedding out the fringey, crackpot sources.
Using an IP finder such as the Shazou extension for Firefox can help in deciding whether or not a given site is what it says it is. If the page represents itself as belonging to a reputable university or business in the US, but the IP originates somewhere in Bulgaria, it would be wise to remain sceptical about the rest of the information contained on the site. If they’re lying about their location, what else are they lying about?
Spelling, grammar and punctuation. Since the composition skills we use to present our thoughts and opinions are all we have online it’s crucial not to be perceived as a total 'tard while communicating with others. It’s the clothes, grooming habits and body language of the internet.
Never post or upload anything you wouldn’t want your mom or your boss to see. NOTHING is ever lost or forgotten once it’s on the web (see “Goatse.” But only once, purely as a cautionary tale.) Anonymity is a precious commodity that can never be regained once lost. Firewalls are your friend, as are routers. Spoof your MAC. Close all open unneeded ports, especially printer ports. Never go out in public with shared folders on your laptop. There are no underage hotties out there panting to have sex with you, only middle aged cops who want to put you on Dateline. TANSTAAFL–if anything looks too good to be true, it is. Scepticism, scepticism, scepticism. Never forward ANYTHING with multiple hashmarks in the message, especially if you haven’t checked Snopes about it. Don’t be a dick, because the person you annoy could possibly crush you like a bug and make your bank account go away.
That was a lot more relevant about 12 years ago when people were sending e-mail letter bombs to newly-internetted AOLers. That sort of attitude is a pale shadow of its former self.
Its message that there is no shortage of people on the internet who want to screw you over is still well-taken, however.
The students are in their first quarter at a college that specializes in design (fashion and interior) and technology (visual communications and game design). So although the technology students usually (but not always) have a better grasp on Internet usage, the design students only know the Internet as a source for getting their email and perhaps looking at a few fashion/interior design websites.
I have already used Doctor Who’s excellent suggestion of using the links to reference pages here on the SDMB. I posted the links in class and, as a project for next week, the students will each give a short (10 minute) presentation of one of the reference sites; showing the other students how to navigate the site, and demonstrating what they can find on the site.
This weekend I intend to comb through this thread and pick some of the examples and suggestions and put together another worksheet.
So if anyone has any other comments or suggestions, please post them and I will try to incorporate as much as possible.
I have already insisted they all create new email addresses with better names than “dirtygirl” and “superXXXdude” to be used when communicating with potential employers. Next up is practicing writing emails to potential employers.
A lot of this might seem obvious, but trust me, they were surprised when I told them that employers do look at email addresses and might not be thrilled to see the cute or borderline pornographic email addresses on the top of the email. The thought had never crossed their minds.
Oooh, good one, and I would suggest being specific about sites like Facebook and MySpace. Employers are looking at these sites before interviewing applicants. This is a huge trend and it is not going away.
