DO WE TEACH OUR STUDENTS HOW TO SEARCH OVER THE INTERNET? A PARADOX OF THE GREEK EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Project based learning has become a significant part of teaching methodology during the recent years. Moreover, the advance of technology and the fact that all students have internet access at their own home, has led teachers to assign various projects to their students that demand searching for information over the internet.

The problem, at least here in Greece, is that we take for granted that students know how to search over the internet. The curriculum developed by the Greek ministry of education for ict subjects throughout first and second degree of education, which include primary, junior high and senior high school, does not cover the part of searching over the internet. So, we rely on the knowledge gained by the students on their own.

This work is a first attempt to demonstrate the lack of basic knowledge on searching over the internet. Although, searching the internet include many issues, we focused on the number and the relevance of the search results. Specifically, we wanted to test if students know how to reduce the number of search results using Google search operators.

We developed an online form with four general questions and four questions on Google search operators. The form was designed for junior high school students (12-15 years old). The reason for that is that at junior high school students are asked to find information on various subjects more than any other students. The form was filled by more than 100 students of Mandoulides Junior High School.

Our results were more or less what we expected but they were also quite impressive. More than 95% of students use the internet to find the information assigned to them and from those, almost everyone uses Google search engine. Our most impressive finding was that none of the students answering our questions knew how to reduce the number of search results using Google search operators. Most of them could finally find the information on the subject assigned to them, but only through a number of search results ranging from a few thousands to one or two million.

The aim of our work was to show off the paradox of the Greek educational system where students are expected to search for information over the internet without having been taught how to do this. Our results have confirmed our initial thoughts, so now we are thinking of expanding our research to a greater number of students and from geographical areas all over Greece. The fact that although students use the internet as their exclusive source of information, they know very little on how to do it right, will strengthen our argument to propose an improved curriculum for ict subjects.