Renee Morrison

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures meant more than 90% of the world’s learners had to study virtually or from home. The internet, already an invaluable educational tool, has therefore become even more important for students. One of students’ most common internet activities, both in schools and in home schooling, is online searching.

This means teachers, and those parents currently standing in for teachers, need to help students develop skills for searching online. So what can parents do to support their children when tasks sent home from school require them to search for information online? And what can they do to extend such work for gifted students or when the work sent home runs out?

Searching online has many educational benefits. For instance, one study found students who used advanced online search strategies also had higher grades at university.

But spending more time online does not guarantee better online skills. Instead, a student’s ability to successfully search online increases with guidance and explicit instruction.

Young people tend to assume they are already competent searchers. Their teachers and parents often assume this too. This assumption, and the misguided belief that searching always results in learning, means much classroom practice focuses on searching to learn, rarely on learning to search.

Faire des recherches sur Internet est une activité très formatrice. Une étude a par exemple montré que les jeunes qui élaborent de vraies stratégies de recherche en ligne ont également de meilleures notes à l’université.

Mais ces compétences ne s’acquièrent pas automatiquement en passant plus de temps à surfer sur le web. Bien au contraire, les étudiants ont besoin de conseils et d’instructions explicites pour être capables de faire des recherches plus efficaces.