Teachers, take back the online research process! (If you are asking the question: “Did we ever have control of the online research process in the first place?” then you get a gold star for your healthy skepticism).
Before Google and other search engines got so good, I think we did have some control. I remember the days, not so long ago, when kids couldn’t always find material for their research topics using Google, especially if their topics were just a little unusual or offbeat. They would then be forced to ask for help, and I took advantage of some great teachable moments to help students refine their keywords and search techniques.
Being with students as they refine search skills leads naturally to the next opportunity: helping students evaluate the reliability and credibility of the sites we’d find together.
These teachable moments worked well.