Teachers. Technology. Transformation.

The broadcast premier of this program is tonight at 9 p.m. on PBS. Check your local listings. Here is a brief introduction from the web site:

Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained?

In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world. Continuing a line of investigation she began with the 2008 FRONTLINE report Growing Up Online, award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin embarks on a journey to understand the implications of living in a world consumed by technology and the impact that this constant connectivity may have on future generations.

If you can't watch it tonight, don't worry, you can watch the full show online.

Want to see some neat things that are happening online with NASA?
Then check out these 10 cool applications!

I was browsing through an older issue of Learning & Leading with Technology (September/October 2007) when I found an article titled, Improving Student Research by Catherine Tannahill and Leslie Ricklin. The authors break the research process into four steps, the first being investigation. In this step students should identify the type of information needed and available to them. They recommend that educators teach, model and reinforce basic and advanced Internet search techniques so that students can learn how to best use their time. For example...

"Students can use an Internet Search Log to identify search strategies including such things as the keywords used, the name of the search engine, and additional suggestions. As they locate sites, they should begin to build a bibliography listing those sites they think might be useful. At this stage you and your students can focus on good search techniques, effective evaluation of information sources, and identification of information that might be more difficult to find. These activities can be revisited throughout the initial source gathering period. Finally, part of this initial investigation should be the evaluation of the quality of the sites as sources of information."

Based on a picture of a search log in the publication, I have created one in Word format and included it with this post. I hope that, like the article, this document can be of use to teachers in the classroom. Feel free to modify, adapt, alter, change, etc. in any way that fits your needs.

Just some closing questions. Please share your responses!

• How do you help students prepare before conducting an Internet search?
• How do you monitor students' searching progress?