Take Kids Deep Inside Where the Deep Web Hides

simulpost with TechLearning

Dr. Robert McLaughlin was one of our guests on the Wow2 show this past Tuesday night and made some interesting comments about and the importance of tapping into deep web resources.

I think that many of us, myself included just forget about the importance of the deep web. And with fully 95% of deep web resources being free, there is no excuse for not exposing students (and ourselves) to this amazing part of the Internet.

With the “deep web”, some experts estimate that 50 times the data than is available on the surface web (sites indexable by search engines) reside behind deep web – password protected databases, non-indexed web pages or query-only databases.

I will admit, I’m really a beginner at the deep web, but have begun my journey.

I want to share with you some of the deep web information and resolutions of mine since I’ve begun my own intentional exploration of the deep web:

• The 21st Century Information Fluency Project has some great information on the deep web.
• I’m going to take some time to spend on some academic research deep web resources, most particularly:
  • Librarians’ Index
  • AcademicInfo
  • Infomine
• I will familiarize myself with Complete Planet to find databases and share these with my students after reviewing them. (We have to move past our two most heavily used resources which are comprised of Google and Quintura in particular.)
• After I learn more, I will share deep web strategies with my students including how to access and use the GALILEO, Georgia Online Library System.
• Review the 119 Deep web resources at the Online Education Database.

Share the tutorials and resources that helped me understand this better:

• The Tutorial from the Library at UC Berkeley
• Wikipedia article on the Deep Web

Now, don’t think that Google doesn’t access any deep web resources, as Google Book Search, Google Scholar, and Microsoft’s Windows Live Academic “are examples where lines between the deep web and surface web are blurring” according to the Internet Tutorials resource on the Deep Web.

Yes, I think that the surface web is so important because many people do not understand the Deep web (myself included). Many people start and end with Google and that’s it.

However, as an educator, if a student to leaves my classroom and thinks that Google is the only place to search, I believe that I will have done a disservice.

I’m sure that some advocates of free-everything will advocate that all deep web resources should “come out” to the surface, I believe that there will always be deep web resources and that an effective digital citizen will acknowledge the existence of multiple sources of information.

As much as I love Google, to depend entirely on Google is akin to our total dependence on Microsoft in the late 1980’s and most of the 1990’s. I believe that variety and diversity is an important part of the Internet.

I have as an objective of mine to integrate more deep web resources into my classroom and teaching.

Please share what you know.

tag: deepweb, learning, education, teaching, Google, Microsoft, research, library, search, search engines, digitalcitizenship, informationliteracy, digitalliteracy