December 1999
Online Newsletter for Greater Essex County Computer Using Professionals

It's one of those times of year that parents dread. It's annual speech time in elementary schools. The time when your child comes home and announces "I've got to do a speech". But, it's also a wonderful time to do a little parent/child work together. Next comes the topic. What would you like to do in your speech? The standard answer is "I dunno; I just have to do a speech". This year, our conversation was a little different. "We" definitely knew what topic we wanted. The reason? Well, there's lots of information about it on the Internet. Now it gets interesting as we get into one of those teachable moments. "Why do you want to research on the Internet"? "Because there's lots of information there" "Why don't we use the encyclopedia that came with our computer?" "Never thought of that" It just so happens that we have a current encyclopedia with our computer and so we start our research there. However, it only took us so far. Off to the Internet we go. Using the big search engines started another of those interesting discussions. From a child's eyes, a search that reveals over a hundred thousand hits is like hitting the jackpot. The best thing was the computer was smart enough to tell us which were the best ten sites. But, as educator Jamie McKenzie is quick to note "hits are not truth". A quick look down the list indicates that, if these were the 10 best, by the time we get to the bottom of the list, we're really going to get into some totally inappropriate sites! We had a lot of great experiences and conversations looking at some of the sites. First, we decided that we weren't really happy with using grown up search engines! When we moved to a more kid-friendly engine, we had considerably more satisfaction with our efforts. Next, how do we know that the information is correct? "Dad, do we really have to do this?" I keep thinking that kids really shouldn't have teachers for parents. Fortunately, Kathy Schrock's guide let us take a look at the results critically. As we gather our resources, it was a chance for a lesson in copy and paste and then the obligatory talk about copyright. "Daaaaad" But, things went well and we managed to put together a pretty good outline for a speech. The hard work of presentation and style comes next. Or, so I thought. Next day, I come home to find out that "we've" changed our topic. The research cycle begins anew! Lest we have to do this again, our steps for speech preparation have now become a webpage. It appears later in this newsletter. Have a terrific holiday. I'll spend a lot of mine helping draft another speech!