How often do we hear people saying “just Google it?” It seems that Google has become the go to for information for people of all ages – I have recently heard my grandmother use this expression! But how reliable is Google when completing research?

The great thing about Google is that there is so much information available to users on an easy to use platform, allowing users to scroll through pages and pages of related results to find the information that they need. My issue with this is that due to the sheer number of results returned for simple searches, I often see students struggling to sift through what is relevant and reliable. Through this experience, I have learned valuable techniques that I will be introducing to my students to narrow results on Google to ensure that they are able to find relevant and reliable information quickly.

The image I have selected above I believe is a beautiful representation of how I see Google. We are traveling through an enormous amount of available information, and while it is the journey we go on that helps us learn, if we can have a few helpful tricks packed in our backpack, navigating the information may feel a little less daunting. I feel that the techniques I will be using will reduce the stress students often feel when completing research tasks.