Now the internet is "invisible" too... yikes!

The article, "Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity" was interesting but also a little overwhelming. Not only do I need to learn what is "out there" on the web so that I can be informed and teach my students, but now I also need to know what is out there that I can't see!? I appreciated that the article taught me about why we can't see everything on the web and terms like "deep web" and "invisible web." The internet can be intimidating enough without thinking about what we can't see, but interestingly, the idea of the invisible web made me think more about what we can see.

I use Wordpress for my class blog and it keeps statistics for me. I can see how many "hits" I get each day and search engine terms that were used to find my blog. This has made me realize how visible I am on the internet. There are more than just my students finding my blog and my work. Does this matter? Should I make my blog more invisible? I'm not sure. I know I appreciate finding interesting things that other people, especially teachers, have posted so should I not return the favour?

I also wonder about my students searching too "deep" into the web. It has a very "Big Brother" feel to it. What will they find? Do they need to find things that aren't initially given in their searches? Is this a skill better taught if they decide to further their education and need better research for their papers? Or would it be better for them to understand this part of the internet right from the beginning, helping them to better evaluate web pages and the information found on them?

This all seems to link back to our beginning lessons on research models and my commitment to provide my students with better research skills.