A metacognitive tool for web surfing

This paper presents a meta-tool for web searching that is a part of a learning environment named Did@browser, which is being developed at our laboratories. This tool aims to help pupils reflect on their own search strategies when they study on the Net; besides, it gives teachers the opportunity to monitor students' semantic paths in order to evaluate whether their research process shows awareness or if it is merely casual. The didactic value of this tool is to make learning processes on the Net meaningful and more attractive. To determine validity and usability and whether the tool is user-friendly we carried out an experimentation with middle school pupils.