The internet can be a scary place.  Teachers are always a bit apprehensive when having a classroom of 30 students surfing the web while working on a research project.  Proximity is always a good idea when students are online, but how can a teacher monitor every site that all their kids are visiting?   Thankfully the filter blocks a good deal of the adult content, but there are always a few sites that manage to bypass the filter.  Google Custom Search (GCS) allows a teacher to create a personalized google search of only those reputable sites that they would like for their class to use.  I created an example search below that will only search websites, wikis, or blogs that I have personally created or collaborated on.  Every other site on the internet is ruled out except for those URL’s that I manually entered when creating the GCS.  Teachers may even want to have students in their class create their own customized searches by having them follow a rubric explaining what makes a site reputable and worthy of being included in the list.  You can create a free google customized search in 3 easy steps.  Just go to the following URL to get started – http://www.google.com/cse/ and click on the button that reads “Create a Custom Search Engine”

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