Searching the WWW:

1
Searching the WWW

• A basic introduction

2
What is a search engine?

• Search engine
• Crawls the web automatically
• Directories
• Humans review site descriptions
• Hybrid search engines
• Some search engines maintain a directory

3
Parts of a search engine

• Spider, crawler
• Index, catalog
• Search engine software
• The same, but different

4
Search engine features

• Search engine features for webmasters
• Crawling
• Indexing
• Ranking
• Spam

5
The same but different

• Florida ecosystems
• Alta Vista
• Excite
• Google
• Hotbot
• Lycos
• Metacrawlers
• Northern Light
• Yahoo

6
Search Engine Math

• Works on nearly all search engines
• Be as specific as possible
• Addition floridaecosystems
• Multiplication
• florida ecosystems
• Subtraction florida ecosystems-everglades
• Combinations

7
Advanced Searching

• Search Features Chart
• Title searching (AV, Hotbot, Northern Light)
• Site search (Hotbot, AV, Lycos)
• Wildcards (AV, NL, Yahoo)
• Date Range (AV, HB, NL, Yahoo)
• Search w/in (Go, Lycos, HotBot)
• Boolean (AV -advanced, Excite -uppercase)

8
Bookmarks

• How to organize resources

9
Kid Search Engines

• Search Links

10
Misconception

• Too many educators believe that embedding links
  to other web sites in text is good instruction.
  So much hype has been associated with the WWW
  that many educators seem to have lost sight of
  the most important issue - learning.
• Jonassen, 2000, p. 176

11
Issues

• Learners easily get off-task, thus, learning
  goals are lost
  
• Learners have difficulty integrating new
  knowledge with existing knowledge
  
• Learners have difficulty synthesizing new
  knowledge into meaningful communication

12
Intentionality

• A self-regulated learner who keeps his or her
  information-seeking goals in mind and makes good
  decisions can find the WWW an essential
  information resource during intentional learning.
  That is the educational secret to the Internet -
  intentionality.
• Jonassen, 2000, p. 176

13
Mindtools

• Require students to think in meaningful ways and
  represent what they learned
  
• Typically requires collaboration
• the most effective uses of computers in
  classrooms are for accessing information and
  interpreting, organizing and representing
  personal knowledge (Jonassen, 2000, p. 4)

14
The WWW as a Mindtool

• Make a plan
• Use tools or strategies
• Evaluate usability of information
• Critically evaluate information
• Collect information, use for intended purpose,
  attribute authorship
  
• Reflect on activity

15
Make a plan

• Students should clearly articulate what kind of
  information they are searching for
  
• Students should develop a search strategy

16
Make a plan - example

• How was King Tuts tomb excavated and what other
  tombs are in the Valley of the Kings?
  
• Concept block diagram

Who Where When What King Tut Egypt ancient
tomb King Egyptian historical burial Tutankh
amen Valley of Kings old grave
Tutankhamen Cairo history crypt
17
Make a plan -example

• Search strategy
• ((king (tut OR tutankhamen) AND egypt OR (valley
  NEAR kings) OR cairo) AND (ancient or histor OR
  old) AND (tomb OR burial OR grave OR crypt)
  

18
Evaluate usability of information

• Does the information support the written purpose?
  
  
• If yes, searching stops for now
• If no, narrow search, expand search or start again

19
Critically evaluate info.

• 1970s critical viewing curricula advocates
• Neophytes in the high-tech world often mistake
  downloading for thinking (Healey, 1998, p. 251)
  

20
Collect, use, attribute

• Collect by copying and pasting with quotes,
  paraphrasing, interpreting
  
• Triangulate with other sources
• Properly attribute authorship
• Organize information through bookmarks or other
  strategies

21
Reflection

• Should be continuous not formative
• Are we achieving our goals?
• Should we change our search strategy?
• What are we learning?
• What are we learning about collaboration?