Web+search

Basics
__**How to Perform a Basic Search**__ So you think the Web is a great way to find information about a topic. That is until you do research on lions, thinking you'll get late-breaking news on the king of beasts for your science project, and instead you get four hundred listings of Lions' Clubs around the U.S.A. This might take longer than you thought. __**How is the Internet organized or disorganized?**__ The Internet is an information dumping-ground, a place where anyone can publish anything. There is no review to ensure that the information is checked for quality. You could get information that is not factual!! There are places to look. Index and search engines can point you in the right direction. __**Index (or Directory)**__ Web directories or indexes are like card catalogs at the library. To create an index, someone actually searched the Internet for you. They locate, evaluate, and classify sites for you. A Web directory will give you some key sites, with a description of what you'll find there. Yahoo is a very well-known index to look at for an example. __**Search Engines**__ A search engine is like a spider. You tell the search engine what you would like to find and it will go out and find as many sites as possible to match your subject. Search engines use programs called spiders or bots that follow links from site to site keeping tract of pages as they go. Check out these search engines: Altavista, Infoseek, Excite, Hotbot and Google. __**Meta-search Engine**__ In a meta-search engine, you enter key words like with a search engine but a meta-search engine will try to find you the best search engine to use for you subject. You then pick the search engine that you would like to use for you subject. Check out these meta-search engines: Debriefing, BlueGlobus, and Vroosh. __http://www.chambersburg.k12.pa.us/about/schools/ham_hghts/shatzdou/Search__

Google for Power Searchers Here are the top Google Shortcuts that any savvy Googler should have under his or her belt. You'll find that using these Google Search Shortcuts will greatly cut down on your Google search time, as well as make your Google searches more effective and more efficient.__ http://websearch.about.com/library/cheatsheet/ngooglecheatsheet.htm__
 * Google Search Shortcuts-Google Cheat Sheet**

Teacher-oriented uses
As a teacher in the 21st century we are constanly looking for new information and ways to present it. The internet makes these processes more accessable. Teachers can search for the obvious; lesson plans, data for enrichment and content, literacy plans, vocabulary ideas and pictures. We may also search for pictures to enhance our lessons presented perhaps with power point, and create literacy cards for ELL students with visual aides. We may use virtual manipulatives to enhance mathematical student understanding, as well as look for maps and virtual enhancement sights to understand the earth and processes that occur to it. We also may look at and create virtual lessons to engage students with sights such as UNITED STREAMING.

Student-oriented uses
Students can search the web for many uses. The most obvious student use is to find information for a current project or assignment. Fourth graders can look for information on California missions or sixth graders can find information about ancient civilizations. They are also able to use it to search for people. For instance, a class can search for a favorite author to ask questions of him/her. There are even search engines geared for kids such as www.tekmom.com/search

Resources to learn more
Here are some great resources to assist you with learning more about Web Searches: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchengine#References http://websearch.about.com http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/rwebsearch2.html http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/31wsearc.htm http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/july/SearchTechn/SearchIndex.html http://www.eduplace.com/kids/usingweb/g3-5.html

**Resources/examples of this technology in education**
Lesson plan on how to teach students to use keywords to narrow their searches on the Internet. http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/lesson_plans/45_15.asp

SearchQuest: A WebQuest About Search Tools http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/sqteach.html

Tutorial for teachers and older students on how to search the Internet. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

Web search strategies for teachers. http://www.learnwebskills.com/search/main.html

Research on this technology in education

 * Title:** [|EJ664288 - Teaching Internet Literacy Strategies: The Hero Inquiry Project.]
 * Abstract:** Describes a six-week Hero Inquiry project in detail so readers may implement similar units of study in their classrooms. Concludes that most of the students enjoyed the activities because they focused on strengthening skills for online research, and the hero theme was successful because students were allowed to research a self-selected topic of personal interest.

Schacter, J., Gregory, K.W. K., & Chung, Aimee Dorr. 1998. Children's internet searching on complex problems: Performance and process analyses. Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 49(9) pp. 840-849.

Abstract The research reported here examined the effects of task structure on elementary school students' information seeking on the Internet. Thirty-two 5th- and 6th-grade students searched on 2 tasks (1 well-defined and 1 ill-defined) for information that was relevant to solving 2 problems. Information-seeking process behaviors were analyzed by collecting computer trace data of each students search. Information-seeking performance was measured by 2 adult raters and by students' own judgments of all documents found. Analyses of students' process behaviors illustrated that children are interactive information seekers, preferring to browse rather than plan or employ systematic analytic-based searching strategies. Performance results indicated that children have difficulty finding relevant information on the Internet, however, children did search more effectively on the ill-defined task than on the well-defined one. Further, when judging their own performance, students rated their work equally on both tasks, yet adult judges found that students performed significantly worse on the well-defined task. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hirsh, Sandra G. 1999. Children’s relevance criteria and information seeking on electronic resources. Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50(14). Pp. 1265-1283.

Abstract This study explores the relevance criteria and search strategies elementary school children applied when searching for information related to a class assignment in a school library setting. Students were interviewed on two occasions at different stages of the research process; field observations involved students thinking aloud to explain their search processes and shadowing as students moved around the school library. Students performed searches on an on-line catalog, an electronic encyclopedia, an electronic magazine index, and the World Wide Web. Results are presented for children selecting the topic, conducting the search, examining the results, and extracting relevant results. A total of 254 mentions of relevance criteria were identified, including 197 references to textual relevance criteria that were coded into nine categories and 57 references to graphical relevance criteria that were coded into five categories. Students exhibited little concern for the authority of the textual and graphical information they found, based the majority of their relevance decisions for textual material on topicality, and identified information they found interesting. Students devoted a large portion of their research time to finding pictures. Understanding the ways that children use electronic resources and the relevance criteria they apply has implications for information literacy training and for systems design.