38 Interesting Ways* to Use Search Engines in the Classroom

1. *and tips 38 Interesting Ways* to Use Search Engines in the Classroom by practicalowl This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License.

2. #1 - Tag Galaxy Image Search     For an alternative image search use Tag Galaxy. It provides search results from the tags added to Flickr images. It offers a student a visual representation of their results in the form of a photo sphere. Each tag belongs to a galaxy of related tags helping students find other content. @tombarrett Esustain08 Tag Galaxy 1 by vivevans

3. #2 - Check expressions in MFL Go to http://www.google.fr/ or http://fr.yahoo.com/ type in your phrase check Pages: France (google) or français (yahoo) and type in your phrase. Simple example I wonder if the French say as red as a lobster when they get sunburnt Let’s type in Rouge homard soleil @kaymcmeekin Thousands of results  including ·Rigolus - La newsletter du 16/09/2008 Pourquoi le soleil, c'est du beau temps, et la pluie du ... Le coup de soleil, ça vous rend rouge comme un homard, puis vous pelez pendant deux semaines. ... www.rigolus.com/archives/2008_09_16.htm - En cache and good reading material

4. A short and simple expanation of boolean search logic is available on the Boolify Help page. @janning #3 - Boolean Search Made Easy A well constructed boolean search is the way to improve your search results. Boolify helps students understand their web search by visually demonstrating the logic of their search. As students add or remove the jigsaw piece qualifiers ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘not’ the changes in their search results appear at the bottom of the search screen.

5. #6 - Quintura for Kids Quintura for Kids Grown-ups might like to check out Quintura's embeddable search results tag clouds - a great way to share results. @janning

6. #4 - Librarians do it by numbers Have you been to the library and found a book on your topic?  Do you know its Dewey number? Visit BUBL to find websites catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System. @janning

7. #8 - Cooliris for image & video searches Cooliris is a free plugin for your web browser to turn searches into an interactive scrolling image wall.  You can zoom in, out, left or right.  It's great on a IWB - use the blue bar & arrows at the bottom of the screen. Choose to search Google images, Flickr, Youtube & more. @mrmackenzie

8. #9 - Google Wonder Wheel - HAS GONE! Encourage your students to see a regular Google search in a different way. From the standard results page, click "More Options" under the Google logo. Select "Wonder Wheel". Choosing different words from the wheel allows you to drill down into different combined searches too. Image by Ivan Walsh @tombarrett

9. #5 - Kidsclick 'Kid-friendly' sites in a 'kid-friendly' directory. Check out the Worlds of Web Searching for lesson plans. The new KidsClick site will be available soon. @janning

10. #7 - Create Biographies Use http://www.123people.com/ and http://www.pipl.com/ to create valid and extensive searches for biographies.  @4goggas

11. #10 - Visuwords  One of the most popular ways to search for synonyms in my class. Visuwords creates a word map of connections and word families from your search. A fluid and fantastic tool - here are some more detailed ways to use it in the classroom. @tombarrett

12. #12- Google Timelines Generate a timeline of dated Google search results... A screenshot of the timeline could make for a nice mystery starter... Click on parts of the timeline to zoom into a specific time period.

13. #11- Soungle - search engine for sound Could be useful as a stimulus for writing. 1. Create a story, mood, setting etc through sounds from soungle etc 2. Put the sounds into a medium such as PPT. 3. Add writing or 'talk' story 4. Perform out loud! www.soungle.com

14. Type in a search term into your favourite image search engine and view the thumbnails.   Scroll down so you can't see the search term (or take a screenshot and crop) and show the class the thumbnails.  They have to guess what you put in originally. #13 - Guess the search term  SHARING This doesn't really work with Google as they show the word under each image so try bing.com @stuartridout

15. #14 - Calculator & Converter Google Tip: You can use Google for much more than searching.  It is a quick way to perform calculations and conversions. My class find it more useful than looking for the calculator application or finding a conversion site as they can type straight into the Google search on the browser toolbar. Try typing 3.8 * 27.4 16 oz in g 100 c in f 20 gbp in usd @stuartridout

16. #15 - Use the Help & Tutorials • Choose your search engine to suit your search needs • Try the Noodle Tools Interactive version Look for links to support documents on the Search engine site. (often at the bottom of the page - and in small print ) An example: Google printable pdf posters @janning

17. Use Thumbshots ranking, compare how different search engines bring up different sites for the same keywords. The results show up differences and could lead to classroom discussions on reasons behind this - commercial, popularity etc. #16 - Thumbshots  by Matt Brett Dianne McKenzie

18. download here: Google Cheat sheet #17 - Google for non-tech teachers This is a cheat sheet that can be laminated and hung near the class computer or pod.  It is a guide that is colour co-ordinated for basic to advanced users. Use it as a treasure hunt resource for children and teachers to understand search operators. @glennmalcolm

19. download here: Kidzui #18 - Safe search Kidzui This is a downloadable flash-based browser that must be verified by parents via email prior to pupil use. A class setup with one user name etc returns online activity to the teacher whenever they log in - time, URL, popularity etc. Built by teachers and parents only trusted sites/pages are allowed (including youtube pages - last count 2 million+) @glennmalcolm

20. http://www.search-cube.com/ #19 - Search Cube search-cube is a visual search engine that presents web search results in a unique, three-dimensional cube interface. It shows previews of up to ninety-six websites, videos and images. Flip the cube and use the visual interface to get discussion underway, especially for art and design topics. Use your keyboard arrows to flip the cube, then Mouse over images for summaries! @heyjudeonline

21. http://www.spezify.com/ #20 - Spezify Spezify is a search tool presenting results from a large number of websites in different visual ways.  With a visual presentation of ideas, and links across the top of the page to help narrow down the search, students are able to learn about the impact of key words in searching immediately and visually. @heyjudeonline

22. #21 - WolframAlpha WolframAlpha  is a very powerful mathematical and data search engine. But you can get too much information output from it. So try these two very simple activities.1) Try typing this in:“Where am I?”  Then click on the map data to see!Discuss how it could “know that?”2) Explore some simple AI with the search box - “talk” to Wolfram Alpha – even simple questions asked differently get different responses! Try:HelloWho are you?How are you?What are you?Do you sleep?Who is your dad?Again – discuss how / why you get this output? Remember keep questions VERY simple. http://www.wolframalpha.com Wolfram Alpha  has some other tools that canbe used as a basis for interesting lessons. Click on the link below to see what the WolframAlpha Tones Generator can do in a cross curricular activity. http://www.l4l.co.uk/?p=472                                                                                    @eyebeams

23. #22 - WatchKnow (Video Search) http://www.watchknow.org/ WatchKnow is   a collaborative, open project of educational videos designed to be searchable, reliable, and conductive to better learning for all.  (Still in Beta) @lismiss

24. #23 - Google Alerts Learners could set up some alerts: • Prior to commencing a research project • to keep up-to-date on college/uni focus • to track what is being written about them • to find out what is going on in their area • as part of their computing/ICT studies • to be better and more quickly informed. This search tool was recently described by Ollie Bray (LTS) as allowing people to search the future web.  Along with RSS, this changes many conceptions of the web around sifting what is already there. Type in a term, choose a search type and how often you wish to be notified of new web content featuring your term, and provide an email address to receive the intro to content and a link. I use this to keep embedded delicious 'virtual libraries' updated on websites that I run eg ACTS.  Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and complete this form. @parslad

25. #24 - eyePlorer          Creative way for students to explore a new topic in a simple way  •Type in topic to research •eyePlorer  scans the web for facts and puts them into a colour wheel. •Click on eyeSpots for more facts related to topic -common facts are arranged in categories •Click on border to focus on one category Students can drag and drop facts onto an eyePlorer  notebook to save for later use. @lismiss

26. #25 - Google Custom Search If you want to focus your students' searching on specific sites use this tool to build your own search engine. Additionally you can let students contribute and help build the sites available to be searched. http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ Or even create a search engine based on your websites and resources. @itmadesimple

27. Children with SEN can also benefit from using Google Custom Search as you can present them with a much smaller set of search results. @hgjohn #26 - Making Google Custom Search Safe Putting a Google Custom Search on your blog or VLE can be useful: You can make it default to Safe Search and if you are a school you can remove the ads. You could also use it to build a themed search engine as described on the previous page to put on a topic page. It's simple: Link to instructions

28. #27 DearComputer Shows full original images instead of the small thumbnails for Google Image Search.  I often use this Goggle Image Ripper  to capture images for the IWB as it  puts all the images in their full size on the page. Then I use the camera tool to capture the images  or I right-click on them to  copy and paste them straight onto my flipchart page @lismiss

29. #28 - Creative Commons Search http://search.creativecommons.org Whether finding images to use in their own work or to help with other online projects, our class use Creative Commons Search. Once you have introduced the idea of licensing and correct usage, this is a great search tool to help children find permissible resources. by François @ Edito.qc.ca @tombarrett

30. #29 - DiscoverEd - ccLearn http://discovered.creativecommons.org/search/ A BETA search tool from Creative Commons that helps you to discover open educational resources (OER). DiscoverEd is an aggregated search engine including OER Commons and LessonPlanz.com amongst others. Tagged results show Curator, Edu Level, Licensing and Language. by judy_breck @tombarrett

31. Tip: Once the children have found the image they want in Compfight I teach them to copy the Creative Commons link from the resulting Flickr page to use as their image attribution. @hgjohn #30 - Compfight - CC Image Search As long as Flickr isn't blocked in your area, then Compfight is one of the easiest ways to find Creative Commons attributed images for blogs, web pages and presentations. Set the search engine to look for Creative Commons Only.

32. #31 -10x10 News Search 10x10 displays 100 images of breaking news, updated every hour from; BBC World News, Reuters and the New York Times. Clicking on an image gives you a link to the news story. You can go back in time to any date and hour after 2004 to see what was happening then. @theokk

33. Shahi is a visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images. A useful combination of types of information in this search engine. The definition is offered with a range of thumbnails of the search term from Flickr (+Google +Yahoo) A simple way to support literacy for different children in the class. Each new search term loads on top of the previous. In this way you can see a history of searches - useful for language activities in the classroom. @tombarrett #32 -Shahi http://blachan.com/shahi/

34. #33 -Search Engine for Younger Children http://www.kidrex.org/ A simple search engine that is easy to read the results and safe search is automatically turned on! @teggie19

35. #34 -Google Squared Create a table that compares a range of specifications for a subject with Google Squared: http://www.google.com/squared Type into the search bar and compare things like: • Australian primeministers • Chemical elements • Canadian states It is simple to edit and remove unwanted data or add extra specifications. Eugene de Gouw

36. #35 -GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle LINK >> http://googlegooglegooglegoogle.com/ Run 4 Google searches in the same window. Close the frames so you only have two, or three open. Each frame can actually be loaded with any URL - use the little green arrow. @tombarrett

37. #36 -Scirus LINK >> http://www.scirus.com/ A comprehensive scientific research tool, useful at high school and tertiary levels @crgalvin

38. #37-Qwiki http://www.qwiki.com/ Turn research into a search experience using Qwiki! Qwiki generates a narrated movie mashup of images, video, audio, and text about your topic. You can turn the subtitles on and off. Qwiki will also suggest related keywords and qwikis. You can share and embed qwikis easily.

39. #38 Use agoogleaday to set up a starter Agoogleaday.com poses a daily question. Once students hit the start button they are timed and must use the search engine to find the correct answer to a question. There is no correct way of searching only the correct answer! Once kids are done, you can share how they conducted their searches to share best practice in effeciency. @ali_mulla@LearnICTit

40. If you would like to:  • Contribute your ideas and tips to the presentation. • Let me know how you have used the resource. • Get in touch. You can email me or I am @tombarrett on Twitter If you add a tip (or even if you don't) please tweet about it and the link so more people can contribute. I have created a page for all of the Interesting Ways presentations on my blog. The whole family in one place :-) Image: ‘Sharing‘ Thanks for helpingTom Barrett Have you seen Maths Maps yet?