Searching the Net

1. Searching the Net

2. Presentation

4. Guidelines for Students • Student User and Agreement/Parent Permission Form • Practical Application (Browser Use Page) • Web Site Evaluation Guides • Internet Driver’s License

5. Selecting Quality Sources How to make a good choice: • Check the domain of the server • Think about what their “angle” or bias is • Look at who the Webmaster is • When was the site last updated • Using all of the information make an educated guess about the website • Don’t forget anyone can post to the Web

6. Safety Tips If you end up at a place that you do not belong, hit the BACK button, or the HOME button. If all else fails, turn the monitor off.

7. Bookmarking:In Netscape, click on “Bookmarks”, then click on “Add”

8. Favorites:In Internet Explorer to keep a site, you click on “Favorites”, then click on “Add”.

9. E-mail • There are a variety of email programs you can use. • Gaggle.net is a program for schools that allows you to monitor incoming and outgoing mail. • There are also web-based email providers such as Yahoo, and Hot Mail. • Standard letter format should be used. • Students working in partnerships can proofread for mistakes. Spelling counts! • Never use all caps, as this is like shouting at someone. • Emoticons are common place  as are abbreviations LOL.

10. Classroom Management of Computers All computers face towards the room, not the wall. Never have computer screens facing where you can not see them at all times!

12. Use a HELP cup rather than a raised hand. It is less disruptive and allows other students to respond. Earphones cut down the noise, yet allow students to take advantage of the sounds. Name the computers Internet Log Sheets: students are held accountable for each site they visit.

13. Time Management Ideas Two people per computer Have students be responsible for time (as much as possible depending upon age) Post rotation schedule Name and Number student’s floppy disks

14. Time Management

15. Time Line for One Period 5 computers

16. HOMEPAGE

17. Homepage

18. Blocking, Blocking will not allow accesses based on vocabulary. Filtering, Filtering is based on coding by ranked categories. Monitoring Monitoring keeps track of websites visited, but does not block them. http://www.bess.net/ (Internet retriever)

19. The Joys of Searching the Internet “I know it’s here someplace. I just can’t find it.”

20. Subject Directories ~Catalogue of sites collected and organized by humans ~Called “trees” because they start with main categories and branch out to other subcategories, subtopics and topics

21. ~Hierarchically organized indexes of subject categories. ~Subject guides tend to be smaller than those of general search engines, so results tend to be smaller as well. However, subject guides can lead to producing more relevant results! ~Better for a general subject than a specific piece of information. Sources: Mike Menchaka, California State University Sacramento, 1999 Debbie Flannigan, http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/main.html

22. Subject Directory Sites • Examples of subject guides include: • Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com • Public Library: http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/ • Magellan: http://www.mckinley.com • Example of a subject guide for kids: • Yahooligans: http://www.yahooligans.com

23. Search Engines Search engines rely on computer programs called spiders or robots to search the web.The size of the database, the frequency of the updating and the search capabilities will influence the results. • In most cases, search engines are best used to locate a specific piece of information, such as: • a known document • an image • a computer program • rather than a general subject.

24. Search Engine Sites • Examples of search engines include: • Alta Vista: http://www.altavista.com(uses boolean logic) • Infoseek: http://www.infoseek.com • Lycos: http://www.lycos.com • Search engines for kids: • Yahooligans: http://www.yahooligans.com

25. Search engines that search other search engines: • HotBot: http://www.hotbot.com • Dogpile: http://www.dogpile.com • Metacrawler: http://www.metacrawler

26. Natural Language Natural language search engines allow sentences and phrases rather than key words and Boolean search strategies. • Ask Jeeves: http://www.askjeeves.com For kids: • Ask Jeeves: http://www.ajkids.com

27. Good tutorial sites~ http://home.sprint mail.com/~debflanagan/main.html http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick! http://www.worldsofsearching.org/

28. http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/main.html

29. More Sites for Internet Search Strategy Tips http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~gek/Search/  http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/index. html  http://searchenginewatch.com/links/  http://www.howstuffworks.com/cookie.htm?printable=1

30. AND Searches for documents that have both words in it. Searching for human AND body finds pages where both human and body occur somewhere in that page.

31. OR Searches for documents that have either word in it. Searching for human OR body finds pages where either human or body occurs somewhere in the page.

32. ( ) The parentheses determine how And's and Or's are treated. Words within parentheses are considered a unit, and are considered first. Searching for anatomy OR (human AND body) finds pages where either anatomy or human and body occur somewhere on the page.

33. " " Words or phrases within quotation marks are treated as a unit and searched for literally. This is especially helpful when the search term you are interested in contains the words "and" or "or." Searching for "rock and roll" finds pages where the string of words rock and roll occurs somewhere on the page.

34. * The asterisk functions as a wildcard symbol in searches. It designates any string of text that could stand in for the asterisk. Searching for cook* will find pages containing the words cooking, cooked, and cookies.

35. Variations on the basic Boolean operators are also supported by many library databases and Internet search engines. Known as proximity operators, these include: ADJACENT, WITH, NEAR, and FOLLOWED BY. ADJACENT and WITH require that the words appear next to each other, NEAR requires that the search terms appear in close proximity and FOLLOWED BY requires that one term follow another.

36. Web Whacker/WebBuddy Software programs that will allow you to save websites as files to a floppy. This is good if you don’t have Internet access or want to monitor the access.

37. More Places to Start http://www.searchopolis.com/ Filtered search engine http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/catalog/ Library of Congress Online Catalogue http://www.burlco.lib.nj.us/internet/kids.html Burlington County Library’s Guide to Internet Searches

38. Lessons Be clear in your objective! Have a reason and a focus. Keep everyone on that track throughout the lesson. Don’t print off of the Internet. Use a word document that you can cut and paste onto.

39. You need to clean the cache after each class or they will be using the cache information. Each time a new site is visited, it must be documented.

40. A few good sites… SCORE:Schools of CA. Online Resources for Education http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/ California Technology Assistance Program www.ctaponline.org Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ California Learning Interchange http://www.gse.uci.edu/cli/

41. Happy Surfing! Presented by Cathie Conforti CUE Conference November, 2000