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A QUICK GUIDE TO:

A QUICK GUIDE TO:. EFFECTIVE WEB SEARCHING. SUCCESSFUL SITE EVALUATION. WWW. WEB BROWSER. SEARCH ENGINE. SUBJECT DIRECTORY. URL. BOOLEAN OPERATORS. EFFECTIVE WEB STRATEGIES: KEY WORDS. WHAT IS THE WWW?. Millions of pages of information.

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A QUICK GUIDE TO:

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  1. A QUICK GUIDE TO: • EFFECTIVE WEB SEARCHING. • SUCCESSFUL SITE EVALUATION.

  2. WWW. WEB BROWSER. SEARCH ENGINE. SUBJECT DIRECTORY. URL. BOOLEAN OPERATORS. EFFECTIVE WEB STRATEGIES: KEY WORDS.

  3. WHAT IS THE WWW? • Millions of pages of information. • Includes text, graphics, photographs, sound and video. • Hypertexts: texts with links to pages at other sites elsewhere on the Web. • Web browsers give access to it.

  4. WHAT IS A WEB BROWSER? • A Web browser is a computer program that allows you to view pages on the World Wide Web. The two most common browsers are: • Netscape. • Internet Explorer

  5. NETSCAPE

  6. INTERNET EXPLORER

  7. HOW DO YOU GET ACCESS TO WEB PAGES? YOUR BROWSER CONNECTS TO THE SERVER AND REQUESTS A PAGE SERVER MACHINE RUNNING A WEB SERVER THE SERVER SENDS BACK THE REQUESTED PAGE YOUR MACHINE RUNNING A WEB BROWSER

  8. SPECIAL WEB PAGES THAT HELP YOU FIND MATERIAL . HOW? Just type a search word or phrase into the search box and the search engine will: Search its own database. Return results presented in order of relevance WHAT ARE SEARCH ENGINES?

  9. HOW DOES A SEARCH ENGINE WORK? • It uses robots or “spiders” to search the web and build its database. • The database consists of indexed documents. • Your query is checked against the search engine keyword index. • The best matches are displayed on screen as hits.

  10. How does a search engine work? Finds new CRAWLS pages or Internet changed information LOCATES on a page Every word on the page VISITS or some words on the page Spider LAUNCHES RETURNS or Robot Search Engine’s Server PRODUCES Search SEARCHES engine’s database index RECEIVES (Page created by Kathleen Schrock) User

  11. SEARCH ENGINES: YAHOO SEARCH ENGINES: YAHOO Try it out at: Http://www.yahoo.com

  12. WHAT ARE SUBJECT DIRECTORIES? • SPECIAL WEB PAGES WHERE INFORMATION IS CATEGORIZED BY SUBJECT. HOW? • Each main topic has a list of subtopics. • Humans, not robots, are responsible for cataloguing directories material. • Best used when searching for broad topics .

  13. Main topic

  14. Subtopics

  15. How does a directory work? VISITS Internet EVALUATES Directory Employee ADDS and “CATALOGS” PRODUCES Directory’s Directory’s searchable browsable index categories Directory’s Server RECEIVES SEARCHES BROWSES (Page created by Kathleen Schrock) User

  16. WHAT IS A URL? URL: Uniform Resource Locator: • The address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the WWW. Ex 1: http://www.itisvinci.com Ex 2: http://www.itisvinci.com/~calanca Ex 3: http://www.itisvinci.com/users/ calanca/ public_html

  17. HOW TO INTERPRET A URL The tilde sign (~) indicates personal directories ofindividuals http://www.itisvinci.com/~calanca Top level Domain. It specifies what type of site it is. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (A WWW page) The site has a directory called Calanca. Server name (the name of the machine, where the information is located)

  18. .com .net .mil .gov .edu .ac .org .it .uk .us .ca company network military government educational academic non-profit organization country codes WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF A URL ENDS IN THE FOLLOWING?

  19. SEARCH TIPS Search engine results often take you deep within web sites. Do you want to know where you are? http://www.itisvinci.com/users/ calanca/ public_html Home page Directories DELETE DIRECTORY NAMES AND PRESS THE RETURN KEY.

  20. WHAT ARE BOOLEAN OPERATORS? Special logical tools that allow you to: • Broaden your search. • Narrow your search. The most commonly used are: AND, OR ,NOT Not all search engine allow their use to refine your search.

  21. DO YOU WANT TO NARROW YOUR SEARCH? Boolean AND Education AND Policy You want both terms to appear in the documents. This way you exclude irrelevant hits.

  22. DO YOU WANT TO BROADEN YOUR SEARCH? BooleanOR Education Policy, GB OR UK You want at least one of the terms to appear in the documents.

  23. DO YOU WANT TO EXCLUDE A TERM? Boolean NOT Nirvana AND Buddhism NOT Cobain This way you can exclude irrelevant hits.

  24. SEARCH TIPS Good queries = good results Poor queries = poor results Allow yourself enough time to formulate your query.The more precise your query, the fewer documents to review.

  25. Use nouns as keywords. Don’t include articles, pronouns conjunctions or prepositions. Use enough keywords (up to 7 or 8 of them) Make a list of synonyms. Use wildcards *. Be aware of capitalization. Use phrases within quotes. Be aware of spaces within words. HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR QUERY?

  26. Use nouns as keywords, avoid modifiers (adj., adv. etc..) • Don’t include articles, pronouns conjunctions or prepositions. • Use enough keywords (up to 7 or 8 of them). • Make a list of synonyms. Nouns are precise terms that correspond to concrete objects, while modifiers can easily be substituted in descriptions. They are NOT considered by search engines. Key in enough words to describe exactly what you’re searching. Use synonyms to refine your search.

  27. If you want to broaden your search, then use wildcards. The asterisk * allows you to search for several words with the same root at a time. EX: ASSISTANT ASSIST* ASSISTANTS ASSISTANCE • Use wildcards *.

  28. Use lower cases, unless you are searching for proper names. Ex: If you search for the word you’ll find documents containing : heart, Heart, HEART. BUT If you search for you’ll only come out with documents containing the word “Heart” in capital letter. • Be aware of capitalization. search heart search Heart

  29. Write phrases within quotes every time you search for documents containing all the words in your query in the exact order you wrote them. Ex: you’ll find documents containing the words you typed into your search box. • Use phrases within quotes. search “Successful Web Search Strategies”

  30. Watch out for spaces between words. In the case of: the use of additional spaces between words would cause the search for the right document to fail. • Be aware of spaces within words. search “Successful Web Search Strategies”

  31. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE? TRY OUT FOLLOWING LINKS: http://completeplanet.com/Tutorials/Search/index.asp http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ppoint.htm END OF PART 1

  32. PART TWO SUCCESSFUL SITE EVALUATION

  33. SUCCESSFUL WEB SITE EVALUATION • Not all of the information on the World Wide Web is accurate Have you ever considered that: • Not all websites are good. HOW CAN WE FIND GOOD WEBSITES?

  34. WHO is the author? (is he an expert, can we recognize him/her as such?) HOW is the information given? (objective, biased, fact or opinion?) WHERE does the site information come from? (primary or secondary info?) WHEN was the site created? Is it updated? WHY wasit created? Is the aim clear? THE FIVE DEAR OLD QUESTIONS

  35. LIST OF QUALITY CRITERIA FOR WEB INFORMATION • AIM • ACCURACY • AUTHORITY • CURRENCY • DEPTH • DESIGN • REGULARITUY OF UPDATE

  36. AIM • Are the aims of the site/page clearly stated? • Does the site/page achieve its aims? • Are there any hidden aims (product promotion, indoctrination)?

  37. ACCURACY LANGUAGE ACCURACY • Are there any spelling mistakes? • Are there any grammar mistakes? CONTENT ACCURACY • Has the content been reviewed by a third party? • Are there any references and bibliographies?

  38. Check the URL Does the URL contain the following? .edu .org .ac .gov The information is more likely to be correct. ACCURACY TIP • Can you contact the author? If you have any doubts contact him. Is there an e-mail address/ contact address/phone number?

  39. AUTHORITY • Who is the author? • Is he/she an expert? • What institution has published the material on the Web?

  40. Check the URL domain Imagine you used a search engine to find information about “videoconferencing”. You decide to try out this address. AUTHORITY TIP http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/ltdi-pub.htm#VCStudies Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative (A Project by Heriot-Watt University) University (What Institution?) Heriot-Watt University (Where?) In the United Kingdom

  41. CURRENCY • When was the page/site created? • Is this stated or not? • Is the material regularly updated? • Are there any dead links on the page/site? Beware of outdated material!!

  42. DEPTH • Does the site provide exhaustive coverage of the topic you searched for? • Does it claim to be comprehensive and turns out to be very poor, instead?

  43. The speed of download The ease of navigation Does the page/site download quite fast? Are there too many images/frames that cause download to be too slow? DESIGN part 1 • Is the resource organized in order to be browsed easily? • Are there buttons helping navigation? (i.e. back, forward, home). • Is there a site map?

  44. REGULARITY OF UPDATE • Is the site updated at regular intervals? • Can you see that it is? • Are the links regularly updated? • How many dead links are on the page/site?

  45. The colour scheme Compatibility Have colours been well used? Is the page /site easy to read? (yellow characters on a red background are probably better to be avoided) DESIGN part 2 • Does the page/site require specific software to be accessed? • Is the resource material recognized by all browsers?

  46. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE? Try out this address: http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html An interesting, interactive tutorial to become an Internet Detective

  47. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 • Web Searching • Tutorial: Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet: http://completeplanet.com/Tutorials/Search/index.asp • ICT4LT Module 1.5 Introduction to the Internet: http://www.ICT4LT.org • "Successful Web Searching Strategies”: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ppoint.html • "A helpful Guide to Web Search Engines”: http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html

  48. BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 • "Search Engine Math”: http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html • "Exploiting Internet resources Off-Line" (Graham Davies): http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GrahamDavies1/ gdghent.htm • "Web Skills for Language Learning" (Charlie Mansfield & Tom McNeill): http://www.well.ac.uk/wellproj/wellbook.htm

  49. Bibliography 3 Web Sites Evaluation • "Evaluating Websites” http://servercc.oakton.edu/~wittman/find/eval.htm • "The ABCs of Web Site Evaluation” http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ppoint.html • "Where are the good Web Pages?" (David Eastment) http://www.eastment.com/eval.html • "ICT4LT Project:Evaluation Form" http://www.ICT4LT.org • How to search the web:" Internet Detective" http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html

  50. THE END

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