Tools and Resources Supporting Effective Search

transcript

Lucy GrayConnecticut Educators Computer Association

ConferenceOctober 18, 2010

1Monday, October 18, 2010

Guiding Thoughts

• Search is the essential 21st century skill.

• The responsibility of teaching search to kids lies within the entire school community.

• How can educators help students to organize, access, and leverage their collection of information in useful ways?

Agenda

• Leveraging Google Search Tools

• The Art of Search

• Scaffolding Searches with yolink

Google’s Mission

Online contentBillions of web pages

Offline contentBillions of items becoming

indexed

To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

A New Digital Divide

• Those who know how to “think” about search vs. those don’t.

• Those who know how to validate soft information vs. those don’t.

• Those who know where to find information in new “hot” channels vs. those don’t.

• Those who understand the current culture of informal languages vs. those don’t

A New Digital Divide

• Those who know how to get information to travel to them vs. those who still chase it.

• Those who have the knowledge and skills to create and re-mix digital media vs. those who don’t.

• Those that understand that learning is a continual process vs. those that view learning as achievement.

-Helen Blowers, Columbus Metropolitan Library

Did You Know?

http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

About Search Tools

• Everything is searchable.

• Control + F is incredibly useful.

• Nothing stays constant on the web.

• Advanced Search and Preferences are available with each product.

• RSS feeds are usually also available.

• Just about every product has a team blog.

Understanding Search Options

Everything11Monday, October 18, 2010

Options12Monday, October 18, 2010

Images13Monday, October 18, 2010

Teal Images14Monday, October 18, 2010

Videos15Monday, October 18, 2010

Maps16Monday, October 18, 2010

News17Monday, October 18, 2010

Shopping18Monday, October 18, 2010

Books19Monday, October 18, 2010

Blogs20Monday, October 18, 2010

Twitter21Monday, October 18, 2010

Nearby22Monday, October 18, 2010

Related23Monday, October 18, 2010

Timeline24Monday, October 18, 2010

Translated25Monday, October 18, 2010

News27Monday, October 18, 2010

Headlines28Monday, October 18, 2010

Share29Monday, October 18, 2010

Images30Monday, October 18, 2010

Fast Flip31Monday, October 18, 2010

Customized32Monday, October 18, 2010

Local33Monday, October 18, 2010

Advanced34Monday, October 18, 2010

Search35Monday, October 18, 2010

Custom Range36Monday, October 18, 2010

Located at the bottom

of a news search page

RSS & Email Alerts37Monday, October 18, 2010

Scholar

Preferences43Monday, October 18, 2010

Preferences44Monday, October 18, 2010

Book Search

Search47Monday, October 18, 2010

Book50Monday, October 18, 2010

About This Book51Monday, October 18, 2010

WorldCat56Monday, October 18, 2010

My Library57Monday, October 18, 2010

Bookshelf58Monday, October 18, 2010

Google’s Search Curriculum

Dan Russell

Control + F

Creative Commons

http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/iste/creative.jsp

The Art of Search

Organizing a Search• What is it I’m looking for?

(think about common keywords)

• How would someone else talk about it?

(what words would they use? how would THEY describe it?)

• Which of those terms would be most common?

• Which of those terms would be very specialized to this topic?

• What kind of thing would make me happy?

(do I want a single web page, a definition, a collection, an image.... or … ?)

Keyword Choice

• Think about what you are trying to find

• Choose words that you think will appear on the page

• Put yourself in the mindset of the author of those words

• Use synonyms

• Start broad and use just a few words, then go deep

• Use contextual terms

Other Search Tips • Use specifiers

• Example: [Connecticut population wikipedia]

• Try an image search when normal means fail, you might find something that will be useful or spark your interest in a different way.

• Word order matters—when it’s not working one way, try another.

• When searching for common phrases, don’t leave out the “stop words.” (e.g., [ Lord of the Rings] )

• Use double quotes to find a particular sequence of words

• Example: “Daniel M Russell” or “Palo Alto Library”

• Google Search Basics

• Advanced Search Tips

• Explore Google Search

• Google Guide Quick Reference

yolink

yolink search does the work so you don’t have to.

Let me tell you what that means…

Save Time – Find Better Information.

Unstructured and structured content

Reveals key information from unwieldy results

Multiple steps executed at once

Share and Create

Applies logic, and goes to work.

To DoingFrom Searching Keywords

10 Blue LinksMultiple Clicks

Content in ContextBlocks of InformationActionable in one-click

yolink API, Widgets

yolink Resources• Main site

• http://yolinkeducation.com

• ISTE Lessons, Slideshows & Resources

• http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/iste/

• Find yolink on Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, Blogger, YouTube

• http://www.facebook.com/yolink

• http://twitter.com/yolinkeducation

• http://www.slideshare.net/yolinkeducation

• http://yolinkedu.blogspot.com/

• http://www.youtube.com/user/yolinkVideos

Conclusion• Plan on learning new skills.

• Nothing stays constant on the web.

• Search engines are continually improving.

• New search tools are always being developed

• Make research to be a part of everything that you do in the classroom. Teach and model this attitude to your students.

• Help students and colleagues develop a research stance across content areas using News, Scholar, and Book Search.

• Encourage your school or district to adopt search tools and strategies globally.

Lucy’s Resources

• High Techpectations: http://lucygray.org

• Google in Education Diigo

• Find me on delicious, diigo, etc: elemenous

• Email: elemenous@gmail.com

Tools and Resources Supporting Effective Search

Technology