Preparing To Search The Internet

Helping Students Search

Effectively

Surfing is not searching.

“Computers download information—• They do not teach you to think.• Computer education imparts

technical skills;• It does not impart knowledge.”• John Rosemond

“Not all the information that exists in the world is on the Internet--

Not all the information that is on the Internet is accurate.”

Mrs. Kotsch

An hour on the Web may not answer a question that you could find within two minutes of picking up a reference book.

Getting Started Searching• URL’s• Searching techniques• Search engines

URL’s• Uniform Resource Locator• The web “address” that connects you with a website• Goes in the address bar at the top of the screen • Gives you information about the website

Who Pays For The Internet?

• Advertisers pay for Internet websites.• Popups and banners are trying to influence your spending

habits.• The information on commercial sites--.com—may be presented

in such a way as to encourage you to buy a particular product.

• Be wary of URL’s with a ~ in the address—this indicates a personal homepage and does not guarnantee accuracy.

How Do You Find What You Need?• Libraries and department stores are planned.• No one is in charge of organizing the Internet.• Well-prepared searches will eliminate useless

hits and wasted time.

Before you search, you need to:• Prepare• Organize• Combine

Prepare• What do you need to know about your topic?• Make a list of all the terms connected with your topic.• Include names, organizations, and phrases.

Organize• Make a list of the words that are critical to your search.• Note terms that you don’t want to see appear.• Discard the rest.

For example…If you are looking for information about life on the planet Mars, you don’t want sites popping up about the Roman god of war. Put that in your list of words you don’t want to see.

What other words might be connected with your topic that will send you to useless sites?

CombineUse Boolean operators to combine your

most important terms.

• Use AND to connect the terms you want to see.• Use NOT to exclude terms you don’t want.• Use OR to include similar terms.• Use quotation marks around names or phrases• Use lower case for all proper nouns, except for

acronyms

For example…

mars AND planet AND life NOT god

But what if…

you WERE looking for information about the Roman god of war? The Greeks referred to him as “Ares”, so now your search will look like this….

mars OR ares AND “god of war”

Notice the quotation marks around the phrase “god of war”

What Do You Use To Search?• Search engines• Search directories• Metasearchers

Search Engines• Are like the index in the back of a book• Let you search for specific words and

topics• Use robots known as spiders to search

for information.

Before you start using the information--

EVALUATE!

Who is the author?• Is he an authority on the subject?• Does she have an e-mail address?

Is the information accurate?

• Can it be verified in an encyclopedia?• Is it relevant to your topic?

• Does the author indicate where he found the information?

Example:

Adams, Joyce. “How Vatican II changed the face of the

Catholic Church.” Catholic News Service. 2 Sept. 2003.

13 Oct. 2003 <http://www.catholicnews.net/

vatican.html> .

Staying Safe On-line• Don’t give out personal information.• (phone number, address, pictures)

• Use Christian courtesy in e-mails and chat rooms.

• Don’t arrange to meet with someone from online without telling your parents.

• Do tell your parents about inappropriate websites that you run across.

• Be careful what you post in a public forum.*

Remember:

You leave “electronic footprints” wherever you go on the web.