|
INTERNET
SEARCH SKILLS 101
Lesson
1:
Search vocabulary (Who wants to be a millionaire?)
Lesson 2: Boolean search strategies
Lesson 3: Identifying search words and domain names
Lesson 4: Evaluating web sites
AIMS:
1.
To become familiar with computer and Internet jargon.
2.
To explore the use of search engines and different types of searches.
3.
To know how to make the most of your searching time.
4.
To analyze what domain names tell us about a site.
5.
To know how to evaluate if the site is valid.
GRADE
LEVEL: 6-8 grade
ESTIMATED
TIME: 4-5 lessons at 40 minutes per week.
SETTING:
Library and Computer Lab
INTERDISCIPLINARY
AREA: This is a general lesson involving Internet searching skills.
This lesson can be adapted to suit any curriculum area.
ACADEMIC
OBJECTIVE:
To
have students learn important technology vocabulary upon which they will be able
to build upon in the following lessons.
MOTIVATION: WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE GAME
1.
Have students number their paper 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 100,000,
150,000, 1,000,000.
2.
Inform the students that the category is computers and the Internet.
There will be 7 questions followed by multiple choice answers. Unfortunately there are no lifelines. Write your final answer next to the amount of the question.
"Are you ready? Let's
play!"
Teachers Note: You can organize this game in different ways. I have all the students take the challenge as if it were a quiz. It is then self-checked as we go over it to see who makes it to the million-dollar question.)
|
1,000-What
does WWW stand for?
a. Wild Wild West
b. World Wide Web
c. Wild World of
Sports 5,000-
An introductory or title page of a site is commonly referred to as a:
a. headline
b. home plate
c. homepage 10,000-What
is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator)?
a. a website address
b. an encyclopedia
c. a help key 15,000-
Which is not an example of a search engine?
a. yahoo.com
b. excite.com
c. abc.com 100,000-Searching
unproductively on the Internet is known as:
a. crashing
b. mashing
c. thrashing 150,000-If
you wanted to reach the United States Navy, what domain would you use?
a. .com
b. .mil
c. .gov 1.000,000-
Which word is not used in a Boolean search?
a. and
b. but
c. not
d. or |
DEVELOPMENT:
Review
and Discuss the following questions
 |
1,000
B World Wide Web |
The WWW is a portion of the Internet which uses hypertext links to
navigate the Internet. Hypertext links are underlined words. When the cursor is brought over to the link the arrow changes
into a hand, letting the user know their is another page connected to it.
|
5,000
C Homepage |
A homepage is the first page that you see when you log on to a site.
|
10,000
A web address |
A URL is the unique address for a site on the Internet.
For
example http://teachnet.org
|
15,000
C abc.com |
This is a site for abc television studios.
|
100,000
C thrashing |
This is the term for time wasted searching.
How
many students have tried to do a search and have come up with sites that are
totally unrelated to what you want? That
wasted time is trashing.
|
150,000
B .mil |
There are many different domain names. Some of the most common are
.com
This represents a commercial site.
ex www.excite.com
(search engine)
.gov
This represents a government site.
ex www.fda.gov
(The Food and Drug Administration)
.org
This represents an organization's site.
ex www.nypl.org
(The New York Public Library)
.mil
This represents a United States military site.
ex www.navy.mil
.edu
This represents an educational site.
ex www.rutgers.edu
(Rutgers
University)
Domain
names can help the user with understanding the validity of a site.
|
1,000,000
B but |
And, or, and not are terms used to help refine your search so you can be
as specific as possible.
A Boolean search is similar to a Venn Diagram. (Draw a Venn Diagram on the board) Review the concepts of union and intersection of set theory. Great visual resource: http://kathyschrock.net/rbs3k/boolean/
3. Award small token prizes (pencils, pens, a floppy disk) to
students who make it to the million dollar question.
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the use of search engines and different types of searches.
MOTIVATION:
Have students try to find a site about the element mercury for a chemistry
class.
If
a student types in mercury the computer will bring up many hits that are
unrelated such as Freddie Mercury, Mercury Records, Mercury (the planet),
Mercury (the god), Mercury (the car). Resulting
in an overwhelming number of inappropriate matches and wasted time.
The reason for all this is that the computer searches for a certain
sequence of letters. The computer has no idea what the letters mean.
In order to narrow down this list, we must make use of Boolean strategies.
Search engines are sites that help you try to locate the information you
need. There are two basic types of searches one using subject indexes and the
other is a keyword search.
Subject indexes arrange Internet resources by subject headings.
Many times students may find it easier to browse through a list of sites
that are already organized rather than to try to match keywords on millions of
websites. Browsing through
organized menus works better than keyword searching when you are looking at a
broad topic and are unsure of search terms to use.
They also provide actual links to those resources.
Some
examples of subject directories are:
For
example, in an Index search, a
student has to do a report on a
disease, but is unsure of what disease to research.
1.
Go to a search engine. www.yahoo.com
2.
Scroll down on the homepage to Health
3.
Then click on diseases.
4.
It will then produce a list of diseases that are linked to information
about each one of them.
Keyword searches allows you to type in a word or phase that sends out
spiders to find a match for what you have typed in.
Many times the search engine may give you a hit that you feel is totally
unrelated to the word you are searching for-- this is called a flase drop.
Here are some successful searching strategies to help you make the most
of your time surfing.
1.
Make sure the word or words are spelled correctly.
2.
Use Boolean search words.
|
And |
Narrows
a search |
Jets
and planes |
Without
using and you may hit sites relating
to The New York Jets.
|
Or |
Expands
a search |
Cardiac
or heart |
Or
works well with synonyms. If your
original search result does not give you the hits you need try using a related
term.
|
Not |
Narrows
a search |
Dolphins
not Miami |
Not
helps you eliminate related or connected words to your keyword you typed in.
|
"quotation
marks"
|
makes the words in quotes appear together in your search |
This
is very useful when researching proper names or phrases.
An example would be "George Washington."
If you typed in George Washington without the quotes the spiders
would search for the words George and Washington.
This could lead to many unwanted hits like:
George Bush, George Forman, George Washington Carver, George
Washington Bridge, Martha Washington, Washington D.C and so on. |
|
case
sensitivity |
To
climate the common nouns in place of the proper nouns. |
If
you wanted to research the AIDS virus,
and you typed in aids in lower case you may get unwanted hits like
band aids, school aids and so on. AIDS must be in all capital letters
because it is an acronym. By doing this you discard all the unwanted hits
immediately. Typing
a word in lower case searches both upper and lower cases. |
OBJECTIVE:
To know how to make the most of your searching.
ACTIVITIES:
|
Boolean
Search Questions |
Ask
the students, using the following search strategies, how
would you search for the following items?
(There
is no one correct way to search for every answer but you could narrow down your
result list.)
China
(country) Just by typing a
capital C eliminates dinner plates.
Lincoln,
Nebraska
Lincoln not Abe Lincoln and Nebraska
California
Gold Rush A group of words like this should be put in "
" to show that they are to be searched together.
If you just typed in these words without the “
“ the computer would
search for three separate words.
Penguins
penguins not hockey
Have
students think of other terms or words that would help them define their search.
|
Here
are some helpful websites on Internet searching: |
www.webteacher.org
www.nsglobalonline.com
|
What can domain names tell us about that site? |
.com
= commercial site
Commercials
want to promote their product as the best. Some .com sites may have a biased point
of view. For example, if you were
looking to purchase a computer, www.ibm.com
would say IBM computers are better; while
www.apple.com would support their
computers. Both sites would be fine
if you were looking for basic information on computers, but remember they contain
a slanted view toward their product.
.org
= a non profit organization
This
information is usually non-biased since they are not trying to promote a product.
Although many organizations are competitors in their fields of service or
interest. It is important to read
critically and compare anything you get on the web.
Examples
of these sites may include:
www.pbs.org
(Public Broadcasting System)
www.ipl.org
(Internet Public Library)
.gov
=government site
These
sites have accurate information. Since
they are not trying to promote a product.
Some
example are
http://stats.bls.gov
http://nysed.gov (New York State Education Department)
.mil=military
site
These
sites are sponsored by the branches of the military and have accurate
information.
www.af.mil (U.S. Air Force)
.edu=
educational site
This
information is usually non bias since they are not trying to promote a product.
Still it important to read information critically since many universities are in
competition. Examples of these sites may include:
www.lhs.berkeley.edu
(Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley University)
It
is important to remember than anyone can put up anything they want on the
Internet. Just
because it is there, does not mean it is a fact.
It is important to evaluate a site that you are going to use so you do
not pass along misinformation or opinions.
Domain names can help to be your first clue about the site.
OBJECTIVE:
To know how to evaluate if the site is valid.
ACTIVITY:
Here
is a checklist for you to go over to help you evaluate a site.
Name
of Document__________________
http://_____________________________
When
was the page created?
When
was the most recent update?
Who
is responsible for creating / maintaining the page?
What
are his/her credentials or affiliation?
Is
there an e-mail address included on the page?
Is
the author associated with a school, government agency, organization or company?
Is
there a bias or point of view?
Is
the information primary or secondary or a combination?
Are
there links to other sites?
Are
those links useful and still active?
Could
you have gotten the information elsewhere faster and easier?
If
yes, which print or non-print resources would have worked?
TIPS:
There is an excellent video that I recommend
C. Poser 1/01
