Year 7 IT: Internet searching “Computers are only as good as the people that use them”. When you want to search for something on the internet for example an assignment question, typing the whole question into Google rarely gives you the answer you’re looking for.Below are some questions you should ask yourself before you do your internet search. 1.How many key concepts (important ideas) are found in the question?
2.How many key concepts will I search for? ·Use a maximum of 3 (the most important ones)
3.What keywords are probably effective “as is?” ·Proper nouns and numbers belong in the category to use "as is".
4.For which concepts are more effective keywords probably needed?
Try using www.visuwords.com/ to come up with related ideas. 5.Are there hyponyms (more specific terms) or professional language for any of the intermediate words? ·Whenever possible, search with words that subject matter experts would use.
6.Are there words that have multiple meanings? ·Search engines don't differentiate word meanings, just spellings.
7.Did I use any stop words or clutter words? ·Contrary to beliefs, more words in a query does not produce more specific results. 8.Did I spell the words correctly?
Task
Add a comment in the discussion board for this page.
Answer these questions in your comment.
1. Name two things you can do to make your search quicker and more specific.
2. What does a Boolean search mean.
3. You are given an assignment question "Why is the leaning tower of Piza leaning" provide 2 examples of what you would type into a search engine to find the answer you are looking for.
4. Put another made up assignment question up on the discussion board.
5. Choose one of someone elses and use the advanced search function of one of the search engines above to find three websites on your chosen topic.
“Computers are only as good as the people that use them”.
When you want to search for something on the internet for example an assignment question, typing the whole question into Google rarely gives you the answer you’re looking for. Below are some questions you should ask yourself before you do your internet search.
1. How many key concepts (important ideas) are found in the question?
2. How many key concepts will I search for?
· Use a maximum of 3 (the most important ones)
3. What keywords are probably effective “as is?”
· Proper nouns and numbers belong in the category to use "as is".
4. For which concepts are more effective keywords probably needed?
Try using www.visuwords.com/ to come up with related ideas.
5. Are there hyponyms (more specific terms) or professional language for any of the intermediate words?
· Whenever possible, search with words that subject matter experts would use.
6. Are there words that have multiple meanings?
· Search engines don't differentiate word meanings, just spellings.
7. Did I use any stop words or clutter words?
· Contrary to beliefs, more words in a query does not produce more specific results.
8. Did I spell the words correctly?
9. Did I put the most important words first?
· Word order does not always make a difference, but it's worth a try.
The above information was sourced from http://21cif.com/rkit/newRkit/queries.html 26/10/2009
Task 1
Go to the link below and try at least four different activities (make sure you read the instructions carefully)
http://21cif.com/rkitp/challenge/Keyword_Challenge/KeywordChallenge.swf
Task 2
Take at least two of the challenges (use the link below). Can you beat the clock? Work out your search strategy before you start the timer.
http://21cif.com/rkit/actionzone/index.html
The following search websites may be helpful.
http://www.boolify.org/index.php#
www.spezify.com
Task 3
Set a search challenge up in your wiki page.
Internet searches
You can search for almost anything using an internet search. There's so much information out there. Where do you start?
Here are some common search engines
www.altavista.com/
www.google.com
www.dogpile.com
www.exalead.com/search/
http://studysearch.com.au/SecondarySearch/tabid/80/Default.aspx
http://au.yahoo.com/?p=us
http://www.ask.com/
Click on the link below to find out about smart searching.
http://www.monash.com/spidap5.html
Task
Add a comment in the discussion board for this page.
Answer these questions in your comment.
1. Name two things you can do to make your search quicker and more specific.
2. What does a Boolean search mean.
3. You are given an assignment question "Why is the leaning tower of Piza leaning" provide 2 examples of what you would type into a search engine to find the answer you are looking for.
4. Put another made up assignment question up on the discussion board.
5. Choose one of someone elses and use the advanced search function of one of the search engines above to find three websites on your chosen topic.