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Web Searching. An Easy, Practical Guide for Parents. Plan Your Search. How much time do you have? (use one or two keywords for quick search) Has your topic already been indexed for you? (use a directory vs. a search engine)
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Web Searching An Easy, Practical Guide for Parents
Plan Your Search • How much time do you have? (use one or two keywords for quick search) • Has your topic already been indexed for you? (use a directory vs. a search engine) • What is the age group of your audience/users?(some directories are indexed for children, see slides 11 & 12)
What Kind of Information are You Looking For? • Search engines &‘keyword’ searching How do they work? • Good for General Information searches: • Weather • Maps • Addresses • Businesses & Organizations • Schools • Topics of interest to many people
Choosing Keywords • Choose your search terms carefully. For example, middle school students were researching the economic depression of the 1930’s. Here’s what can happen: • Keyword, depression • Keywords, “great depression”
Pinpointing Your Search:Advanced Googling • More search terms reduces the number of hits (more equals less) • colonial america • “colonial america” (in quotes) • occupations • trade • apprentice • Use Quotations (“ “) to search for exact phrases and narrow your search • “to be or not to be” / “run around sue” (to find poems, book passages, songs, etc.) • Use quotes around student work that you suspect is plagiarized
More Search Tips! • Use intitle: or inurl: before keywords (no space) to narrow results(compare “colonial america” to / intitle:“colonial america”, or dolphins to / inurl:dolphins) • Limit your search to specific “domains” • keyword and site:gov (for statistics, gov. info) • keyword and site:edu or site:org (for curriculum topics or social issues, concerns…think non-profit) • keyword and site:sandomenico.org ( to search specific sites for information, e.g. webquest)
Search Tidbits • Ctrl F (or Cmd F on Macs) will find the word you’re searching for in the document or web page(keyword search on dolphins, click on the link, Dolphin - Wikipedia, hold down the CRTL key and press F, type in ‘blowhole’ and click the “Find next” button) • Use the operator OR to include either of two keywords(cancer therapy OR treatment) • Use minus sign ( - ) to exclude words(dolphins –miami) • For date or number range search put two periods in between the dates or numbers(e.g. “civil war” 1860..1865)
Google Search Engine Shortcuts • The word ‘define’ and a space before a word finds a definition • Calculator(+ – * / are the arithmetic symbols, also ‘%of’’ and, ‘^’ for power of) • Maps/Directions(enter address or cross streets and city or zip code) • Phonebook(name and zip or address) • For more information go to:http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
Ask a Librarian • Collaborating with your librarian may save you time and effort • Use the Library’s Bookmarked Sites • Ask for help creating a web ‘Hotlist’ • Ex. Book Reviews / Suggested Reading
Search Engines vs. Directories • A Practice Search – california “gold rush” • Yahoo • Librarians Internet Index • Kidsclick • More Info About Search Engines
Kid-Friendly Directories(Organized, hierarchical web information. Someone has done the work for you) • Kidsclick(for younger students, good org.) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/ • 700+ Great Sites(ALA compiled, good organization) http://www.ala.org/greatsites/ • Yahoo Kids (huge site, some dead links) http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/
Directories for Older Students & Adults • Librarians Index to the Internet(freedom from choice, fewer sites, reliable) http://lii.org/ • Internet Public Library(great sites, general reference tools) http://www.ipl.org • Digital Librarian- (Comprehensive, easy to navigate.) http://www.digital-librarian.com/
Internet Safety for Kids • Review NetNanny’s Top 10 Internet Safety Tipshttp://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/safety_tips • Internet Safety Software - Reviewshttp://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/ • There is NO perfect system of protection. Planning and Vigilance works best! • Security settings on your Browser (> ‘Tools’ > ‘Internet Options’ > ‘Security’) • How to check online History (> View > Explorer Bar > History)
The End ! But Keep Practicing