Searching

My thoughts on this weeks topic!

Beaucoup.com, a site that categorises search engines while also providing recommended sites.

Activity 1

First I tried iSeek Education

The first result was a great looking lesson plan but within the first 10 results were multiple to the ERIC Digest…no help for teachers.

I would be unlikely to use use this search engine.

I then tried Columbia Encyclopedia and the site directed me to Yahoo (which I had accidently chosen) and these results seemed much more user friendly and contained a mix of facts, lessons and internet based activities. I then went back to Columbia Encyclopedia and redid the search and was told my search did not match any results.

Activity 2 – Google Advance Search

·      The results are so much more relevant.  Id like to think it will change the way I search but old habits can be hard to break!

·      I’ve used google images before to find specific images and have found it useful

·      Google news is new to me!

·      I have used google books and google scholar before but found CSU’s Library searches results much better and relevant

Activity 3 –

“Not one search engine covers more than 30% of the entire Web, so often you have to use more that just one search engine to find what you are looking for.” (http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/77617 )

Coehn, L.B. (2012). Boolean searching on the Internet.

I found this explanation very clear and gave me a good understanding of Boolean language.

Boolean operators [video], University of Auckland.

This would be good to use with teachers and senior school students

Activity 4 Boswell's & The Seven Habits

Although these website offered many useful suggestions, I found the ads very distracting and at times confusing as to what was an ad and what was information.

After using a few different search engines for the final activity I found the yahoo website so much better. The results were more appropriate and no distracting ads.

Search activity table

Search engine	Keywords	How useful?	Comments
google	Teaching discovery of gold in queensland	First few sites were useful then they offered guitar lessons on Gold Coast	I tried the advance search but not overly helpful
ask	Teaching discovery of gold in queensland	First few sites were useful then they offered guitar lessons on Gold Coast	Lots of ads to distract the searcher!
iseek	Teaching discovery of gold in queensland		Being a US site only produced 3 links only 1 of these were appropriate!
yahoo	Teaching discovery of gold in queensland	Very useful, found lots of appropriate links. Very few silly ads to distract!

Carlson, C. (2002). Notes from the technology trenches - the seven commandments of highly effective Web searching. Retrieved July 4, 2012.

Found this webpage stated very sensible (logical) ideas to stop wasting time on fruitless searches …now to put these to use!