This week I have been exploring an online mini course called Power Searching with Google.
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ There are 6 classes and I have completed the first three: Introduction, interpreting results and advanced techniques. There are so many tips and tricks to narrow your search that it can be mind-boggling. Here are some highlights for me: images can be filtered by color; control f will help to zero in on finding text; and the advanced techniques setting can focus in on desired file type, domain name or broadening a search by including OR between two quoted subjects. I think this will be very useful when assisting student doing research as they really need to be "search literate" when sifting through the millions of web sites and information to find what they need
Those power searching ideas were great! I especially liked the "operators" to narrow the search to specific sources such as edu sites or filetypes like pdf. One of the most powerful filters I found as an elementary teacher was the reading level in advanced search. So much of the time I am looking for sites and articles that students can access independently and filtering by reading level is a great help. I am still trying to help students think about key words in fourth grade. How do you model searches for middle school students?
ReplyDelete