Better Searching = Better Results
Be the spider, not the bee
When looking for food, the bee travels from flower to flower to flower. This is the traditional way that we think about researching. We go to a search engine and jump from web page to web page to web page. This is tiring and inefficient. Instead, we need to be like the spider.
The spider spins a web and waits for his food to come to him. He doesn't waste time. He has found a better way to make what he want come to him. So, how can we do that as researchers?
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS PAGE: | ||
Google Books: Search full texts of books (hint: use the search box to the left of the book's pages)
After you submit your responses to the below quiz, you will be able to view how others responded and see who was able to apply their new knowledge to search faster.
Research Tips
Credibility =trustworthiness + expertise
Strategies to determine trustworthiness and expertise:
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: Is this site reliable? How about this one?
Create Alerts to send relevant news resources to your email inbox
BE THE SPIDER!
A great handout detailing how to set-up and use Google Alerts
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, although some people say that it also refers to Really Simple Syndication. News sites and blogs have simple text versions of their content, called RSS feeds, that users can subscribe to? Why? Since websites, news organizations, and blogs are always changing their content and adding articles, it can be very time consuming for us to constantly go back to a specific website and check for updates. Instead, you can set up on website, an RSS Reader, that will collect all the feeds from your favorite websites. You can check for updates for all your favorite news sites and blogs in one place rather than many, many places.
RSS feeds can be read using an "RSS reader." RSS readers are websites that collect the feeds from your favorite sites. By signing up for a reader (Google Reader, Bloglines, Pageflakes, to name a few), you can collect various feeds in one spot. The Reader then checks the feeds the user has subscribed to for recent updates and new information.
Take a tour of Google Reader. You'll find a tutorial here.
Two easy ways to follow blogs and websites:
Look for this icon:
Build the subscriptions in your reader by looking at what writers you enjoy are reading.
Just like teachers might use an RSS Reader to follow other teachers or learn more about particular methodologies, students can use an RSS Reader to follow the most current knowledge on the topics they research. For example, you assign your students a paper on the issues facing Haiti as a result of the recent earthquake. During their research, they find the BBC's Country Profile of Haiti and the BBC Search Page for Haiti, as well as the website for the Daily Haitian Times and the UN News Source for Haiti. Rather than having to constantly go back to these sites to check for updates, creating a reader and subscribing to these sites makes following updates much easier. This works especially well when students are researching current issues.
http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
Using Delicious.com to Save Your Bookmarks Online
Saving your bookmarks online has never been easier. Use this easy introduction from Delicious.com to help you get started.
Or here's a much more in depth tutorial to help you get started.
Please take a moment to reflect on how you might use these tools in your classroom.
VISITORS: