Re: Internet searching strategies

[Gordon Riley <Gordon_Riley@MERCERSBURG.EDU>]

I have been doing this for a long time.  Start with Yahoo: show them how =
to move from broad to narrow, then show them how to enter a search and =
read the hierarchical path to determine which are the good hits.  This =
will meet the information needs of 95% of your students.  For this level, =
showing Yahoo, explaining about the advertising, moving through a few =
hierarchies and explaining what is on the screen, searches, bad searches =
that chain to Inktomi and how that's different - you have a busy class =
period.

In the next lesson, I talk about how Yahoo is Yellow Pages that you have =
to want to be listed in, then how other sites use robots to search for =
pages.  I use Webcrawler, which has a nice help page to do basic Boolean, =
as an example.  I use the same two words (like michael jackson) in =
different boolean relationships to show how the results differ in number =
and quality.  I demonstrate how a Search Engine finds good results that =
Yahoo doesn't find, but how it is difficult to tell what is a good hit =
without the Yahoo hierarchy.  Now you have moved up to 98% of information =
needs fillable, and killed a second period.

You can kill a third one with Hotbot.  Checkbox options instead of command =
line Boolean, limits like language or has pictures on the page.  You can =
set it on 100 results, URL's only and make it an exercise on evaluating =
information sources, by getting the classes to pick what looks good from =
the URLs, and then seeing if the predictions come true.  Again, you can =
get clear hard proof by doing the same searches in the 3 sites, of why you =
need to know multiple ways of searching.  Finally, show how Webcrawler =
links to Excite and Hotbot to Lycos for additional searches without =
reentering terms.

What matters is that you pick examples that meet the interest levels of =
the classes that you have.  If you use examples related to their coursework=
, they get bored and don't learn anything.  Only at the end of the =
sessions do you turn to showing them how to use the principles you showed =
them to search for curricular information.   You generally need to discuss =
this with the teachers in advance, but there is a huge difference in the =
interest level when you ask the class what they want to search for.

Gordon Riley
Technical Services Librarian
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg, PA
Gordon_riley@mercersburg.edu
The opinions expressed are my own!

"Unity.  It doesn't always mean agree, it doesn't always mean the same.
But it sure doesn't mean burnin' books and brains and Jews in Jesus' =
name."=20
Holly Near in the song Unity

>>> fjcl <fjcl@GATEWAY.NET> 06/29 9:02 AM >>>
I will be teaching 7th and 8th graders how to search on the Internet this
year, using Boolean and keyword, but am uncertain on how much of the finer
points of searching techniques  I should use.  I don't want to overwhelm
them with too much.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Carol Kotsch Librarian
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Wichita, Ks
fjcl@gateway.net=20

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