Fw: Internet searching strategies

[fjcl <fjcl@gateway.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon Riley <Gordon_Riley@mercersburg.edu>
To: fjcl@gateway.net <fjcl@gateway.net>
Cc: lm_net@listserv.syr.edu <lm_net@listserv.syr.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 29, 2000 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: Internet searching strategies


>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."
>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
>
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