Liz's Classroom
1. What are people searching for today?
Trending searches for today included Robin Williams, Miley Cyrus, several YouTube videos, and NBA teams.
2. Make a list of five search techniques that you would give to your students ( or other persons if you are not and Education major) to help them conduct effective Internet searches. Be sure to identify the grade level and if applicable, and the subject area.
For third grade students: using keywords and leaving out words such as "the", turning on filters, become familiar with the search engine that you are using, don't use symbols in your search because some engines don't recognize them, and try another search engine if the one you are using can't find what you are looking for.
3.List 3 search ENGINES that you use or COULD use other than Google. List in order of importance to you. Give a description of each search tool's distinguishing qualities. Be sure to give the name and address of each site.
Bing.com is the search engine that I go to when Google isn't providing me with the things I need. Bing cuts out irrelevant information that you don't want and focuses on the keywords.
Answers.com is a site that I use fairly often if I am looking for an answer that requires an opinion. You can type in and question that you may have, and then other people that have an account on the site, can answer your questions based on what they know or think they know.
WebMD is a different typ of search engine that I use that doesn't just search the entire internet. It has medical articles, news, and if you are sick, you can sometimes figure out what is wrong without going to the doctor.
How do your students (or will your students) use search engines? What issues do you believe are associated with the use of search engines? Write several short paragraphs (5 to 10 sentences each) that respond to these questions.
There are many ways to protect children from the dangers of the internet. Filters that can be set on search engines can ensure that the children will not see any dangerous content. Talking to students before they get on the computer and making sure that they understand what is and is not acceptable to use is also important. For some students, especially older ones, making a contract explaining the rules of that they must follow could be a good idea as well. That way, if they violate these, they can not say that they didn't know about a certain rule. Some issues that may arise while using search engines, are coming across inappropriate or dangerous sites, downloading material that may carry a virus, or just abusing privleges are some issues that are possible.
Most people use Google. What is the danger of this? What are some alternative ways to avoid relying on Google for everything? Write several short paragraphs (5 to 10 sentences each) that respond to this question.
Most people with access to the internet are familiar with Google, but this can sometimes be a problem. Since there are so many people using and posting information, there is also a lot of false information out there. Google does not have any fliters on it unless you choose to put them on. Most people are not aware of this so they never know what kind of information they may find while using Google. There is also a chance that a user may get a virus from a site or ad on google that they click on.
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What is your favorite search engine? My favorite search engine would have to be Google.
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What do you do if you don't get the necessary information on the first search? If I don't find what I was looking for on Google, then I will use Bing. However, if I am searching for information for school, I will use Google Scholar since it only uses scholarly articles.
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What are your favorite features of this search engine? I really like how Google saves everything that you have searched for in the past, if you have an account, and shows you things that you would be interested in based on prior searches.
Go to this site and list the number 1, 2, and 3 search engines and their percentages
1. Google 90.61%
2. Bing 3.31%
3. Yahoo 2.96%
Did you know the top three sites? Did this information surprise you?
I did know about the top three sites, and have used all three of them before. I was surprised to see that Googles percentage was so high compared to Bing and Yahoo, I would have thought that Bing's percentage would have been much higher than only 3.31%.
Want to compare listings search engines give you for the same search term?
I thought that this comparing website was so interesting. I learned that both engines sort the results very differently. The first two results of what I searched were the same for both engines, but after that neither of the results were the same. I think this shows why using different engines can help you find what you are looking for rather than looking through pages and pages of the same engine. What one engine may find relevant, the other one may not. This site only compares two different search engines so it would be really interesting to see multiple ones in the same search.
Want to see if your search term is on the web by different clusters (try your name)?
I found this way of searching a bit confusing because it doesn't give you the exact term that you are looking for. It could help if you were searching for a general topic rather than something specific.
Want to easily try multiple search engines?
This site was interesting and helped me search different sites without having to try multiple different pages. I think if I were having trouble finding what I needed the first time searching I would use this site to check other engines quickly.
Search for yourself on the web. Also search for youself in Google images. What were the results? Did you learn anything?
When I searched for myself (Elizabeth Eichelberger) I was surprised to find that there is an elementary school in Illinois that goes by that name. When I did an image search of myself I was surprised to find that all of the results were of people that looked similar to me, or had similar backgrounds in the picture.
Write a short statement (2 -5 sentences) on your reaction to this site!
I thought that this list was pretty cool because it gives you a list of search engines by the categories of information that it can provide for you. There were all types such as recipe, and medical ones that could be very useful to find whatever you need.
