Computer training- Using search engines to prepare resources and worksheets

Being an educator at any school means a lot to us. We educators get a lot of opportunities to participate in 'self development' training or workshops during whole year. After successful completion of a year, various training sessions or workshops are held to train all teachers. The purpose of these training or learning sessions is "skill development and become excellent teachers"
I was assigned to take a training session for early years teachers today.
The topic was, 'Using search engines to prepare resources and worksheets for classroom use/educational needs'.
15 teachers participated in this training. I prepared a 'Power Point Slide' to introduce the basics of search engines, keywords, searching tips etc. It was my pleasure to see that after watching slide teachers were enthusiastic to apply the knowledge practically.

Tutorial for teachers: Using the information friendly search engine for your educational needs

Internet have become an essential part of educational industry, for being great source of information. Educators are now able to grab load of information within seconds use it effectively for educational needs. To make our search effective and time saving we need to look for specific search engines which are 'Information Friendly'.Information friendly are the search sites or engines which provide the specific and reliable information for our educational needs.
You are going to learn 'why educators need to use 'information friendly search engines' to narrow their search and find the specific information saving their time.
Are popular search engines, information friendly? I will say 'NO' and the reason is:

• With billions of pages, you could spend a lifetime hunting for specific information.
Popular search engines let you define search criteria in very specific ways, but not all function identically.

How search engines work and how to find specific information from search engines

To enter the world wide web you need to open a page first and enter the text or keyword to search for the stuff.  Search engines are meant to provides results within seconds but you should learn how search engines work and how you can find the specific information around the net without wasting your time.  You should also have a knowledge of topic based search engines because when you search for specific topics based information, it is advised to look for the search engines specifically dealing in those topics. If you need to search for educational links, 'Google' is always a best choice to look for any kind of information or links but if you want to omit unnecessary or prfessional links then better to go for educational search engines. At the end of this post you may check useful links section.

How Search Engines work?

 

Search engines look for your search term within the web pages they've collected and indexed. The results reflect the search engine's determination of how relevant the site's content is to your inquiry. But some search engines will rank sites higher in your results if the site pays a fee, regardless of its relevance to your terms. FTC officials say it's a savvy surfer who knows how search results are sorted and ranked. It can make a difference in which search engines you choose to use and how you interpret the results.

 

If you use Internet search engines, the FTC(Federal Trade Commission) wants you to know that:

• Some search engines have programs for paid placement and paid inclusion. 
• Paid placement means websites or URLs pay search engines for higher rankings or more prominent placements in search results.
• Paid inclusion means websites or URLs pay to be included in a search engine's pool of results available for display, but not to be more prominent.
• Sometimes, third-party partners, like other search engines or guide sites, provide listings to search engines. If a partner has its own payment arrangements with a website, it could affect the results on the search engine you use.
• Many sites indicate whether a placement is paid for. If the search engine separates some search results as "Sponsored Listings," they may be paid for placement. But keep in mind that results may be grouped under other labels. Look for terms like "featured listings," "recommended sites," "search partner" or "products and services." If those sites are ranked higher than others or placed in a more prominent location than others, it could be a tip-off that the search engine uses a paid placement program.
• You may find an explanation of the type of paid placement or paid inclusion program the search engine uses. If such a program is in use, the explanations should be easy to find and understand. If they're not and the omission bothers you, let the search engine know.
• Paid inclusion programs do not guarantee higher rankings for listings and may provide features that are useful. For example, paid inclusion programs may provide consumers with better choices if the programs allow search engines to review URLs more quickly or review websites more deeply than they would otherwise.
• You have a choice. Before you decide which search engine to use, consider whether the use of payment programs for placement or inclusion is important to you.

Download pdf version of this report: Being Frank about Search Engine Rank

 

These facts and tips are provided by ftc.gov (Federal Trade Commision) for the benefits of consumers, so you can judge how search engines work and to what extent you can trust at their results.

Useful links and resources:

* All of these links lead to sites that contain specific information that may not turn up when you do a general search of the Web using Altavista, Yahoo, and other search engines and directories. 'Specialized Search Engines and Directories'

* You can find catagorized list of search engines at: 'Search Engine Guide'

* 'Virtula Sites' presents : Education search engines

Use 'clusty' for better search results

In my previous posts I have reviewed and discussed about many child safe and family friendly search engines. Narrowing your search with the help of these specific search engines ensures fast and specific response to your keywords. We prefer to save our time and get only the best links within few facing pages for the relevant information. 'Clusty' is a new search engine babased on the idea of presenting group results into topics or clusters for better search.

'Clusty' queries several top search engines, combines the results, and generates an ordered list based on comparative ranking. This "metasearch" approach helps raise the best results to the top and push search engine spam to the bottom.

How it works?

Instead of delivering millions of search results in one long list, our search engine groups similar results together into clusters. Clusters help you see your search results by topic so you can zero in on exactly what you’re looking for or discover unexpected relationships between items. Rather than scrolling through page after page, the clusters help you find results you may have missed or that were buried deep in the ranked list.

You get the best results from your online search because 'Clusty' retrieves results from Ask, Open Directory, Gigablast and others. To see which search engines returned results for your query, click on the “Details” link at the top of the search results list.

A search engine for kids from librarians - 'Kids click'

'Google' is the most popular and being widely used for online searches and there is no doubt that you can find valuable information about any topic at this popular search engine. Still I suggest that parents, teachers and students should use family friendly or safe to use search engines for any kind of educational or related search. 'kids click' is another safe search engine for kids/students which is made by librarians and you can expect quality content from this search engines.

More about 'Kids click':

Kids click.org is a web search directory specifically made for kids by librarians. It is a search engine where kids can browse for any kind of online material and resources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and all kinds of related educational resources for kids.

How to search at the search engine?

You can find other categories in case you want to browse for content by subject such as facts and reference, science and math, the arts, weird and mysterious, health and family, popular entertainments, religion and mythology, home and household, sports and recreation, society and government, machines and transportation, literature, reading, writing and speaking, computers, the internet, geography, history and biography. You can also search subjects by initial letters as well as do advanced searches for specific stuff

It is owned and run by the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San Jose State University. as a logical step in addressing concerns about the role of public libraries in guiding their young users to valuable and age appropriate web sites. It is intended to guide users to good sites; not block them from "bad" sites.

Site link: Kidsclick.org
Related posts:

* Famous Search Engines for Kids

* Search safely with 'Family Friendly Sites'

* "All Safe Sites" - A search engine for young children

* Where to search for educational stuff?

Search safely with 'Family Friendly Sites'

Internet is a world of information and if you intend to use it safely for you or your family you should use the search engines which provide family or kid friendly site links. Parents and teachers can help the kids learn how to use internet safely. Picking up family friendly search engines for search purposes is the safe way to browse the net.

Family Friendly Sites is a search engine based site which believes in supporting the online safety of family members using the Internet.

At the left side bar there is "Parent friendly link" where you can search for 'Internet Safety Resources' and 'Parenting Tips'.

There are "kid friendly link" categories like as 'Early Learning, Educational Sites
Games & Entertainment, Online Safety Tips, Search Engines.

Site link: family friendly sites

Famous Search Engines for Kids

When we search for educational or edutainment sites from ordinary search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, there is chance to not get the specific information. Because there are millions of professional sites selling products and naturally it takes time and effort to search for the valuable stuff. This post would help parents, teachers and kids to search at specific search engines which provide safe and useful infromation for them. These search engines are user friendly enabling filters to bring out only reliable and safe sites to the family members.

Famous Search Engines for Kids

* Kindernet - Kindernet insures that the safest and most useful results are found for you and your children using the smart searching filters. Kindernet also allows for faster searching by making the keyword entry process easy. If you want to search for two words, just type in “and” between your two key terms. If you wish to exclude a word, just add a minus sign in front of it.

* Quintura - Quintura Kids is one of the most useful search engines for kids. Quintura Kids caters its famous “cloud search” specifically to the children, allowing them to search through various subjects with ease. It provides the users with categories or “tags” for their keywords. This allows kids to get very specific with their search and get accurate results just like the big-boys who use quotation marks, addition signs, and secret symbols in Google.

* GoGooligans - This is basically Google for kids. It has safety filters which prevent vulgar material from leaking out from the unsanitary cables and pipes known as the internet. GoGooligans also offers many search options, allowing kids to search through specific websites such as PBS, Britannica, Merriam Webster, About, etc. Also, once the search term is entered, users can then choose more specific results for their keywords, such as, Geography, History, Facts, Definition, and much more.

* Ask Kids - This search engine is a easy to navigate and offers features which make searching less of an ordeal. Enter your keyword and you are presented with numerous different facts along with your search result. This allows the children to not get lost in the all the links, and it helps them to get their information quickly.

* Famhoo - it provides a clean and simple layout that is usable by even the youngest internet users. Famhoo is a family search engine with top notch filters.

Parents and teachers are suggested to bookmark these links and let their children start browsing from these search engines.

Related posts:

* Where To Search For Educational Stuff?

* Search at "Ask for KIDS" for educational stuff!

* Search for kids sites at Kinder Art