Search engines for educational, academic and scholar research

Internet is a powerful tool for students, researchers, scholars and academics offering easy access to a wealth of information. But at first attempt it is really time consuming to look only for academic resources or educational stuff as search engines grab hundreds or thousands results which include relevant but paid search results which may not fulfill your needs.

All search engines do not search the same material. Some search engines are more useful to students and researchers because they search pre-screened material, including scholarly databases and government documents. Using academic quality search engines is important because not all information published on the Internet is authoritative and accurate. Collaborative websites, such as Wikipedia, can be edited by anyone and often are not reviewed by experts. Websites may be published online without an external review for reliability.

Many sites do not include information on their authors, which makes it difficult to assess the writer’s qualifications in the field. Some links returned by search engines lead to spam sites that contain off-topic or unhelpful information or advertising links.

Academic and educational search engines and web directories provide research-quality content from websites that are screened by educators and experts in a particular field. These search tools also search the “invisible web”, which is material not available through general search engines. The invisible web contains information included in search able databases and archives. By using these search engines and web directories, students and teachers can obtain research quality information without the difficult task of weeding out non-authoritative and spam sites. Users can be sure that these search engines will not return the spam sites, junk sites, or sites of dubious quality and research value that broader search engines may return.

• Google Scholar: For broad searches of scholarly material. Returns journal article and book citations to point researchers to useful material. Users can set Google Scholar’s library preferences to include material from their institution.
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• Microsoft Academic Search: Allows users to search scholarly papers, journals, and conference proceedings. Also allows searches by author. Includes links to download full-text articles when available.
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• Internet Public Library: Resources reviewed by professional librarians. Search-able and organized by subject.
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• Infomine: Search university-level scholarly information including biological and medical sciences, business and economics, the physical sciences and engineering, government information, electronic journals, and the social sciences and humanities.
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• Intute: Search material evaluated by specialists in the subject.
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• Scirus: Research the content of scientific journals, patent information, and scientist’s websites.
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• Scitopia: Search online libraries of leading science societies, scientific journals, and conference proceedings.
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• GPO Access: Search United States government documents.
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• RefSeek: Subject directory and search engine, includes results from reference material. Allows users to search the web or documents.
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• Academic Index: Search within subject areas. Searches databases of research-quality material reviewed by educators and librarians.
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• The Infography: Search material reviewed by professors and librarians. Provides recommendations by specialists for further reading in a subject.
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• Directory of Open Access Journals: Search peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly journals.
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• Virtual Library: This search engine’s database is reviewed by subject experts.

Source: 'Start local' - Australian Business Directory & Local Business Search Engine

* Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list!

* SearchEdu.com – one of the best and largest educational and academic search sites

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

A site for histroy enthusiastics - Random History

Learning about history or historical facts may seem a boring topic but it is true that ------

- 'History Helps Us Understand People and Societies'
- 'History Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live in Came to Be'

'Random History' is a site which provides a selection of history facts on random topics.

What they say about them?

'We believe in advancing the place of history on the Internet and strive to fulfill this purpose. Each of our professionally trained writers and editors holds a Bachelor's degree in at least one of the following fields: history, English, or journalism. Many of them have even earned advanced degrees. Every history is carefully evaluated for accuracy and veracity and contains proper citations and references.'

Many histories and random facts available can be searched from top menu at home page. These facts and historical events are interesting and fun to read and learn like:

* Sharks have been called “swimming noses” because their sense of smell is so good (they smell with their nostrils but don’t breath through them). Some sharks can smell one part of blood in 100 million parts of water and can tell which direction that smell is coming from.

* Few Fast Food facts:

- In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food. In 2006, the spending rose to nearly $142 billion.e
- During the early 1900s, the hamburger was thought to be polluted, unsafe to eat, and food for the poor. Street carts, not restaurants, typically served them.e
- Proportionally, hash browns have more fat and calories than a cheeseburger or Big Mac.b
- At some fast food chains, both in U.S. and in other countries, managers are rewarded bonuses when they reduce employee wages to save money.g

Useful links:

* Why study History? An article from 'American Historical Association' explaining the importanc of this subject.

Learn about the world around us from - How Stuff Works?

Learning about the world around us never ends, as our world is full of lessons for us, mysteries to solve, facts to discover and lot more. Net offers millions of sites with free information about the facts around us. People who are always curious about the things around us, how they work? would love to browse the site 'How stuff works?'

“How Stuff Works” is one of those sites which is equally iformative and useful for parents, teachers, students and those who are curious to learn about the things around us.

'How Stuff Works', a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, is the award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works.This site was founded by North Carolina State University Professor Marshall Brain in 1998.
Mission:“Demystify the world and do it in a simple, clear-cut way that anyone can understand. “

What you get from this FREE resource?

From car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells, and thousands of subjects in between, HowStuffWorks has answered it. You can find comprehensive articles, helpful graphics and informative videos on every topic. On HowStuffWorks, you can also find consumer opinions and exclusive access to independent expert ratings and reviews from the trusted editors at Consumer Guide — all of the information you need to make a purchasing decisions ¬in just a few clicks.

Achievements:

HowStuffWorks has won multiple Webby awards, was among Time Magazine’s “25 Web Sites We Can’t Live Without” in 2006 and 2007, and has been one of PC Magazine’s “Top 100 Web Sites” four times, including in 2007.

Recently, HowStuffWorks became part of the Discovery Communications family, in a merger that will make HowStuffWorks the cornerstone of Discovery’s digital platform and ultimately create a fully multimedia version of an encyclopedia, with content and video that will answer virtually any question an Internet user might have. A HowStuffWorks program on the Discovery Channel is currently in the works.

To get newsletter from the site:Link to subscribe

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.

Story telling for creative teachig and learning

For creative teaching and learning, storytelling can be an effective tool. It is about enabling children and young people to become good listeners, storytellers and story-makers. Most of us will agree that learning is more fun when stories are part of training. You would realize that story telling is an effective way to strengthen motivation, memory, inclusion and build community.

Storytelling is such a multi-purpose tool that it can be used with children and young people at all levels, from nursery to S6. From the youngest age, babies and toddlers enjoy listening to voices, exploring the sounds and patterns of language and communicating through eye-to-eye contact with parents and carers.

Storytelling is as old as mankind. It comes from man's need to communicate and connect.The oldest recorded storytelling (35,000 years old) was found in paintings on a cave wall in France. Storytellers of old entertained, shaped religions as well as whole cultures, and passed along the wisdom of the time. In short, they were teachers.

Digital storytelling expands on traditional storytelling by combining the art and lessons of story with a wide range of modern multimedia tools. This powerful combination excites the interest of the student and feeds the creativity of their souls.

Mario Rinvolucri explores a range of story telling techniques that he uses in the classroom and gives some insights into why these techniques are effective.
Link to the post: Story telling: the language teacher's oldest technique

* Read the post 'How to Use Story maps When Learning Both Oral and Written Stories' at: 'Creative Keys.net'
If you sign up for their FREE eclectic e-newsletter, "Portfolio Potpourri", you would get the "10 Tips of Ways to Develop Your Personal and Professional STYLE."

- Many free articles at 'Creative Keys'

Useful sites and resources:

* Many tips and ideas from: 'The scottish Story telling centre'

* 'Story telling in the classroom'

* How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom

Story telling and skill development

Story telling is another skill development tool which teachers or parents can use effectively. Active learning and creativity are at the core of storytelling. It is about enabling children and young people to become good listeners, storytellers and storymakers. Storytelling is fun and stimulates the imagination.

Storytelling is engaging and motivates children to learn, as well as stimulating an interest and skills in writing and reading. Using stories of increasing complexity and length from a range of story genres encourages progressive learning through and between levels.

Storytelling and storymaking help teachers to meet the Listening and talking experiences and outcomes of Literacy across learning, Literacy and English and Health and Wellbeing across learning. They can also be used as tools for supporting learning in numeracy, science and other areas, and can lead to cross-curricular and inter-departmental collaborations.

Many storytellers, educators and researchers advocate that storytelling can contribute significantly to early literacy development.

Developing Literacy Skills Through Storytelling

Development of Imagination: When children listen to stories, they respond by creating images of the characters and places described by the words. This process of developing internal images and meaning in response to words is the basis of imagination. Researchers who study brain and behavioral development have identified imagination, not only as the essence of creativity, but as the basis for all higher order thinking.

Improvement of Reading, Writing , and Speaking Skills: Children who listen to stories are exposed to many new words. Storytelling can be used in a myriad of ways to improve students' oral communication skills. Once they have heard a story, children are usually anxious to discuss their understanding of the story and relate it their own experiences.

Strengthening of Critical Thinking Skills: A close look at traditional stories from any culture reveals stories dealing with death, loss, separation, abandonment, fear, and anger. The stories also show that love, compassion, understanding, and courage can be a part of stories as well. Students grapple with painful realities of life: parental divorce, poverty, substance abuse, the violent deaths of close friends--and stories can help them negotiate these difficulties of life and can be of inestimable value.

Stories are also effective in increasing tolerance and understanding of people from other cultures. Through the medium of story, the listener can safely explore what all human beings have in common as well as how they differ from each other.

Stories are not just incidental to the development of literacy in young people--they are essential. They are a powerful and indispensable tool to teaching literacy and critical thinking skills to students.

More at: 'National service resource.org'

* Storytelling also enhances comprehension skills.

* "When storytelling is combined with judicious questioning and retelling strategies, comprehension skills at the literal, inferential and critical levels can be developed

Useful links:

* 'Story Arts Online' says: As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner.

* SHARING STORIES: A Storyteller’s Approach to Oral History

* The Role of Storytelling in Early Literacy Development

* The Development of Children's Story Telling Skills. Download PDF report

Story telling session with Shamim Azad

Last month a 3 day session of training with poet and story teller Mrs. Shamim Azad was held at our school. I really enjoyed the session at Play and Nursery class as it was really interactive and very useful for teachers as well. After that session I realized that 'Good storytelling can be powerful, transporting, and magical'. It was a live performance as she was not reading from a book A session with early year teachers was also very helpful and full of interactive tips/ideas.

I remember the time when my grandmother use to tell stories at bed time. I was a book worm from the very early age but I should admit that story listening was more attractive and more effective than reading from books.

Story telling:

"It is entertainment, a way of passing on a culture's history, or a way of teaching to both the young and the old. It is something that must be experienced and tried before you can fully understand it. More than anything else, storytelling is an art. An art that anyone can participate in. We all are storytellers, whether we realize it or not."

More about Shamim Azad:

She has published 7 books including novels, collections of short stories, essays and poems in Bangla. Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival of writing and reading 2003 described Azad as " one of Britain's best-known Bangladeshi writers in Britain".

Her profile as a poet at:  'Priyo People'
Her storytelling samples are embed at her blog at: 'My Space'

Why learning of story telling skill is useful for classrooms?

There are many good and strong reasons to learn the art of storytelling for a better classroom and few of those reasons are:

* It is empowering for a child to be able to express his or her thoughts and feelings articulately through oral language.

* The art of storytelling can be an enjoyable tool for practicing both listening skills and verbal expression.

* Teachers can effectively model interesting, expressive language for students to emulate.

* New vocabulary can be introduced and easily comprehended within a story's context.

* Diverse ways in which language is used can be depicted in folktales, including instructions, recipes, secrets, riddles, warnings, questions, and explanations.

* People learn new skills when they are interested in the topic or when it is useful to them. Finding folktales to tell can stimulate reading and research interest. Folktale collections can be found in the 398.2 section of library.

* Storytelling is a way to emphasize the uniqueness of each person's imagination.

* Imagination can generate language.

* Comprehension, or the ability to make sense of a story's plot, is facilitated by being able to mentally map the story's main events.

Online Story telling resources:

* A site from "Tim Sheppard" with articles, links and information about ancient art of story telling.

* 'Story Center.org'

Check more resources and information in my next post!