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.

Best ways to download YouTube videos

We teachers need to download videos from internet often. I have tried many softwares to download these videos but usually these free to use software programs don't give you the satisfactory results. I searched online to find best ways to download 'YouTube' videos and sharing the result of my findings.

YouTube is the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.

Best ways to download YouTube videos:
I don't recommend using professional downloading software programs to download YouTube videos, as there are many ways to grab these videos and save at your pc hard disk.

Join Google Advanced Search Course online

It was a good news for me to get this news that 'Google is offering free e-course on advanced search which is called "Power Searching by Google". It is a great opportunity for people who browse a lot of information at net. 
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Join this course and become a power searcher. This free course is open for everyone but you need to register TODAY
Google is providing '50-minute classes' in a total of six sessions to help us quicken our search time and also extract exactly what we need. I am sure you realize the value of this course. 


More details and registration for this free e-course on Power Searching by Google can be found at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html 


When you pass out the sessions, a printable Certificate of Completion will be emailed to you. 
Register today. Registration process is very easy, just write your full name at provided box and if you already have a 'Google' account, you will be registered without any hassle.


The sessions start on 10th July. 

Tutorial for teachers- Downloading files from the Internet

When I was novice to computers and internet, it took weeks and months to learn the basics of internet and computers. Sometimes I found useful links or sites and saved them at my computer and found the files but after many trial and error efforts, I learned to save the files from the internet to hard disk. These simple tutorials can save your time to learn the basics of internet. Interestingly most of these tutorials are offered by renowned sites like 'Microsoft' itself.

Downloading a file from the internet: When you download a file, you transfer it from the Internet to your computer. The most commonly downloaded files are programs, updates, or other kinds of files such as game demos, music and video files, or documents. Downloading can also mean copying information from any source to a computer or other device, such as copying your favorite songs to a portable music player.

Where are downloaded files saved?
When you download files, Windows usually saves them in the Downloads folder which is located under your user name in the users folder on the drive where Windows is installed.
It is stored at the location: C:\users\your name\downloads.

When you are saving the file, you can choose to save it to a different folder. Some different types of files are saved to different folders by default. For example, if you right-click a picture on a webpage and then choose Save Picture As from the menu, the picture will be saved to the Pictures folder by default. If you're not sure where the file was saved, you can search for it from the Start menu.
When it take so long to download a file, there may be many reasons for delay: 

• Your connection might be slow. If you have a dial-up connection, it takes a lot longer to download files than if you have a broadband connection, such as DSL or cable.
• Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might be offline or experiencing heavy Internet traffic. Wait a while, and then try again.
• If you are on a corporate network, the network settings might be the problem. Check with your system administrator.
• If you use a file or music sharing program, someone might be downloading a file from your computer. Try disabling file sharing services while you're downloading and see if the process gets faster.
• You might have too many programs open at the same time. Try closing unnecessary programs.
• Your computer might have spyware running. Try scanning your computer for spyware. For more information about removing spyware, see Remove spyware from your computer.
• Missing updates can affect your computer's performance. Go to the Windows Update website and check for updates.

Reference: http://windows.microsoft.com/

Useful links:
Find a file you have downloaded

Tutorial for teachers- Using image search engines and sites to find images and clip art

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Tutorial for teachers - How to select keywords to get the best search results?

Learning to find information quickly and effectively is essential to successfully using the Internet. Specialized search Web sites allow users to search for content that meets the selection criteria they specify. Keyword searching is an effective way to locate information on the World Wide Web.
Keywords are used to find relevant Web sites and pages. "key" has more than one meaning; here it means "important.
We are now learning  'how to select keywords to produce the best search results?'
Following procedure can help you get the best search results.

Procedure for selecting suitable keywords and use them to get the best search results:
Fine-tune your keywords: 
If you're searching on a noun (the name of a person, place or thing), remember that most nouns are subsets of other nouns. Enter the smallest possible subset that describes what you want. Be specific. Try to meet the search engine halfway by refining your search before you begin.

Example: If you want to buy a car, don't enter the keyword "car" if you can enter the keyword "Toyota." Better still, enter the phrase "Toyota Dealerships" AND the name of the city where you live.

Be Refined: 
Read the help files and take advantage of the available search refining options. Use phrases, if possible. Use the Boolean AND (or the character +) to include other keywords that you would expect to find in relevant documents.
Also learn to EXCLUDE with the Boolean NOT. Excluding is particularly important as the Web grows and more documents are posted. Run your initial query over again several times, each time adding further refinements to narrow down your list of relevant hits.

Example: If you want to find out how medical details about your grandmother's diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease, try entering "Alzheimer's" AND "symptoms" AND "prognosis." If you want to find out about Alzheimer's care and community resources, query on "Alzheimer's" AND "support groups" AND "resources" AND NOT "symptoms."

Query by example: 
Take advantage of the option that many search engine sites are now offering: you can "query by example," or "find similar sites," to the ones that come up on your initial hit list. Essentially what you're doing is telling the search engine, "yes, this looks promising, give me more like this one."

Anticipate the answers: 
Before searching, try to imagine what the ideal page you would like to access would look like. Think about the words its title would contain. Think about what words would be in the first couple of sentences of a webpage that you would consider useful. Use those words, or that phrase, when you enter your query.

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.

Recycling used text books and saving bucks

Recycling used text book is a good way to save few bucks. The recycling process can also help us save energy, water and landfill space.
If you don't want to donate or recycle your text books then you can also sell these books.
I usually donate those old books to other child. And from few years, I ask for used text books from other parents. Parents can help each other in this process of recycling. It is not only good for environment but a way of saving bucks.
Recycling tips:

• Best way to recycle used text books is to communicate other parents or teachers around your community. Ask other parents for exchange of unused text books. 
• Educators may encourage parents to grow a habit of recycling of used text books.
• There are many online sites which can help students or parents, buying used text books at very cheap rates.
• Donate to charities, public libraries or local schools. They can utilize your used books themselves or sell them for fundraising.
• Check out BookMooch, which is an online community for exchanging used books. This site allows you to give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want. There is no cost to join or use their site; your only cost is mailing your books to others.
• Paperback Swap is another site that lets you swap not only paperbacks, but also hardcover books, textbooks and more.

We also need to know can how we can save money buying used text books.

How about buying used books saving upto 90%?
'Textbook.com' is an online resource offering huge discounts on new and used college textbooks. Having over 7 million textbooks, these books are ready to ship.

Useful links:

10 Helpful Ways to Recycle Used Books