EDT 715 Summer 2010 Week Four Assignment Internet Searching

Please answer the following questions using the Internet sources designated. For each question, please provide your answer as well as the steps taken to answer the question (type of search, terms used, links followed, etc.). Please include in your documentation ALL search strategies used, including the successful and unsuccessful efforts. Incomplete documentation on the strategies used will result in a lower score earned. Many of these questions are exploratory in nature, with no single correct answer. The point is to allow you time to explore, compare, and contrast different Internet search options.

Search Engines www.google.com www.yahoo.com www.bing.com www.ask.com 1. Using the search engines listed above, a. compare and contrast the various search engines and directory links. What features and options are available? For advanced searches, what search strategies can be applied (Boolean, date limits, etc.)? Google There are many features and options available when using Google. The searches can be completed by limiting to web, images, videos, books, blogs and so on... I thought out of all four of the search engines that Googles advanced search feature offered more limiters but it still was lacking. It was difficult to limit searches enough so that hundreds of hits were not occurring. Yahoo Yahoo offered very similar features to Google. They did have an avatar feature and a photo upload feature called Flickr. I did not find anything that would permit me to complete an

advance search. One feature I thought was neat was being able to view sites internationally. Bing The site was simple and visually appealing, there is not a lot going on at once. You can explore by category, MSN or Hotmail. I found the site was lacking an advanced search feature also. Ask This was the most basic out of all four sites. It offers the same features as the others (web, images, news and videos) and a very basic advance search features is offered. The only differences I could find were in the amount of available features Google and Yahoo offered compared to Bing and Ask. I did not like how the advanced search features offered did not allow the searches to be narrowed more.

b. search for an educational topic of your choice. Repeat this process using an advanced search feature of your choice. Compare and evaluate the results from each search. Did the search engines meet your expectations? How would you rate the results retrieved from each? Which search engines did you like most? Least? And why? I searched each site using the topic library. I did this with and without using the advance search features. I did not find a difference in the number of results listed. Google listed many sources but not all were related to just libraries. Yahoo and Bing gave similar lists in appearance. They both provided library furniture supplies first then a map with library locations and then sites. Some were related to the topic of libraries others had not relation at all to the topics. Ask gave very limited results. I tried completing an advance search and it gave me no information related to the topic library. If I had to use a search engine to gather information I would use either Yahoo or Google. They both gave results in the millions and it was hard to limit the results to such a broad topic, but they provided the most relevant information. Ask would be my last choice as a search engine. I did not care for how limited the results were. It would have been fine if everything was related to my topic. Meta Search Engines

www.dogpile.com www.zuula.com www.quintura.com 2. Using the meta-search engines above, repeat your search from question number one (b) above. How well did the meta-search engine compile the results from the four single search engines? Dogpile I was able to limit my results by language preference, but the very broad and could not be refined enough. It provided resources from Google, yahoo and Bing. It gave all of the information listed as one list and did not provide options to narrow the list. Zuula This gave me hundreds of thousands of hits. A lot of the material was not relevant to my topic. The engine did have a tab feature that allowed me to limit my searches by engines. The Alexa tab showed the least amount of hits that were relevant to my topic.

iTunes Store 3. Select podcasts then the education sort category. a. Radio Lingua Network has free foreign language instruction resources. Name one available for individuals interested in learning Spanish. Coffee Break Spanish 96 episodes (all free). I found the podcasts by choosing all categories education and then looking for the ones available through the Radio Lingua Network. b. Locate two additional educational podcast of your choice (any topic). How could these be of value to you as an educator or media specialist? 1. The Math Dude Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier. Audio k-12 from Macmillan Holding Inc. I found this by looking through the educational offering to see what may be of interest to teachers and students. I liked the way math concepts are broken down into simple segments. CNN Student News. Middle and High School, daily top news stories. This would be a great resource to use as a current events discussion prompt. It could be used with social studies

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classes. Wright State Universitys iTunes U (available at www.wright.edu/itunes ) 4. In the open learning category of WSUs iTunes U, there are a series of video and audio interviews recorded at the WSU campus. These interviews represent a project completed years ago whereby Dayton area Holocaust survivors, liberators, and/or witnesses recorded their stories. a. What is the name of the series? The name of the series completed by the Dayton Holocaust survivors is Faces of the Holocaust. I found this by opening the WSUs iTunesU page. It was one of the items listed under the open learning category. b. One interview, with a retired armed forces colonel, is a featured audio speaker at the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum. (His audio comments are played for all visitors as they ride the elevator to the beginning of the museums exhibits.) What is his name? How long is the interview? The name of the armed forces colonel featured as a speaker is Colonel Richard Seibel, Ret. Liberator. The interview is 18:41 in length. I found this interview by looking t the interviews available on the project list and found the one done by a colonel. iTunes U (available by linking from WSUs iTunes U or from the iTunes Store) 5. Note the lists of Featured Providers and the option to Find Education Providers links on the left frame. From the iTunes U Quick Links box (top right corner), select the Beyond Campus link. Note the numerous institutions available with informational text, audio, and video content. a. Select a museum of your choice. Find and listen to a podcast of your choice. Which museum and podcast did you choose? The museum I selected from the Beyond Campus link was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a video on the link about Costumes titled The Fashion of Arthur McGee. It was 7:05 in length and was released on 9/18/09. The video described the elaborate fashions of McGee and showed images throughout. b. Select a public television station of your choice. Search for an educational video that you may find useful in your classroom setting. Which studio and video title did you choose?

The KTWU Channel 11 Kansas Public Television in Topeka, Kansas. They offer a feature titled Ready to Learn on Demand. It is a series of Professional Development courses for Early Childhood Providers and Educators. Once the podcast has been viewed there is an option to complete a test on the information. The segments are approved for 2 hours of in-service training upon successfully completing the test. 6. Using the search feature in iTunes, answer the following question: I am looking for primary source recordings to use with my high school history classes. I heard about a series called Voices from the days of slavery. Are these available online? If yes, from what institution? Yes. The series Voices from the days of slavery are available through iTunes. They are available through the Library of Congress. I found the series by completing a Power Search through the iTunesU. I typed in the title of the series Voices from the days of slavery. This immediately gave me the hit for the above series. Using the Google Books feature (http://books.google.com) 7. I am looking for a book about mythology, written in English, that I can read on my laptop during a flight. Are there any available for free online? If yes, please list one title recommendation. (Note the results list left side framethat includes a Find in a Library link to the WorldCat union catalog). Yes. There are books about the topic of mythology that can be viewed for free through Google Books. I chose the book Bulfinchs Mythology: The age of fable, or stories of Gods and hero. I completed and advanced search by typing in the word mythology and limiting to only books that provide a Full View in English. The entire book can be viewed for free on a computer. It views as a scanned item but is clear and easy to read.

8. I am looking for a magazine article about classic muscle cars, in particular the Oldsmobile 442. Can you find an article (in full text) that would match this subject interest in the Google Books search? Yes. There is an article on the Oldsmobile 442. The article is found in the August 1997 edition of the magazine Popular Mechanic, Vol. 17 No. 8. It is titled 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W-30. I had a difficult time of finding an article at first. I kept trying to search for muscle cars and Oldsmobiles at the same time and limiting the search to only magazines. This kept telling me there were no results no matter how I

switched the order of the word or if I used Boolean and other limiters. I then tried by typing Oldsmobile 442, and selected the limiters English, Full Text and All content categories. This then gave me a list of all magazines and books with articles pertaining to the muscle car Oldsmobile 442. I was able to find an article that was related exactly to my search needs the Oldsmobile 442. Using Google News feature (http://news.google.com/archivesearch ) 9. I am looking for newspaper articles about the Watergate scandal. a. What year and month had the most newspaper articles written? (hint: use the unique bar graph limit option after completing your search) The year and month that most articles related to Watergate were found in May 1973. I found this date by typing Watergate Scandal in the search box. This gave me a timeline from the original scandal dates to present. I liked how the feature could be limited just by selecting the time frame of interest to the researcher. Each time I selected a time frame I limited it down another step until I had the exact month and year that the most material was available for. b. View the list of Watergate newspaper articles from this month and year. Note how some articles are free while others charge a per access viewing fee. Locate a FREE article and view the article (note the navigation window for the newspaper images once loaded onto the screenthis is much easier to maneuver than the old microfilm readers of the past!) List the article title and author. The article I found was Washington Today Watergate scandal has repercussions abroad by Williams White. The article was in the Beaver County Times Newspaper on May 1, 1973. I really liked the feature that allowed me to view the entire pages up in the corner of the screen so I knew where I was in relation to the page of the newspaper. I also liked the feature that let me scroll the pages of the paper and then by putting the cursor over an area I could zoom in on the story or information. Using the Know it Now service (www.knowitnow.org ) 10.Log in to the service. Be sure to include your e-mail address for the session when doing so. a. Ask a question of your choice. Communicate with the librarian via the chat window and ask follow-up questions as needed. I entered my zip code and then registered using my name, WSU e-mail and grade level. I communicate via chat with a librarian and asked the

question: Are there any resources for practicing writing MARC records for library students? The librarian was very helpful and suggested a link that I found to be helpful and felt it will enhance what I have been learning in my cataloging class. b. You should receive (the next morning) an e-mail with a copy of your chat transcript. Forward a copy of this e-mail chat transcript to me (this is why you must enter your e-mail address when logging onto the service). As of right now I have not received an e-mail to my WSU account containing a copy of the transcript from our chat. I did copy and paste the chat into word so I would have a copy of the suggested link. I will be sending a copy of this chat in the form of a word document and as soon as I receive the transcript I will forward it to you. I will forward it to you later tonight or first thing in the morning, ASAP. c. How would you rate your experience online with a librarian? Did they completely answer your question? Or did the service fall short of expectations? I have never used any service like this before. I found it easy and thought the librarian responded quickly and with helpful information. The librarian was very considerate and even apologized for a few typos in one of their responses. The entire process from start to finish seemed to take less than ten to fifteen minutes. I was amazed that they were able to find a link for me at all, but the fact that they found it so quickly was amazing. I am looking forward to using the link and the resources suggested. Government web-sites 11.As mentioned in the content notes for the week, there is a great deal of free information available at government web-sites. a. Visit the NASA web-site (www.nasa.gov ). Note the depth of information available for educators, including posters, teaching materials, and numerous amazing images. The information on the NASA web-site was very interesting. I liked the relevancy of the resources and how they could be tied to curriculum topics for educators. There were lesson plans and activities as well as suggested sites to enhance the already detailed materials. There are also very nice video clips and images of areas of space to would make

great visuals for students that have a hard time understanding something they cannot readily view. b. Using one of the government search engines listed in the content notes, select another government web-site of your choice. How would this web-site be an asset to you, or your students, in an educational setting? I chose to review the gpoaccess site. I thought this site would be a good compliment to a social studies lesson on government. The information can be broke down by the branches of government and the processes of law and bill making. I found a feature titled Bens Guide to the U.S. this was wonderful. It broke down government related topics byt grade level and gave options for educators that tied to current curriculum topics. There were activity suggestions and links that provided extra details if needed. The site is useful for everyone whether they are a kindergarten just learning about basic government topics or an educator needing to become knowledgeable about specific workings within a branch.

Bonus Question Locate a web source of your choice that you would recommend. Why? What search features do you find most useful? How would this source be of value to others? For the bonus question I located a web source called www.4teachers.org . I chose this site because it contains content related to utilizing technology successfully into lessons. It offers activity suggestions, blogs, articles and links to a variety of activities. I think this source would offer quick suggestions for teachers that are unsure of whether using technology as part of a lesson is the right choice for them. The information provided is basic and simple so teachers that may feel intimidated by using such devices may find ease with their suggestions. The only downfall was all of the pop-up ads. The site and the information on it is free to educators so they rely on adds to help fund the site. It was hard to sometimes get around some of the items that popped-up.