Transcription

1 Slide 1 Hello, I m Jason Borgen, Program Coordinator for the TICAL project and a Google Certified Teacher. This Quick Take will show you a variety of ways to search Google to maximize your research and provide your fellow educators with Google s extensive search capabilities. Slide 2 With the flattening world and an overload of information being available at your fingertips, we can learn and research anywhere at anytime. Students today are already self- directed to locate and reveal information from a variety of search engines. To be an effective web searcher we must learn about the vast capabilities of optimizing one s search. This quick take will answer the questions What are some quick searches you can perform in a Google search box? What are some ways you can search for specific files and content using advanced search? What are some other search options and ways to filter results in a search? How to find results that are only considered scholarly? Pros and cons of using the varied features. And resources in the TICAL resource database that you can follow- up on.

2 Slide 3 Let s first start off with searching Google how we normally do. Did you know, there are key words you can use to access the results you need immediately? By simply using the word define before any search, the immediate result will be the definition of the word or Phrase. Or, if you type the word weather before any city, and state or country, you will immediately get access to the 5- day forecast. If you need to quickly calculate the GPA for an at- risk student you can type in the expression in a Google search and it will quickly calculate the value. You can search for a word or phrase within a specific site by typing the word or phrase then the word site, a colon and the URL of the website you only want it to search. This is a great way to search websites that don t have quality search engines built in and you want to display results for that given site. Google Alerts is way to search for something that you know is going to be all over the Internet soon, but you don t want to have to keep going back to search. Google Alert will actually send you an when new results are found. Maybe you want to know immediately when state testing results are released in your state. Simply go to Google Alerts, type in State Testing results California and anytime a new news article, website, blog, is create relating to the search terms you will get an ! Slide 4 So now you know some tricks for basic search, let s talk about using advanced search for narrowing your results. Sometimes when we search for information we get results that are nothing what we expect. Adjacent to each Google search box is an Advanced Search link. When clicked on, you will get to this advanced search page. Here you can search an exact phrase or even enter a search, and tell Google to not display results with certain words or phrases. For example, if you want to research the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, prior to No Child Left Behind and after, you can simply type no child left behind in the unwanted words field. IF you have Spanish speaking families and want to find some resources on cyberbullying in their native language. You can search specific languages as well. Or, if you want to locate cyberbullying presentation or handouts you can modify for a Parents night meeting, you can actually

3 narrow your search by selecting a specific file type such as a PowerPoint presentation or document. If you do download a presentation or document, make sure you have permission to use it by the contacting the creator, or simply selecting the Date, usage rights, link and selecting free to use or share. This gives you the right to legally and ethically use for yourself. This is particularly important to show your teachers and students how to not violate copyrights. Slide 5 Are you familiar with searching for images and pictures in Google? If you are looking for pictures for memos, documents, presentations, slide shows, etc. you can search Google images. Just like web search, there is an advanced search feature with Google images. Here you can narrow your result to specific type of images such as faces or line drawings. You can also only display images by size depending upon if you need to print the image or display in a large area. Especially important for classrooms, you can be sure the image results displayed are not rude or offensive by using safe search. And of course, making sure you have the right to use the image is again very important so always filtering the image search to only display images that you have the right to reuse and/or modify. To access Google images, simply click on images at the top of most Google web pages and searches and again, adjacent to the search box is the advanced search link.

4 Slide 6 When you perform a Google search the results are usually a list of a variety of sites that include blog posts, news articles, books, etc. You can narrow your search and display results in these specific categories only, by clicking More in the left margin. Now you can search for specific books, discussions on a topics say cybersafety discussions amongst other principals. Slide 7 Sometimes it is difficult to find what you are looking for through a traditional Google search. Perhaps you don t know exactly the phrase you want or the time frame of the event/concept you are looking for. On the left margin of a search there is a link called More search tools. By clicking on it, many more options and ideas are displayed below. You can search specific time frames so maybe you want to only display the most recent websites and articles relating to cyber safety or state testing as anything older than a week is irrelevant. You can only display results that are highlight or shared by your friends or colleagues, Google calls social circle. Or, maybe you only want to display results that have been created in your local area. You can click nearby and only the nearby results will be displayed. The most useful tools here are Related searches, Wonderwheel and Timeline. Related searches will display search terms or phrases that seem similar to your initial search. Wonderwheel take a search query, and puts it into a graphic organizer word web that displays related searches. When you click on one of the related searches another web is formed allowing you to observe connections between phrases and search for the most relevant content. Think of the possibilities for the visual/spatial learners. Timeline displays an actual timeline showing the quantity of sites and articles written in a given point in time helping to quickly locate time- related research.

5 Slide 8 Google custom searches are user- created searches only searching specified websites. This allows you to have control of where your stakeholders may be searching for content. Maybe you want to create a quick search for parents that only searches your school s top three websites on reading at home. This puts a sort of standard on the resources found by parents, but also gives them ownership as they get to decide what to search for. When creating a custom search you have to give it a name, a breif description of what it is and/or searches and the most important part, listing the websites you want it to search. You can list 10, 25, 100, or just 2 sites. Lastly, selecting standard edition is free but does display some advertisements. Once you complete this step you can test it out and even access HTML code to quickly embed the search in your own existing school or district website. You can also just link to the search if you wish. Slide 9 Here are some Custom Search examples. Each one is clickable to view the live search page. This one was created for promoting girls in science and engineering and spotlights female- specific sites. Notice, it will only search the 5 websites listed, no matter what the search term is. KidRex is a very strict search that searches elementary student specific websites, any inappropriate websites are automatically filtered out. This last one shows an existing website with the Google Custom search embedded on top. This custom search only searches specific science and climate related websites. These were all created by educators like you and I.

6 Slide 10 If you are looking for specific peer- reviewed articles, or anything that is considered scholarly then Google scholar is where you should go. This part of Google only searches literature that is deemed from experts. The results are displayed according to the creditability of the author and the validity of the content. Slide 11 Google has several experimental projects all of which are housed in an area called Google labs. One of these projects is called Google Squared. This is a search engine that displays results in a linear table with rows and columns relating to the search query. Great for comparing relevant facts to a concept. Slide 12 This Google Square example shows a variety of terms and ideas relating to the overarching idea of standardized tests with a column for Item, image, description, and options for other columns. This can be a quick way to illustrate and provide examples and application to parents and the entire community. Think about what it can do for students if you enter the civil war in the search box!

7 Slide 13 All Google Squares can later we published and quickly embedded and shared within any website. Or, you can export the table to Excel for further manipulation, sorting, and filtering. Great tool for those logical/mathematical learners. Slide 14 All the options you now have to search more effectively is definitely beneficial. It is all absolutely free, thanks to ads, it engages a variety of learning styles, and it is a quick way to access the most pertinent information. Some things to weigh in, however, are understanding that some of these tools are not yet enterprise ready and are in fact still in testing mode scholar and squared for example. It is time consuming at first to make the change from your normal searching, but in the end it will be beneficial. And, even if use all these tools you still may not find the results you were looking for. Slide 15 To follow- up on the presentation the TICAL portal houses several relevant resources. Take a look at Google s Classroom poster pdfs that teachers can display in the classroom or you can display at the district office or school site to remind staff and students of effective research. Google to the Max from UC Berkeley provides several handouts and presentations all related to Google and search. Beyond Google search is a document created by a Google Certified Teacher providing educators with a summary of Google search. Google Web Search classroom lessons are step- by- step lesson plans you can provide teachers to help their students become more effective web researchers. And, Google resources on TICAL includes all of the above plus a variety of other resources relating to the ever- growing Google applications.

8 Slide 16 Here are just some of the other applications Google offers which you can learn more about from the TICAL Resources. Slide 17 To access the large list of Google Applications, from any Google webpage simply click on more and you will see some of the application, but at the bottom of the list is a link that says even more. Click on even more and you will see the extensive list.

9 Slide 18 Thanks for viewing this quick take. Please help spread the word to help all educators model and be effective web researcher. Feel free to contact me with any questions you have.