Searching for and using online information

Seán GallagherPDST Technology in Education

www.pdst.ie www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie

@sgpdst

Where is all the knowledge we lost with information? T.S. Eliot

Search for the answers!

• What film company gave George Lucas his first job?

• Who founded the company?

• Where was he from?

• The father of which Irish President was executed for gun-running on the Asgard?

• Name the sea stack just off Downpatrick Head in North Mayo?

Comprehension strategies

• Lost by the convenience of search engines?

Primary sources

• Journals

• Newspapers

• Magazines

Dictionary on demand

• Embedded sound files

• Can be added directly to a browser

www.focloir.ie

• Canuintí

• Connacht; Mumhan; Uladh

How to search

• Trusted source

• Reference the source

• Start with one source initially

www.scoilnet.ie

• Age appropriate resources

• Factual information; related multimedia and interactivity

• Text to speech for reluctant readers

• Double click a word to initiate inbuilt dictionary

• Learn the skills of searching safely

Search engines for students

• www.sweetsearch.com

• www.refseek.com

• duckduckgo.com

• www.instagrok.com

Getting the most out of google

Conducting a well-executed search on Google

Using search ‘operators’ can lead to more specific results. We will explore some of the more useful ones now!

Operators• Use ‘site:’ followed by a website name to confine

your search to a given site

• Use ‘~’ followed by a search term to find related words

• Use quotations marks “ “ around words to search for use of those words together

• Use ‘-’ followed by a search term to exclude that term from the search

• Use ‘…’ between parameters to return searches from that range

Search for

Irish Times articles in relation to Junior Cycle reform in secondary schools but without reference to Leaving Certificate – confine it from 2011 to 2014

Possibility

More specific return?

More operatorsSearch for a specific filetype by using ‘filetype:’

followed by the extension to specify the file required – pdf, doc, docx etc

Use ‘intitle:’ followed by a search item to return a search with specified title items

Use ‘*’ followed by a search item to return a search of terms that are similar

Another example…

Find an article in pdf format detailing primary school athletics

Google Scholar

Library of reference material

Cite

Other functions

Definitions – define:

Calculator – operation in search box

Unit converter – directly in search box

Comprehension strategies

• Lost by the convenience of search engines?

ConclusionWe are drowning in information, while starving in for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by

synthesisers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about

it, and make important choices wisely…….. E.O Wilson