Chapter 5

Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

Focus Question:

"What are search engines and how do they work?"
"Search engines retrieve information from the internet. A search engine is a software program that uses networks of computers to access information about a topic from its databases. What is remarkable about a search engine is its speed, propelling an internet-connected computer instantaneously through millions of Web pages to locate topic-related websites."

Websites such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask are sites that you can go on and search away. These search engines will look through the title, the subject, and any other words that were typed in your search bar depending on what search is activated. As I was reading through the chapter, I came upon the "free-text search" which is the " search that looks for the title, keyword, and description fields of each resource for the word or phrase you type into the search command." 124 Maloy. This type of search will show the results that include one or more words into what the individual typed on the search bar. There is another type of search that is called " A Keyword/exact math search. " This search retrieves information from the internet that contains the exact words that the individual typed in.

A new word or term that I learned today was the "Boolean Search."

According to Transforming Learning With New Technologies a boolean search uses the boolean search terms AND, OR, and NOT to create more complex queries.
" OR" is less restrictive, as it it will include any and all words or phrases joined by the OR operator.
"AND" is more restrictive since the return must contain all words or phrases joined by the AND operator.
"NOT" is used to exclude a certain word, such as "was AND NOT (Civil war)."


Tech Tool 5.1
Photo and audio resources on the web

Flickr is a website for anybody who loves pictures, different type of photography and audio. I have used Flickr before, about three years ago when I use to upload my pictures, I would love sharing them, and I enjoyed looking through other uses pictures, to learn and inspire me.
I never thought about how great of a website it could be for teachers to be able to give out lessons, through pictures. That would be a different assignment for children, but it would open their eyes to a different type of learning. A lesson can contain the instructions, and the material can be found through the pictures of the website of their choice, in this case Flickr.

"Flickr is an online photo managing and sharing tool with a number of instructional operation for teachers, You can locate, organize, and send photos that you have taken or that you locate within the site's vast online  collection. This offers an almost limitless way to add visual learning resources to your curriculum."(122, Maloy)


Conclusion

Reading this chapter was one of those that with every few paragraphs, I would be " wow.. interesting." This chapter reinforced the material that I already knew, such as the tech tool that was about Flickr, which is a website that I am familiar with. On page 123 states the different names for each concept, example: "Web search: A tutorial on how to use the google search engine" "Maps: Point-to -point directiosn to addresses anywhere in the U.S" Material like that in the chapter made me feel comfortable because I knew what they were talking about for the most part, and then there were parts in the chapter that really taught me something new.
The different searches: A free-text search and a keyword/exact match search, as well  as learning what IT fluency is: Information technology fluency" which is something that has "become the core goal for teachers and students who are learning about technology." (118 Maloy)