SEARCH ENGINES Jaime Ma, Vancy Truong & Victoria Fry

Agenda  What are they?  How do you use them?  What are the different features?  Comparison of 4 search engines  Assessing and evaluating information  Activities 1 & 2  Classroom application

What is a search engine?  Software program that searches on sites based on the words that you type  Search through own database  Not just Google – Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile, Ask etc.  Kids search engines – Yahoo Kids, Ask Kids, Cybersleuth, Kids Click

How do search engines work?  Not simple  Detailed processes, methodologies, continually updated  Different search engines produce different results  Software sorts through millions of pages to find matches (less than 1 second)  Ranked in order of relevance, but websites can pay money to be ranked up the top

Which search engine do you use? Why?

Comparing search engines

 Bright, colourful  6-12 years old  Studyzone  Parent component  Connected to Yahoo  Humans review

 Easy, simple navigation  Enchanted learning sites  Parent component  Differs Yahoo Kids – answers are not the first couple of sites  Not as focused on entertainment

Take a minute to search through Yahooligans (Yahoo Kids) and Ask Kids.

 Most popular  Many components:  Google scholar - academic articles  Google maps - search for places all around the world  Google images - search and find images for a specific reason  Google has news, shopping and known as gmail  Google – advanced search

 Useful for transition from kids search engines to adult  Specific video search engine part  Uses Google, bing and yahoo to deliver more precise results  Approximately only 11.3% of the information are shared by the 3 search engines  Dogpile claims that it saves time by not needing to research with the 3 major search engines  Dogpile have completed a study that includes that;  Majority of all first results page are unique to that search engine  Eg. Google 70%  By searching only Google a searcher can miss 72.7% of the webs best first page search results

Take a minute to search through Google and Dogpile. Try searching the same thing and see which one produces better results. Ex: Why is the sky blue?

Locating Information Strategies  knowing the web address  surfing random sites on the internet  finding subject directories that contain organised lists of information  using search engines

Assessing Information 1. Authority 2. Currency 3. Accuracy 4. Objectivity 5. Coverage

Evaluating Information  Student audience – what is the age range?  Source of information – how valid and credible is the information given?  Analysis of the content

Activity #1 (Students)  Year 3-5 students  Use a variety of different kids search engines to answer questions  Use different strategies – avoid typing the question out, try keywords  Assess and evaluate the sources of information  Rate the search engines – speed, results, physical appeal, ease of use  Which one would you teach your students to use?

SHARING  Which kids search engine would be top of your list?  Which search engine was the easiest to use? Why?  Was there a general consensus in answers across all search engines?  Which one is more appealing to use? Why?  Which one would you teach your students to use?

Activity #2 (Peers)  Preparation for PAR 2  Lesson plan of an individual student  Different experiences with ICT and varied learning abilities  Plan an individual lesson plan for that student  Refer to ACARA  Depending on the situation, what would you teach them regarding the use of search engines?  Come back as a group to share

Classroom Application  Filter, control over results  Curriculum to back-up teaching  Credible sources  More than Google  Keywords  Other reference points – library  Features of search engines  We should know how to use them before teaching them

ACARA  By the end of Year 2:  Recognise that people create information resources and that the information they create or provide can be used or misused by others (cannot copy other people’s work)  Identify use of ICT at home and at school  By the end of Year 6:  Able to name sources, avoid plagiarism, know what may or may not be copied  Check integrity of web links  Plan, locate, retrieve and organise information

References Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011). Retrieved from A Research Study by Dogpile.com in Collaboration with Researchers from Queensland University of Technology and the Pennsylvania State University. (2007). Different engines, different results web searchers not always finding what they’re looking for online. Dogpile. Retrieved from DifferentEnginesDifferentResults.pdf Barr, A. (2012). Lecture 3: Searching for the right stuff [PowerPoint slides]. Unpublished manuscript, EDUC 1066, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

The Gwigle Game 