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"Real teachers can fix a jammed pencil sharpener with a pair of student
scissors and can unstick a stapler with a paper clip."

Tips for Finding Great Web Sites

Google Viewer: http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html
The Google Viewer delivers search results as a visual slide show.

Education World: http://www.educationworld.com/ 
This site boasts over 500,000 links that are supposed to be suitable for educators from primary levels through high school.

Now there are two categories of search engines we should all know about: the "traditional" generalist search engines (e.g., Lycos.com, Google.com, Excite.com) and the new specialty search engines. The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/technology/25SEAR.html; has some great
examples of the latter for all kinds of searches: the latest news stories, financial data, photos, humor, and comparison shopping, etc. According to a software company called BrightPlanet http://www.completeplanet.com/tutorials/deepweb/summary03.asp; (mentioned by the Times), the Web that the familiar old search engines *can't* access is 500 times larger than the "surface" Web that they do search (note that BrightPlanet sells search software that it says accesses those deeper, less accessible Web pages). To their credit, some of the "old" search engines are offering searches in sub-categories. For example, the Times reports, Google.com has search engine for information from US state and federal government sites; NorthernLight.com has a news service that 56 news wires; and AltaVista.com, Lycos.com, and Excite.com now offer searching of audio and video material.

Search Engines for News
AltaVista News Search: http://news.altavista.com. A German language version (with German language content) is available: http://de.altavista.com/news/default
WatchThatPage.Com: http://www.watchthatpage.com
"WatchThatPage is a service that enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet."
GlobalEdge: http://globaledge.msu.edu/
A large and fact-filled directory of international business materials from the library at Michigan St. University.

Reverse Linking with AllTheWeb: http://www.alltheweb.com
With AllTheWeb you can type, for instance, studyplans.com and see the pages that link to it.

Kids Search Engines: http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156191

Although there are a host of browser programs to choose from, two stand out from the crowd: 
Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  Both are powerful pieces of software that make it a snap to connect to and access the online world’s information storehouses and communication capabilities.  Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer each command about 50% of the browser market.  Recent Data shows that schools are running both Netscape and Microsoft Explorer in equal numbers.  They are both free.  

Search Engine Showdown - The Users Guide to Web Searching: http://www.notess.com/search/

Dogpile Search: http://www.dogpile.com/

All The Web: http://www.alltheweb.com/
This is a search engine that highlights the most recent news stories related to your search, and its filtering is on all the time.

Wise Nut: http://www.wisenut.com/

Overture: http://www.content.overture.com/d/home/ first lists sites that have paid to be listed on the search engine.  After that other sites are listed.

Google Search: http://google.com/search?q=google lists search results based on how many places are linked to a page.  The more links, the higher on the search result list.  It works kind of like a popularity contest.     Google then takes into account the importance, measured in popularity, of the sites that are linking to the page.  Links from popular sites are given more weight than links from obscure sites.  If a lot of important sites establish links with the page, the reasoning goes, it must be important too.   Google even offers an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that does not even bother to return a list of search results—it deposits the user directly onto the site with the highest relevancy ranking.    

Familiarity with search engines and other Web resource finders is difficult to come by and difficult to keep, because the engines, like everything else on the Web, change all the time.   

Search Directories.  The most accessible tool for the Web novice is the subject directory, like Magellan (www.mckinley.com), and NBCi (http://nbci.msnbc.com/nbci.asp) .  These directories aren’t really search engines proper, although they’re often lumped together with them.  They have search engines as well, but they generally don’t search well for sites outside the directory’s database.  On the plus side, directories use human beings to sort sites.  The downside is that this process takes time, so directory databases tend to include fewer sites and be the least up-to-date.    

Metaengines.  Metaengines, often assembled as a service by universities or Internet service providers, submit your search terms to several, or all, major search engines simultaneously.  Some metaengines are: 37.com [formally Dogpile] (http://www.37.com/), InfoSpace (http://www.infospace.com/), Mamma (http://www.mamma.com/), and SavvySearch (http://www.savvysearch.com/). 

When working with students, its good to use tools that have already sorted out useless stuff in favor of pages that are truly useful and interesting to kids.  Yahooligans does not have a large database but it’s a good place to point students who are searching the Web on their own. 

There are many subject directories coming out of libraries.  The Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org) is very extensive.  Another one is at www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/ref/. 

Searching the Internet using KEYWORDS and PHRASES
Browsing for information in directories is not always a good way to get results.  Another more efficient method to find sites in the Web is by simple searching using keywords related to a topic. When you conduct a simple search of a directory, the result is a list of site matches or hits, containing the keywords.   Usually, the list is organized with best matches first.  As you descend through the list, the probability of relevant information decreases.  Simple searches may be refined by using limiters, such as +, -, and " ".  Refining your keywords generally results in fewer but better matches.
Sometimes it is impossible to find a reliable way to refine a keyword search.  For instance if you’re looking for general information on network security, a search will give you a huge list of companies that sell network-security products.  While many of these sites may be informative to some extent, they’re probably not the best places to do your research.  But how do you eliminate them?  Any keyword you exclude from your search could legitimately appear in an objective, general-information page.

 Other tips for searching:
·        Be as descriptive as you want when searching.  The search box for nearly all engines holds as many words as you like.  Words like the, those, and a will be autmatically stripped out by the engine.  Try a question like:  “How do I register to vote?”
·        Double check your spelling.  Even a small error can skew results.
·        Capitalize proper names, like John Doe (instead of John Doe) when looking for them and most search engines will only return pages where they are capitalized.
       Learn how to use Boolean operators to help narrow your search.  The AltaVista search engine, for example provides excellent examples of how there work: http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help_advanced.htm
·        If the search engine you are using displays a lot of pictures, you can speed it up by viewing in text-only mode.  To turn off the pictures in Navigator, go to Edit, Preferences, the word Advanced, and uncheck Automatically Load Images.

 The Internet Sleuth, http://www.isleuth.com/, is one of the sites powered by AltaVista Search, and it can help you out.  By providing links and interfaces to hundreds of high-quality, specialized directories, search engines, and reference sites, The Internet Sleuth allows you to focus your search on the subject matter you’re interested in – you don’t need to figure out how to keep irrelevant sites out of your results.  It also gives you access to a number of resources you might not otherwise know about. 
The Internet Sleuth’s home page gives you a form to query all the major general-purpose search engines and directories, such as Yahoo! and WebCrawler, both of which are powered by AltaVista Search.
Notice the list of categories and subcategories in the left-hand column.  By clicking on one of these categories, you can get a page of Web sites that focus on that topic.  Each listing includes not only a link to the site, but also a form that allows you to conduct a search.  Be sure to look again to the left side of the screen for more refined searches. 

 Remember, don’t cling too tightly to a favorite search engine, search strategy, or web resource, and don’t teach Web searching to students as if there’s just one way to do it.  That method may be moved, gone, changed, or sold tomorrow.

 To save Bookmarks go to Edit, File, Save As.  Choose Floppy A to send it to a disk.  

 In Bookmarks, Properties, passwords can be saved.  They are not totally secure but are not readily found by others. 

To select the entire web page, use Cntl A.  To put the entire page on the clip board use Cntl C.

DON’T FORGET TO BOOKMARK WHEN YOU COME ACROSS SOMETHING INTERESTING.  If you need assistance in learning to bookmark the help section is excellent.  If you go to help then index and type in bookmarks it will list options for you. 

Use your hobbies and passions as points of entry to the World Wide Web.  If you love auctions, check out ebay: www.ebay.com, the on-line auction house.  Join literary-minded folds at Salon: www.salon.com to discuss the classics or the latest best sellers on-line. 
Search engines are indispensable tools for Web-based research.  These search engines are created especially for children. 

You can find ready-to-use lesson plans, reproducible, and activities to support curriculum and standards at these sites:

The availability of digital texts and graphics makes it all too easy  to cut and paste information and photographs into their reports and projects without considering ownership.  Just as you use and citations of printed reference materials, do the same with respect to on-line resources. 

 EVALUATING YOUR SEARCH RESULTS 
Conducting research on the Web is, in many ways, no different from conducting research using traditional resources. The daunting amount and kind of resources available on the Web just make it exceedingly more complex. For one, by using the      Internet as a tool for research, you and your students have access to information in many different formats, including photographs, video and audio clips, and interactive environments. Second, all of the information retrieved must undergo rigorous evaluation before it can be considered usable.  
Before the Internet, teachers had some degree of control over the materials brought into the classroom. The Internet has changed this; now, since anyone with access to a server can put anything they want on the Internet, your students have access to all kinds of unevaluated, inaccurate, or just bad information.
Some of the most reliable data to be found on the Internet is live data like weather, current news, and information from government sites (whose URLs end with ".gov") and university sites (whose URLs end with ".edu"). Check to see how      current the information is. Usually the homepage of a site will include the time and date when a page was updated. Another way to find good Web sites is to go to sites that specialize in rating other sites.  Don't forget to evaluate the evaluators, though!
Some thoughtful suggestions on how to use the Web as a research tool.
What makes a Web site "good"?
A "good" Web site is one that you can use in your classroom to support or enhance learning. A good Web site can do this in many ways, including promoting collaborative activities with other online learners, introducing visuals or audio that promote a new way of seeing things, putting students in touch with professionals in the field you are studying, or providing an environment for self-guided inquiry.  But, before you decide that a site is "good," you must assess the information it imparts for accuracy and timeliness.
What kind of evaluation criteria should I develop?
Use the following checklist as a starting point in evaluating sites and resources you find on the Web.  

Site Evaluation Checklist:
How does the site make use of the Internet?
What is the quality of the related links?
Is the site well designed?  
Who is the target audience?
Does the site support my curriculum unit?
Who sponsors and maintains the site?
Is  the information reliable? 
Are there reviews of the site? Has it  received any awards?
Website Rating Parameters
Visually Pleasing  - Rate it from 1 to 5-- with 1 being too confusing/too much to look at and 5 being aesthetically pleasing with a balancing of text and/or graphics.
Navigation - Rate it from 1 to 5--with 1 being difficult or confusing to 'navigate' through the website and 5 being 'no problems.' Website Rating Parameters
Visually Pleasing  - Rate it from 1 to 5-- with 1 being too confusing/too much to look at and 5 being aesthetically pleasing with a balancing of text and/or graphics.
Navigation - Rate it from 1 to 5--with 1 being difficult or confusing to 'navigate' through the website and 5 being 'no problems.'Grammar - Rate it from 1 to 5--with 1 being frequent errors and 5 being no errors detected.
Use of Graphics - Rate it from 1 to 5--with 1 being too distracting and 5 being visually balanced and relevant.
Usefulness of Information - Rate it from 1 to 5--with 1 being useless and 5 being extremely/helpful/relevant. 

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This site began in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch. 
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