Using web searches
Develop power search skills to locate the resources you want
You can spend hours searching the internet for particular topics. There are some searching strategies that you can use that will help you efficiently locate the resources you need. Different search engines have particular strategies that work and you need to be aware of these if you are not to become frustrated trying to find the learning resources you need.
The internet provides a great source of resources to support your e-learning program. The problem is trying to find the right resource for your needs. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, provide a way of finding the resources you need. Often, however, you are presented with an enormous number of “hits” that meet your search query.
Here are some strategies that may help you find the resource you are looking for.
If you simply put several words into a search engine such as Google your search result will include web sites that have any of the words you have included.
Search engines
Search engines try to catalogue the information that exists on the internet and make it easy for you to find the information you are searching for amongst the millions of web pages on the internet. Most search engines consist of databases of web sites and pages, information and locations. These are generated either by automatic web crawlers or are manually constructed.
Some search sites contain lists or categories in which the information gathered is catalogued for easier searching.
Evaluating what you have found
Before you take the time looking at every site that is returned in your search list, it is worth having a quick evaluation of the sites.
Here are some tips on what to look for in the list of sites found (Word 28KB)
Resources
- Power Searching For Anyone http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156031
This site provides you with search strategies and techniques to search many of the more popular search engines. - The Spider's Apprentice http://www.monash.com/spidap.html
The Spiders Apprentice site gives you an overview of how search engines work and which ones provide the best types of search results. It also describes how to effectively search for information on the web.
