Finding Information on the Internet
No matter what topic you choose for your final project, there are relevant resources available to you on the World Wide Web. With over 50 million documents out there already, finding what you need is a challenge. Fortunately, various search engines are being developed that make it easier to find things than ever before. This class session will introduce you to some of the better ones.
Steps
To begin this activity, please think about the problem you are trying to solve,
and the questions that will lead to the solution.
Now that you have the topics, write down synonyms and other words and phrases related to the topic and questions. These terms will come in handy as you use search engines to widen or narrow your search.
Next, you'll need a way to store the links that you'll be finding. Open up Simple Text or Notepad and you'll have a blank page ready for you to paste your links into.
Now you're ready to go prowling the web in search of adventure!
Resources
If you want the most comprehensive search of both the Web and over 15,000 newsgroups, use Alta Vista, a search tool created by Digital Equipment. As an exercise, do a search for the term Truancy and see what comes up. Use AltaVista to find some sites related to the two topics that are of interest to you.
InfoSeek is another comprehensive search engine. Do you find anything here that you didn't find with AltaVista?
ERIC, of course, is a rich source of information to educators and trainers. There are several distinct categories of things to look for, and there's a search wizard that will help you find what you need.
You can also comb through ERIC's collection of lesson plans.
The card catalog, ERIC, and several other bibliographic data bases are available by through the Cline Library. You will need your username and password to use these resources.
If you know the general category of information that you want to search, but don't know the specific terms to look for, you can use the hierarchies of categories at Yahoo.
To find the e-mail address of an individual, you might try the 411 service.
To locate a mail list on a specific topic, check Liszt.
To find resources for K-12 teachers within a specific discipline, check Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, or PBS Teacher Source list of educational links.