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Search beyond Google. Wonderwheel and more

25 Mar

I do it.

My students do it.

We all do it.

We GOOGLE IT!

The easiest thing these days is to find an answer.

But is the answer always the best answer?

How many of you have gone beyond the first, second or third page in search results in Google?

How many have used tools like:

Google Scholar (for articles, legal opinions and journals)
Google Books (find whole books, partial excerpts, etc)
Google Finance (find stock quotes)
XE.com (for exchange rates of currencies and precious metals)
Survey Monkey | Survey Gizmo (for creating your own surveys)
ERIC (digital library of education literature)
OEDB.org (free online classes)
TeacherTube.com
IMDB.com (International Movie Database)
Youtube.com (many free online tutorials | courses these days)
the library
an expert
Google WonderWheel (as seen above) Wonder wheel How-to.pdf [Presently, Google Wonder Wheel seems to no longer exist. I hope the people at Google bring this option back. For now, check out Google Image Swirl, another similar product, only for images]

This is not an exhaustive list of tools-beyond-Google, but it is a list I presently use as part of criterion for my students to gather information in preparation for a project. I recommend you, as an educator, employ these techniques and others as well. Google is great, but it doesn’t always have the best answer.

For a great interactive graphic that demonstrates: Google Tools to support Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

5 Comments

Posted by ict-design.org | Tom Johnson on March 25, 2011 in Education, Technology

Tags: Education, Google, Google Scholar, Google Tools, List of Google products, Online, Search, search engine, Students, Teaching, Web search engine

Basic Reading in Google Search – ISTEC final notes

13 Mar

At the ISTEC meeting we had the session that I usually enjoy the most. It is a time when people come up and show a thing or two they find nifty. It is usually the cutting edge stuff that no one has seen before. For example:

Search for kids

Google – Advanced Search (basic reading age)

Go to Google – Advanced Search

Choose Reading Level:

Another great Kids Search example was:

simple.wikipedia.org – wikipedia for kids

Some of the latest resources mentioned are listed below:

dropitto.me – a dropbox add-in allows others to send files to your dropbox
edmodo – an excellent, free (course management system) CMS for teachers and students
packrati.us – adds twitter feed URLs to your delicious account
calibre – e-books library management system
epubread – allows you to read ePubs in Firefox
posterous.com – fun ways to share and collaborate online

Concerning e-portfolios, these items were presented:

livebinders – eportfolios
mahara – works with moodle
yakapaca – mentioned, but not well regarded
google sites – portable, excellent resource for creating websites

A noteworthy site to work in conjunction with those listed above:

topicmarks – summarizes text documents for you electronically

Everyone should blog. Here’s why.

01 Mar

My new student policy is and will be:

“Everybody Blog!”

There is no reason that everyone can not, nor that everyone should not be creating blogs.

They’re easy!
They are free!
They are good indicators of learning!
They are portable!
They can act like an online portfolio!
They can be real fun!

What can you put in a blog? Just about anything. Some ideas can include:

About Me information
Contact information (for older kids and adults)
Resumes
Curriculum Vitae
Favorites and Links
Videos
Music Videos and Music
Photos
Sport information
Favorite Game information
Wedding /Party Info
Selling your house/belongings/shoes/gadgets/toiletries

How can you do it yourself?

Come here to WordPress.com
Sign-up
Remember your passwords (Write them down some place)
Edit
Take Pictures, add them, play!
Have fun

Using Google Docs for students with colored criterion

18 Jan

I have found a fantastic way to use Google Docs with students. Google Docs allows us to share documents like Word through the cloud. We can edit at the same time allowing the sharing of information back & forth.

What this enables me to do is create color coded criterion.

The students take this criterion and color code their answers to show they have covered all parts. It allows very quick examination from a student and a teacher to see where something may have been missed.

Feedback from the students also has demonstrated they like this way of doing things. I have encouraged them to take this idea beyond Google Docs to better examine chunky sets of instructions.