Tools and Strategies for Searching
Directories
Directories are web sites that contain links toward tens, hundreds, or thousands of other web sites. Directories are put together by humans, and thus involve some process of selection. Large directories sometimes contain their own databases, allowing users to enter key words for searching within them. Directories are the best places to begin searching for users who are relatively new to the web and do not have specific, burning issues and questions (see Search Engines), but want to explore a particular terrain within part of the web. Further, an effective way to investigate such a terrain is to "mine" a chosen directory for resources. Return to the directory again and again until you have exhausted its best resources, exhausted yourself, or have been led to a more interesting directory.
- Global SchoolNet Foundation's wealth of resources include a project registry where educators can find out information about web-based education projects. For another index of projects, check CNIDR.
- Kathy
Schrock's guide A great initial one-stop shopping location for K-12 educators interested in using and learning about the web, including slide shows on searching and creating home pages, as well as directories for a range of subjects from Arts to World Cultures and Regions.
- NASA's Online Educational Resources, much more than space-shuttle updates. Categories of resources include "Subject Trees on Education," museums, libraries, resources specific to colleges and universities, and others focused on collaborative technologies. Very easy to navigate, hundreds of links, and occasional annotations.
- The University of Melbourne's Center for the Study of Higher Education has a list of Internet Resources in Higher Education. Just a long list-o-links without annotation, but well worth some exploration.
- My Virtual Reference Desk brings together a number of major directories for education in one location. The Reference Shelf is another usefully collection of desktop resources for educators.
- For that classic directory--the phone book--try Four11. Useful for finding personal e-mail addresses too.
Directories that Review and Award
Some directories (and search engines) review and rate sites. Such awards and ratings can help you avoid irrelevant, poorly designed, or very thin sites and find some of the best. On the other hand, some sites are awarded again and again simply because they have been made more visible, and the popularity of these featured sites can help hide some lesser-known treasures. Be sure and read, if you can find it, the information on how the sites were rated and awarded.
- CyberSchool Magazine Editor's Choice Awards is an excellent resource for finding a handful of choice sites for general education purposes. Includes brief education-focused reviews.
- Education World Awards lists about twenty sites monthly of choice and gives "grades" for the categories of content, aesthetics, and organization. The reviews give a good deal of useful and well written content information about the sites.
- For search engines with rating and review capabilities, try Lycos' Top 5% of all Web sites, with categories in Education and many other fields, or Magellan.
Search Engines
Unlike directories, which are built by hard-slogging individuals, search engines are computer programs whose job is to locate and categorize web pages, and not make selections. These programs, sometimes called "spiders" or "robots," continually traverse the web and index pages according to various criteria, such as document titles or even text within document bodies. Search engines are readily accessible through most web browsers (the program you are using to read this, such as Netscape) and their numbers are growing rapidly. As a search engine user, you can enter information, such as keywords, that will activate the search engine to display resources it has previously located. It would be tempting to say that the best search engines are those which index the largest number of pages, but you will likely determine personal criteria, such as search speed, available help, types of searching supported, etc. that will help you find your own favorites. Presently, I prefer Lycos and Hot Bot. For more advanced search capabilities, try AltaVista.
- Ross Tyner offers a much more complete discussion of search engines and subject guides (directories) as part of a workshop: Sink or Swim: Internet Search Tools & Techniques.
- Search.com is one of several meta-search engines that will permit you to search via several search engines at the same time.
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Ted Slater's Search Engine Collection, permits one-stop searching, including many major search engines on one page, as well as a dictionary, a Bible, Shakespeare, CNN news, and street-level map making. Snap! Online, using a television motif with channels and visuals, also offers many seach tools in one location, including access to local news and weather.
Searching for Schools and Universities
- A key place to look for K-12 schools on the web is Web 66, where you'll find a terrific clickable map. Another easily searchable database is the ClassroomWeb of Classroom Connect.
- Christina DeMello has created this directory to over 3,000 colleges and universities in more than 80 countries.
Evaluation
Now that you have found a number of websites, so what? How do we evaluate what we're looking at, when many of the traditional markings of authority (e.g., journal jackets, publishing companies) have been stripped away? Clearly, learning and teaching critical literacy on the web is a significant and pressing issue. Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web Resources is a good place to look, with an interesting bibliography for further study.
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