Reflective Searching
Searching for information on the internet has never really been to much of a problem for me. I have, with some effort and sometimes a fair amount of time, been able to find the information and topics that I have searched for. However, I know now that my searching skills need improvement. I have been able to find information fairly well, but now that I know about the new searching skills and tools available I feel that I can be more successful with what I'm searching for. These new searching skills have impacted the way that I approach my research in that I can identify what I'm specifically looking for and use my searching tools to assist in finding more relevant and consistent information, sites, and/or documents.
Sadly enough, not everyone is a member of the Google Generation. Yes, I was born in 1992 and have grown up using and searching on the internet, but I don't classify myself as being an expert in searching skills and tools. One thing I have in common with teens and their searching behavior is that I often have a poor understanding of information needs. Therefore, I result in having a difficult time developing an effective searching strategy. Simply, I just didn't know how to plug the important information for my search into the search engine correctly.
To avoid a "filter bubble," I would ensure that I used skills and tools to help me to refine my searching. For example, if I'm looking to find an article from sciencenews.com about a new species of fish discovered off the coast of Florida, I would type in site:sciencenews.com~fish "new species of fish in Florida" 2016..2017. The colons after site will only allow the search to find information from that site only. The ~ will allow for related words to be included in the search like marine life, aquatic animal, mammals, etc. The " " will find the exact phrase in an article without separating the words. Lastly, the .. gives the search a designated time frame in which to find the article written in a specific time range.
Sadly enough, not everyone is a member of the Google Generation. Yes, I was born in 1992 and have grown up using and searching on the internet, but I don't classify myself as being an expert in searching skills and tools. One thing I have in common with teens and their searching behavior is that I often have a poor understanding of information needs. Therefore, I result in having a difficult time developing an effective searching strategy. Simply, I just didn't know how to plug the important information for my search into the search engine correctly.
To avoid a "filter bubble," I would ensure that I used skills and tools to help me to refine my searching. For example, if I'm looking to find an article from sciencenews.com about a new species of fish discovered off the coast of Florida, I would type in site:sciencenews.com~fish "new species of fish in Florida" 2016..2017. The colons after site will only allow the search to find information from that site only. The ~ will allow for related words to be included in the search like marine life, aquatic animal, mammals, etc. The " " will find the exact phrase in an article without separating the words. Lastly, the .. gives the search a designated time frame in which to find the article written in a specific time range.
I agree! I have never had any problem with searching for information on the internet but I have learned some tools that will be useful to refine my searches in the future.
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ReplyDeleteSorry about the earlier comment, it was the wrong post.
ReplyDeleteI get frustrated when I can't find what I'm looking for on the Internet, and with so many distractions, sometimes I find myself so off course that I just give up, and decide to try it at a later time. One of our resources, the video "Even better search results: Getting to know Google search for education." provided me with a list of shortcuts that I will be using to improve my searching abilities on the net.
The issue of a "filter bubble" is something that I'm very concern about, as we begin to depend more and more on the internet to obtain knowledge. Google, Facebook, online news and other sites are looking at our search results, and they are making decisions for us. They are tailoring our searches, and this is a problem because two people with different search history patterns will receive, unlike results which could be on different sides of the question or issue. This is difficult to fix because we are not in control of the filters that give us our internet choices, and sometimes to hide my preferences and search habits I run my search as a guest, without logging in to my account. That way I know that I'm getting unbiased links that are based solely on the search words.
Before this course, I considered myself proficient with Google searches. However, in the past two weeks, I have experienced an eye-opener! I need to greatly improve my search skills. I have discovered that I am not even effectively using search engines. In fact, it seems that I have barely tapped into the possibilities. Filter bubbles are still a foreign concept; like many of my recent new terms, I need time to process before I fully understand. I believe this course may be just the elective I needed to improve my skills for the classroom.
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DeleteYes. Yes. and Yes....I couldn't agree more. I also thought I was decent at finding information online until this week's module. I need more practice to become more efficient. I found the infographic by Josh Catone to be one of the most useful resources. His article "How to Use Google Search More Effectively" provides great tips and suggestions on how to be a more efficient searcher.
DeleteThis class has definitely opened my eyes to becoming a more efficient Googler. I use Google to find information, but I now know I wasn't doing an effective job at it. Learning all of these new tips, I can better help my students when they come in and ask questions on books and other information.
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