I’m guessing many of you, like me, have gone online to search for information, lessons, etc., only to find nothing, or at least nothing “useful” in the many results of your search.  Alan November starts Chapter 2 with an anecdotal story of watching a teacher intern search for information on a compass.  When the intern typed in compass, a number of “sponsored” sites came up, including REI, which is the link the subsequently clicked on.  If the intern had been looking to purchase a compass, REI would have been a good resource, but since she was looking for information about the workings of compasses, this link was not the best resource.  The point of November’s story was to introduce the topic of doing effective research online.  The chapter focuses on how to search most efficiently, to explain how search engines work, and to introduce online resources that might help students as they conduct research online.

November explains that framing is very important while conducting online research, which I’m sure many of us have found out through firsthand experience.  He finishes his story about the intern’s search for compass, by sharing that he explained to her that changing her search “…to the phrases ‘how to read a compass’ or ‘magnetic declination’” to find more effective results, and to ignore the “sponsored” results, which are the first few results that usually pop up when conducting an online search.

Other useful information November includes in this chapter is clarification of how search engines work.  He explains that they use “programs called robots or spiders..which roam the web and collect information [which] is pulled into a search engine database, where it is indexed into smaller chunks of information.  When you conduct a search, your keywords are match against the search engine database…Search engines do not search the entire Web at the moment you enter keywords into the search box.  They only search within their own databases.”  While, in hindsight, this makes sense, I had no idea that this was how search engines operated.  Later in the chapter, he relays that web savvy page creators can use the search engine process to their advantage, by including many key words, to get their page listed near the top of your search results, even when their site may not include the most reliable information.

Also included in the chapter was a brief explanation of some of the types of material on the web, including: electronic textbooks, podcasts, blogs, and directories.  November included some helpful search tools, which seem to be very “student-friendly” including:

http://ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Overall, this chapter helped clarify some workings of search engines, and included useful information and resources to help make the most of research online, something we all know can consume hours of our time!