Overview

In this tutorial you will:

learn different ways to conduct a web search

learn how to save and print search results

learn about social bookmarking and tagging.

There is an optional short quiz at the end.

There is also a podcast version of this tutorial – there’s a link to it on the page you just came from.

Web searching

A search engine is a software program that helps us to find information on a single computer, or a network of computers like the Internet.

To search the Internet go to a search engine that can search for websites. There are plenty to choose from!

http://del.icio.us/prep4elearning/search-web - links to websites you can use to search the Internet [web link not working?]

How to search

There are different ways you can do a search. Which of these you use depends on your personal preference and what you are looking for at the time.

Simple search

Search for types of media

Advanced search

Let’s look at each of these now…

Simple search

All you need to do is type a keyword into the search box on your browser.

Alternatively you can go to a search engine website.

Remember this general rule:

a single keyword will give you more results

several keywords or a phrase will give you fewer results – this is how you can make your search more specific.

solar power

Searching for ‘solar power’ on a search website

The Search button in Internet Explorer 7 has a dropdown menu – use it to choose your search engine

Search for types of media

You can also search for different types of information or media:

images audio video blogs news groups maps.

These options are usually available on the search engine website.

Some different types of searches in Google

Advanced search

Some search engine websites also have an advanced feature. You can use this to find web pages that:

are created in a certain file format, eg PDF

contain all the search terms you type in

contain at least one of the words you type in

contain the exact phrase you type in

have been updated within a certain period of time

are inside a certain domain or website, eg .tafensw.edu.au, or .gov.au, or .com.au

This advanced search screen gives you many different ways of making your search more specific

Download a search engine toolbar

If you want a few more controls than the ones in your web browser’s inbuilt search button, you can download a dedicated toolbar.

It’s basically a plugin that integrates a search engine like Google, Webcrawler or Yahoo into your web browser.

It gives you the ability to perform searches quickly, and without having to go to the search engine’s website.

http://del.icio.us/prep4elearning/search-toolbar - links to search engines that offer toolbars [web link not working?]

This search toolbar has a dropdown menu which lets you search for things like images or news

How to save results

Search engines are constantly changing the sites that they index, and so there’s no guarantee that a set of search results will be the same from day to day. If you want to keep a set of search results it’s a good idea to save them.

Use the Save As... command in your web browser – if you’re not sure where it is in your browser look up ‘saving’ in your browser’s Help section.

The Save As… command in Internet Explorer 7

How to print results

Here are some tips to get your printouts looking right.

To save paper and time, try using the Print Preview… command.

If it doesn’t look like what you want, check the Paper Size is set to A4.

You can also change page Orientation to Portrait or Landscape.

If only the left or right side of the page are printing, the web page may be using frames. In the Print menu, go to Options then choose As laid out on screen.

If you can’t find these commands, search for the underlined words in your browsers Help section.

The Print Preview… command in Internet Explorer 7

When printing a web page we sometimes get unexpected results – the text is cut off at the right margin, or only one part of the page prints.

Bookmarks and favourites

Here are two ways to bookmark a web page:

right click anywhere on the page and select Add to Favourites…

click the Bookmarks or Favourites icon and choose Add…

Here are some tips on how to keep your bookmarks organised:

delete old or unwanted items create folders for common items, eg Travel,

Hobbies, Work, Study change the names of bookmarks if they are not

clear (right-click on the bookmark and choose Rename)

sort your bookmarks alphabetically (right-click on the bookmark and choose Sort by Name).A right-click on a web page shows a

menu with Add to Favorites…

Bookmarks and favourites are the same thing. Adding websites to your bookmarks is a good way to save time on the Internet – it saves time retyping the web address, not to mention all the mistakes you make as you try to remember the exact spelling!

Social bookmarking and tagging

Bookmarks and favourites are a handy feature of web browsers, but they have a couple of limitations:

they are tied to one computer – what if you’re at college and need to access your bookmarks at home?

they are tied to one person – what if you want to pool bookmarks with other students?

Social bookmarking and tagging give you a way to access your bookmarks no matter where you are. You can also search for new websites based on what people with similar interests are looking at.

Social bookmarking happens when we save our bookmarks to a public website – you can view your bookmarks anywhere and other people can view your bookmarks too.

Tagging means adding keywords to our bookmarks so that we can easily search our own bookmarks, and other people’s bookmarks.

Searching for tags on a social bookmarking site gives you another way of searching on the Internet. It’s a different experience to using a search engine because the search results reveal websites that other people have found are worth bookmarking.

Social bookmarking sites

There are plenty of social bookmarking sites around. Try to agree on a common one that you will all use in your course.

http://del.icio.us/prep4elearning/socialbookmarking - links to social bookmaking and tagging sites [web link not working?]

Did you notice that we’re using a social bookmarking site for web links in this tutorial?

Summary and quiz

Summary

In this tutorial you have:

learned different ways to conduct a web search

learned how to save and print search results

learned about social bookmarking and tagging.

Quiz

How did you go with this tutorial?

try the quiz on the following screens – there are 7 questions.

There are only two search engines available for searching the web.

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – there are many!Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – there are many!Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) True

b) False

A single keyword will give you fewer results than several keywords.

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – using several keywords will narrow down

your results.Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – using several keywords will narrow down

your results.Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) True

b) False

Several keywords or a phrase will make your search more specific.

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect - Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect - Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) True

b) False

Which of these can you conduct a specific search for on the Internet?

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is (e)Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is (e)Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) pictures

b) sounds

c) blogs

d) maps

e) all of the above

f) none of the above

Complete the sentence below by filling in the blanks.

You can add a search

browser to make searching faster and easier.

to your web

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is toolbar

Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is toolbar

Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

Bookmarks and Favorites are the same thing, they are just given different names in different web browsers.

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – they are the same thing

Click anywhere to continue

Incorrect – they are the same thing

Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) True

b) False

Tagging means:

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

Correct - Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is (c) Click anywhere to continue

No the correct answer is (c) Click anywhere to continue

You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!

Your answer:Your answer:

The correct answer is:The correct answer is:You did not answer this

question completely

You did not answer this question completelyYou must answer the

question before continuing

You must answer the question before continuing Submit Clear

a) checking the price when searching online shopping sitesb) leaving a comment on a websitec) adding keywords to bookmarksd) adding a bookmark in your web browser

Quiz

Questions Correct

{correct-questions}

Total Questions {total-questions}

Number of Quiz Attempts

{total-attempts}

Question Feedback/Review Information Will Appear Here

Question Feedback/Review Information Will Appear Here

Review QuizContinue

Follow up

If you are satisfied with your quiz results, now close this window and try this activity:

listen to the interviews with teachers for tips on searching the Internet.