Finding the Trees in the Digital Forest A hands-on workshop presented for  EARCOS, November, 2000 by Janet Murray janetm@surfline.ne.jp

Newcomers often describe their first encounter with the Internet as overwhelming; the digital forest is so vast that at first there may seem to be no trails. Here are some signposts to help you blaze your own learning pathway:

Introduction

Beginners' Guide to the Internet for Educators
Finding Information on the Internet: A TUTORIAL from UC Berkeley.

Locating Information on the Internet

Subject Directories organize evaluated web sites by topic.  These sites are good for schoolwork:
BUBL Link is organized by traditional academic subject, alphabetical index, or Dewey decimal system.
Librarians' Index to the Internet maintained at UC Berkeley.
KidsClick! web search for kids by librarians.

Try this: Select a topic for which you could use some supplementary material in your curriculum.  Search in each of the subject directories; which one gave you the best results?

Keyword Searching: Different search engines use different techniques.
Google: uses text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search.
Ask Jeeves allows students to ask questions using natural language.
Infoseek links to the go.com subject tree with reviewed sites.
Northern Light organizes the results of a search into customized folders.

Try this: Select a compound concept (at least two words) related to the topic above. Search in each of the search engines.  Which one gave you the most relevant results?

Multithreaded Search Engines
The Big Hub offers classified specialty search engines by category as well as "megasearching."
CNET Search: allows searching several sources simultaneously.
Metacrawler is highly configurable, and verifies and collates the results.

Try this:  Search for the same topic you used above in each of the multithreaded search engines. Did your search results improve? If not, consider their limitations.

Advanced Searching:
Alta Vista: offers a list of related phrases. Select advanced search to enter Boolean queries.
Subjex engages you in a dialogue to refine and focus your inquiry.
Consult the Nueva School's Library Help: Choose the best search for your information needs.
Consult the Search Tips at UC Berkeley Library for guides to boolean searching on individual search engines.
OWL, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue, also offers tips for Searching the World Wide Web.

Try this:  Try a new search in Ask Jeeves and Subjex.  Does phrasing your inquiry as a complete sentence significantly change the way you search?

Curriculum Resources

AskERIC Virtual Library: professional resources for educators.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: focuses on web sites useful in K-12 schools.
Blue Web'n: a library of web-based activities