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AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3
Online Research Strategies
Student Resources
Resource
Description
Student Resource 3.1
Reading: Internet Basics
Student Resource 3.2
Worksheet: Internet Basics
Student Resource 3.3
Reading: Search Engines
Student Resource 3.4
Worksheet: Search Engine Strategies
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Student Resource 3.1
Reading: Internet Basics
The Internet is a huge network that links together millions of computers around the world. The Internet as
we know it has been accessible to the general public only since 1993. Before then, Internet use was
primarily limited to university researchers, the U.S. government, and the military.
Some people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) interchangeably, but the web, as it is
often called, is not the Internet. The Internet is the network that transports multiple forms of information,
including web pages, email messages, instant messages, audio (including phone calls), and data files.
The World Wide Web is just one of the services deployed on the Internet.
The World Wide Web gets its name from the complex web of connections it creates between computers
worldwide. The web uses the HTTP protocol, one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to send web
pages from the server where they are stored to the web browser requesting them. Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, and Apple’s Safari are four popular browsers. Although
browsers each look a little different, they work in similar ways.
A website is a collection of web pages that are all linked together. Web pages are displayed using a
special language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML tells web browsers what text or
graphics should look like when they display. An important feature of HTML is hyperlinks, which are used
to connect one document to another, or one location in a document to another location in the same
document. Clicking a hyperlink (or link for short) enables you to jump to a different location on a web
page, to move to another page on the same site, or to go to an entirely different website. Moving, or
navigating, from one web page to another is referred to as browsing or surfing.
Troubleshooting
When you navigate the World Wide Web, you are likely to encounter some of the following problems.
Note the solutions, and try them when you need them.

Web page displays incorrectly: Click the Refresh or Reload button to reload the page. If this
doesn’t help, the problem could be with the web page itself.

Page not found: Check to see whether you typed the address correctly. Also, try searching for a
similarly named site in case the original address was changed or discontinued.

A long delay when you try to access a web page: Be patient; complex pages or pages with lots
of graphics may take longer to access. Also, try doing your research at off-peak times when there
is less Internet “traffic” (in other words, when fewer people are online).

Advertisements continually pop up in your browser: Some browsers have features for
blocking unwanted advertising. You can also add on computer programs specifically created to
handle this annoyance. Most of these programs are free. Pop-ups can also be a sign of a malware
infection on the computer.
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Student Resource 3.2
Worksheet: Internet Basics
Student Name:_____________________________________________ Date:_________________
Directions: Read the information in the left column and follow the directions. Use the right column to
record your notes and answers.
Information and Directions
Steps, Notes, and Answers
1. With the help of your teacher, access the
World Wide Web.
List the steps that you used.
2. Look at the title bar at the very top of the
browser window (if your browser has a title
bar).
Write your browser’s name.
3. Near the title bar is a menu bar. Click
each menu to see a drop-down list of related
choices.
Based on the options you see, summarize
the general purpose of each menu. (As
examples, two menus have already been
summarized for you.)
Note that the menu options you see depend
on which browser and browser version you
are using. If you don’t see the menu choices
listed here at right, replace them with the
menu choices you do see.
File menu:
Edit menu:
View menu:
Tools menu: Offers the user specialized options, including
many ways to customize the browser.
Help menu: Provides the user with information about
browser tools and functions.
4. Near the menu bar is the browser’s
navigation toolbar with several buttons.
One at a time, position your mouse pointer
over each button’s icon. As you do this, a
short description of the tool will display at the
bottom of the window or in a small box that
pops up (if you don’t have pop-ups
disabled).
List the name and function of the first five
buttons (from left to right).
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Information and Directions
Steps, Notes, and Answers
5. Every computer on the Internet has a
unique address. Likewise, every document
on the Internet has its own electronic
address called a uniform resource locator
(URL). These most often begin with http://.
Just below the toolbar is the address field,
also called the address bar. Write the
address of the page that is currently
displayed.
6. If you know the web address of a site you
want to visit, you can type that address in
the address field. If you do not know any
web addresses, type the following address,
and then press the Enter key:
http://www.internettutorials.net
List the name of the site you visited in the
box to the right. Then write a one- or twosentence summary of what the site does.
7. Most sites have a primary page, called a
home page, that displays when you first
enter a URL. The home page you just
accessed probably contains lots of links to
other web pages.
Roll your mouse pointer around the screen
and note what happens. Then list some
characteristics that usually indicate links.
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Student Resource 3.3
Reading: Search Engines
You can find information on the web in lots of ways. One of the easiest ways is to use a search engine.
A search engine is a service that allows a user to enter keywords or phrases related to a topic to retrieve
a list of websites with those keywords. Google (http://www.google.com/) is the largest search engine on
the web today. As of January 2011, Google had 65% of the query volume, followed by Yahoo! with 16%
and Microsoft with 11%. In addition to looking for websites, search engines such as Google also offer
other services. Google, for example, has a mapping tool, an image gallery, a video gallery, a news area,
and a free email service. Bing is the web search engine that Microsoft released in 2009. When you enter
a query on Bing, it lists search suggestions, and displays a list of related searches in the “Explorer pane”
on the left side of the window. Many of the features of Google and Bing are very similar. It is worth trying
both of them out to see which one you prefer.
Some search engines do nothing but search other search engines. These are called metasearch engines.
They allow you to search more than one search engine at once. Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/) is an
example of a metasearch engine.
Search engines are especially useful when your research topic is narrow or obscure, you want to do
multiconcept searches, or you don’t know the URL of something you want to find. Keep in mind that
search engines do not discriminate between responsible sources and outdated or inaccurate sources.
Always evaluate your search results carefully.
Getting the Results You Want
If you use too broad a keyword when using a search engine, you may get millions of results. You can
improve your search results in several ways.
Use More Words
The best way to narrow down a broad search is to add words to your search term that are more specific
to what you are trying to find. For example, searching for music will give many results about music
recording, musical styles, reviews, and news, but searching for sheet music will give specific results more
useful to musicians. The search engine looks at the text in the documents it indexes. Search for words
that are likely to appear in the same document.
Use Boolean Logic
You can improve search results by employing the principles of Boolean logic, which uses the words AND,
OR, and NOT in capital letters. Also, you can use the plus sign (+) in place of AND, and you can use the
minus sign (–) in place of NOT. These words/symbols are referred to as Boolean operators.

The OR operator widens a search to include sites containing either keyword.

The NOT operator or minus sign (−) narrows a search by excluding unwanted keywords. This
operator is particularly helpful when a keyword has more than one meaning. For example, the
word bug can refer to an insect or a computer program error.
For example, you can type recipe apples AND cinnamon to display recipes that contain both apples and
cinnamon.
Not all search engines recognize operators in the same way. For example, Google recognizes the minus
sign but does not recognize the word NOT. If in doubt, search engines often have “Advanced Search”
links that provide more information.
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Use Punctuation Marks
You can use several punctuation marks to refine your searches:

Quotation marks around a phrase (for example, “global warming”) cause the search engine to look
for the exact phrase instead of the individual words.

Parentheses allow you to use multiple operators. For example, typing cat (illness OR symptom)
tells the search engine to look for pages with the word cat and then to search those pages for the
word illness or the word symptom.

The tilde sign (~) sometimes allows you to search for the keyword plus its synonyms. For
example, to find loan information for the word auto and synonyms such as truck and car, you
would type the following: ~auto loan.

Two numbers separated by two periods (with no spaces) lets you search for numbers in a given
range, such as dates, weights, costs, and so on. Depending on the search, you should indicate a
unit of measurement, such as a dollar sign or a weight abbreviation. For example, if you want to
find a camera that costs between $100 and $200, you would type: camera $100..$200.
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Student Resource 3.4
Worksheet: Search Engine Strategies
Student Name:_____________________________________________ Date:_________________
Directions: Read the information in the left column, and follow the directions. Use the right column to
record your notes and answers.
Information and Directions
1. For websites that you plan to use often, you can set up a Favorites list
in your browser. This saves time because you won’t have to type the URL
each time you return to the site.
Follow these steps to add a search engine to your Favorites list:
a. In your browser’s address field, type the address for Google,
http://www.google.com/.
b. When the Google home page displays, click Favorites in the menu bar.
Then select Add to Favorites.
c. Click the New Folder button, type in the words Search Engines, and
then click Create.
2. We’ll be using Google for these exercises; if you use a different search
engine, you will find that it operates much like Google.
Look at the information in your reading (Student Resource 3.3, Reading:
Search Engines) about Boolean operators, and then follow these steps to
compare the results of different searches:
a. Click Favorites in the menu bar, and then click the Search Engines
folder.
b. Click the link for Google.
c. In the field above the Google Search and I’m Feeling Lucky buttons,
type the word hotel. Then, press Enter. How many results do you get?
d. If you know the city and what hotel features you want, you can narrow
the search results by using the AND operator—for example, hotel AND
New York City AND swimming pool.
e. Record how many results you get when you type the following:
hotel OR motel
f. Type the following, and note what happens (be sure to include a space
before the minus sign):
bug −insect
3. An alternative to Boolean searching is using a search engine’s
advanced search feature. Google’s advanced search lets you choose
keywords, exact words or phrases, and the language of the search
results; it even lets you eliminate pages with unwanted words.
Let’s say you wanted to read blog entries about egg rolls, but not about
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
Notes and Answers
AOIT Principles of Information Technology
Lesson 3 Online Research Strategies
Information and Directions
spring rolls. Follow these steps to conduct an advanced search:
a. Go to Google.com and click the “Advanced search” link next to the
regular search box.
b. Under the section that says “Find web pages that have all these
words…,” type this: blog egg rolls
c. Under “But don’t show pages that have…,” type this: spring roll
d. Click the Advanced Search button.
How many results did you get? List the top three web pages on your
search results page.
4. Another helpful feature of advanced search lets you look for documents
featuring your keywords in their titles. Though a standard search might
return documents with your keywords in the title, this is not guaranteed;
you might see results that use your keyword only once in an entire page.
Follow these steps to practice searching by keyword in the title only:
a. Go to Google.com and click the “Advanced search” link next to the
regular search box.
b. Enter a keyword of your choosing in the box at the top labeled “Find
web pages that have all these words.”
c. Click the plus sign (+) by “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and
more.”
d. Next to “Where your keywords show up,” select “in the title of the
page.”
What keyword(s) did you enter? List the top three results your search
returned.
5. Read the section in Student Resource 3.3 about using punctuation
marks to refine searches, and then experiment with the following
punctuation marks, noting your results.
Note: These punctuation marks work for Google and may work for other
search engines. However, there is no guarantee that they will work using
another search engine, and there is no guarantee they will work for the
search boxes that appear on different websites. If you are using a search
engine other than Google, note any punctuation mark criteria that don’t
work.
• Put quotation marks around a phrase (for example, type “global
warming”).
• Use multiple operators, and put parentheses around a Boolean phrase.
For example, to search for pages with the word illness or symptom, type
this: cat (illness OR symptom)
• Use the tilde sign (~) to search for a keyword plus its synonyms.
• Use numbers separated by two periods to search for a range of
numbers. For example, type this: camera $100..$200
Copyright © 2007–2011 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
Notes and Answers