Useful Links

Useful Links

Growth and comfort zone-trim

Using Google search options

I am preparing some lessons on research for the new year 7 students. Knowledge about how make internet searches more efficient  is something that students from all year levels could refresh from time to time.

We always seem to begin with Google as it is the one everyone seems to know best. Most students  use Google almost exclusively but wikipedia and Youtube are also high up on their lists. We all can see how Google has changed since it was first developed. Some things are very obvious and others less so. It is very easy to get into a rut and not notice some changes. It is always interesting to see how much the year 7 students know. Many have a very basic level of knowledge but are very confident they know how to search. Many teachers seem to assume that students are proficient at searching the web but many

I usually ask them some basic questions that gradually show how well they can narrow down searches. It is interesting how many hands go down as I ask my various questions. After this initial introduction they always want to learn how to do the things I ask about.

I also ask the students put the icon for the  Google “advanced search” on their favourites tool bar as we go through the lesson. The fields shown there are useful for reminding the students about how they can narrow down their searches.

The options that Google has on its simple search page has not been noticed by very many students let alone used by them. The tab “search tools ” can be really useful for them and they don’t have to be on the advanced search page.

Basic searchIt  offers some very useful options to help refine searches.

You can choose:

  • “The Web”- drops down the option of Australian sites or the whole web,
  • “Any time” – once clicked,  allows you to search from information from an hour ago to a year ago or to customize your date range.
  • “All results”  – is the list that I think offers some of the best options to refine searches. The option which has especially interested some teachers who work in student support (for students who find classroom work more difficult than most) is the reading level option. I talk about using it depending on whether or not you are new to a subject or already have some understanding.

Search tools - all results

If you choose this option, it breaks down the level of difficulty on one of these will into 3 types: basic, intermediate and advanced. Clicking on any one of these will give you the sites that Google has designated fit that description.

search: reading levels

In an advanced search  these can be combined in many more a variety of ways rather than having to choose just one or another.

I can see the “search tools” option in Google being used quite a bit this year although I must not fail to mention InstaGrok, which is a visual search engine that offers the option to choose the level of difficulty as well as a number of other great features. I wrote a post about Instagrok last year  but since then can be used in Explorer

Useful links (Weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful sites (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful sites (weekly)

Imagecodr – Attributing your CC Flickr images

My colleague Tania Sheko sent me a useful link this week. It was for a tool called ImageCodr. At the moment it only works with Flickr images but it is a great start.

I have been in Year 7 classes over the past few weeks. I have been showing them some of the ways they can better use some of the different search engines available to them. We have also been discussing plagiarism and when and how to quote. They have also been working on creating bibliographies that list all their information sources accurately. This has led onto questions about using images. The students, as well as staff, find it difficult to find and correctly use and attribute images (and music/sound). Many have never heard of Creative Commons although most know about copyright. They are all very interested in the CC sites and most like the idea of doing things that make them better digital citizens. One of the problems that many students have after they have located their images on the internet is understanding how to attribute correctly the images that they use.
Finding an image that has the licence best suited to their needs, getting the correct code for the image size required, giving the correct attributions with links back to the flickr page and the author’s profile can be difficult enough for teachers let alone students. This is where the ImageCodr tool comes in very handy. When I used it in my wiki the image was embedded with a clear CC logo, with the exact licensing terms for this specific image, as well as the name of the photographer and a link to their Flickr page. The image itself is linked to the image page, and correct alt text is used. You can you can see this when you hover over the image.  The CC logo links to the Creative Commons.org website and the license explanation page are also there.

I showed the students how they can find flickr images.There is FlickrCC and FlickrStorm, Compfight and well as the Flickr searching option. (I have posted about how to use all of these previously). We also used Google to find images with CC licences. 

Note: You have the option of using the ImageCodr to search for images also. 

Once you have found an image in flickr you only need to copy the URL of the image and then insert this into the Get Code page at ImageCodr.

After pasting in the flickr code you hit the Submit Query button and in no time ImageCodr brings up a screen that gives you everything you need to embed the image. You have:

  • Information about the Creative Commons Licence attached to the image.
  • Options to select the image size you would like to embed and when you have done this.
  •  A HTML code, that includes all of the attribution details attached to the image, will then be generated.
  • Lastly you can see what the image and the attribution will look like. 

The code can be copied and inserted into the webspace.It did not work for this blog, wordpress.com does not like the code but it worked beautifully when I wanted to added images to the Shakespeare wiki I have been working on. I am sure that there will be an answer to this but I haven’t investigated it yet.

Even if you can’t paste the HTML code into something easily the information is very useful. The CC licences are very simply and clearly stated to  help you understand them. You can then use that information to decide how best you can use it, even if you have to add the image in a more arduous way.

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