TM-Web

So how do YOU search the Internet and how will you teach your students to be effective searchers? DO NOT MISS these techniques to vastly improve your searching on the Internet and shorten the amount of time it takes you to find "the perfect information."

[|Better Searching.doc]

** Introduction **


 * Think of the Internet as a town, complete with shopping center, museum, movie theater, and school. This may seem elementary, but it's a good way to put the online experience into familiar terms.

Like cars, computers need time to get from place to place--don't click too quickly if your response to your request is not instantaneous.

The cursor is your car, taking you where you want to go. The mouse is the gas pedal. **


 * Browsers **


 * The browser allows you to drive around the Internet, but instead of driving a Ford, Toyota, or Jeep, you might be using Firefox, Explorer, Safari, or Netscape. **

//A browsers are the way your computer looks around the Internet//. Browsers "come and go" and are actually software that is created for the purpose of navigating around the four parts of the Internet. Netscape was very popular at one point in time, but few use it today. Internet Explorer (a product of Microsoft) continues to be a popular browwser, along with Safari (for the MAC) and Mozilla's Firefox. If you use only one of these browsers, you should download another and try it out. They offer different features and you may find one that meets your needs more than your current choice. If you download any of these, know that they will NOT download a virus, they will NOT spam your computer and they are COMPLETELY free.

**Search Engines**


 * If you don't have a specific destination (that is, a website you want to visit), but you know you want to shop or learn about something, a search engine acts as the Visitor's Center or Chamber of Commerce. Type in one or two words to get suggestions of where you might find just what you're looking for. Once there, the address bar (or URL: Universal Resources Locator) is the address of your destination. It is a UNIQUE address, just like the addresses in our town. **

A search engine is how your browser searches for information. There are so many search engines and the choice of which one to use depends on which interface and what attributes you prefer. But the MOST IMPORTANT thing to know about search engines is that NO one search engine searches more than 20% of the Internet. So, if you ONLY use Google (guilty, as charged), you are missing at least 80% of the Internet. So get out of your rut and see what else is out there. Change your search engine.

Some of my favorites include: [|AltaVista], [|AllTheWeb], and [|Clusty]. But these are only three!.

Check out this list for a more options! [|Search Engines.doc]


 * What's With the Dot (Domains)**

Every website belongs to a domain or group of like content websites.

For the most part, there are 4 MAJOR domains (although others do exist):
 * .com** at the end of a website address means that it is hosted by a commercial entity. Being a .com doesn't necessitate a bad thing. National Geographic is a .com and they are a rich source of valid information.


 * .edu** at the end of a website URL indicates the site is hosted by an institute of learning. This usually indicates a good source of information, but think about all those professors with a saracastic sense of humor (would you're students know the difference between humor and information?): @http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/dhmo.htm


 * .org** at the end of a website URL indicates the site is hosted by a non-profit organization. This usually is a good sign, but consider this non-profit organization: [|http://www.martinlutherking.org] or [|http://www.whitehouse.org]


 * .gov** at the end of a website address indicates the site is hosted by the government (sometimes you find a .mil which was common to use with government military sites, but often now I see these obsorbed into the .gov domain).



**A few other things to know:** **

A window is the view you see through your windshield. You can "change the view" by opening another window. Just use your mouse to click on a boxed or underlined word or phrase on the screen. Use the refresh or reload arrow in your toolbar to keep the information current.

A link is a detour to take you down an unexpected road.

The back and forth arrows put in forward or reverse.

When you are finished, the X box in the upper right-hand corner of the screen ends your journey--at least for today! **