Searching Smarter with Google tricks

After spending the last two weeks talking about Google, I figure I’d dedicate another week or two and discuss some other features of Google.  As everyone knows, Google is a search engine that allows you to find information on the Internet.  Most people simply go to Google, type in a few terms, hit the Search button and start examining the millions of sites that Google provides.  Google is a really complex tool and with some simple searching tricks, it will give you more refined results and you won’t have to wade through a million different sites to find the one you want.  This week I’m going to feature five simple Google tips that can help you find information online easier.  Modeled with students, these tricks can help them be better consumers of the Internet.

1.  Phrase search.  This one is simple and really useful.  Use quotation marks in your search to find words linked together.  For instance, let’s say I was searching for sites on the phenomenologist Max van Manen. By using quotation marks around the name, I’d find sites specific to Max van Manen on not sites that happen to have the words Max, van, and Manen on it.  Without quotation marks, a site that had a sentence like “Max drove his van to the Hotel Manen” might come up in my search.

2.  Searching a specific site. I spend a lot of time on the Internet and I don’t always bookmark sites like I should.  But I tend to remember where I read things, which can be a real advantage coupled with this search trick.  Say, I remember reading a great article about high stakes testing on the New York Times website.  I can use site: to search the New York Times website only.  If I only want to search government websites, I can type in site: .gov and it will limit my search to sites from the US government.

3. Exclude terms. Sometimes, I want to search for sites that don’t include certain information.  For instance, say I wanted to search for sites about identity development but didn’t include Erik Erikson’s stage theory.  By including a negative sign before “Erik Erikson,” Google will exclude all of the identity development sites that contain Erik Erikson on them.

4. Specific document type. Say, I don’t want to find just a website on some information but a Powerpoint presentation related to it as well.  Using filetype: allows me to search for specific types of files (doc, ppt, pdf, etc).

5.  Synonym searching. Let’s say I want to search for something, but I want to broaden my search to include similar terms.  For instance, say I want to look for sites for web-based journals but wanted to expand the search to include blogs or other synonyms.  By including a ~, Google will broaden the search.

Collaboration through Google Docs

This week, I thought I’d focus on Google Docs.  I know that Google Docs has been around for a few years, but it has come up in several conversations lately.   I figured this was nature’s way of telling me what to blog about this week.  For those of you who already use Google Docs, feel free to comment on the blog space about how easy it is to use and how you’re using it with your students.

Google Documents is an online package of applications that resemble the Microsoft Office suite. Google Docs offers a word processing application, a presentation tool, a spreadsheet application and a forms application. Besides being online (and FREE!), these tools allow you to easily share documents and collaborate with colleagues.  Imagine you have students working on a project together.  With Google Docs, the students can edit the same document at the same time, each seeing the contributions of their peers.  The great part is that if the document is shared with me as their instructor, I can see who has contributed what parts of the document and fairly grade students based on their work.  Another great component of Google Docs is the ability to publish documents online.  It has to be the easiest way to publish a webpage imaginable.  If you create a word document, you can create and publish a webpage in Google Docs.  It’s that easy.

Besides being a great collaborative writing tool, Google Docs would be a great way to assess students at the beginning of a course or for students to peer edit one another’s writing.  With its ease of use, I really believe it’s a great alternative to Microsoft Office.  To get started, just set up a Google Account and jump in.  I would suggest linking it to your Gmail account because other email servers can block Google Docs sharing notifications.

For a brief tutorial on Google Docs word processing feature, check out the video below:

Digital Storytelling with Search Stories

Out of all of the Super Bowl commercials this year, I was particularly impressed by the Google commercial where a story is told through different Internet searches.  The commercial starts with someone using Google to search for “studying abroad in Paris” and ends with “how to assemble a crib” and tells a love story in between.  As viewers, we never see a person’s face or hear a person’s voice.  Yet, we live vicariously through the Internet searching of some unknown person.  It’s a brilliant piece of marketing and a creative way to use storytelling.

Recently, Google and YouTube have developed an application called Search Stories that allows users to create their own stories around the Internet searches they perform.  It’s free and tremendously easy to use.   Simply pick some terms to search for, pick the type of results you want (webpages, maps, etc) and then select some music and you have a Search Story.  The site gives some useful tips on how to create a Search Story which include using different kinds of searche features and types and to have a surprise ending.  You can check my Search Story on the blog as well as a short tutorial on how to create your own Search Story.

Educationally, digital storytelling activities like Search Stories can be incorporated in many ways in our classes.  They would be great introductory activities to get to know students or would be a novel way of assessing students understanding of a reading assignment.  Since the Search Stories live online at YouTube, they can easily be embedded in an online class and shared in a discussion board.  It would be a fun way to engage students and to get students sharing stories online.

My Search Story:  Ups and Downs

Google tutorial on Search Stories:

Communicating with Skype

This week, we’re going to talk about Skype, a global communication tool that currently accounts for 8 % of international calling minutes worldwide.  Most people have heard of Skype, but I find that many people haven’t actually used it.  Skype technically started as a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) which originally only allowed voice to be transmitted from one computer to another.   Over the last few years, however, it has evolved into a one-stop online communication tool.  Besides allowing voice communication, Skype now supports video chat, text chat and also screen sharing.  You can even use Skype to call people’s home or cell phones. The application is really easy to use.  And, best of all, it’s FREE.  Or mostly free.  If you call Skype to Skype, it won’t cost you anything.  If you use Skype to call a traditional phone number, however, Skype will charge you.

Skype has tons of applications in our classrooms.  Besides offering chat functionality to communicate with students or colleagues, Skype can be used to bring in guest speakers from a distance.  Imagine bringing in a national speaker who lives in California, but is communicating to your class on campus through Skype. Instructors can also use Skype to have students practice communicating in a foreign language or roleplaying a counseling session.  I’ve also seen teachers use Skype to pair up their students with classrooms from other cultures.  I’m sure you’ve seen the commercial where Ellen Page walks into a room and the students talk about going on a virtual field trip to Japan.  The students are using a Skype-like device to collaborate with students on the other side of the world.  Again, this isn’t some future classroom.  This is today.

Need some help getting started?  Check out this: www.skype.com/help/guides/