Author: Repman, Judi.; Carlson, Randal D. Source:
Education Libraries v. 25 no2 (Winter 2002) p. 22-5 ISSN: 0148-1061 Number:
BLIB02006781 Copyright: The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of
this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this
article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
INTRODUCTION
The Information Age is part of the new reality of working with students in
colleges of education. Students turn to the Web as their first (and often their
only) information resource--they want their information full text, online, right
now. Those of us who view the results of this searching often have serious
doubts about this rush to accept the first item from the Yahoo! hit list as an
authoritative resource. As college of education faculty members, we teach
graduate and undergraduate education students introductory computer courses and
graduate courses for school library media specialists in training.
When asked, most of our students assert that they have no trouble finding
information on the Web. To try to gain attention, we then like to give our
students a little challenge by asking them to find specific information on a
simple topic (such as lesson plans on dinosaurs or resources on mainstreaming
students). What usually follows are loud complaints that these items just don't
exist on the Web.
Luckily, we believe that Web searching is a skill that can be taught and
learned. We also believe that it is a critical building block of Information
Literacy. We also realize, as Marylaine Block recently pointed out, that
"while students might in fact wish to improve their searching skills, they
very much doubt that we're going to be any help" (2001, p. 33). In response
to our perceptions of our students' Web searching skills, our knowledge of
Information Literacy, and some understanding of our students' attitudes, we
developed an instructional module that provides students with the kinds of
knowledge and hands-on experiences with web searching tools and strategies that
they can use immediately and apply in other settings.
INFORMATION LITERACY AND EDUCATORS
In Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000),
the Association of College and Research Libraries points out that Information
Literacy is a basic skill in our increasingly complex, technological world. With
so many information sources available, the ability to locate, identify and use
reliable sources is critical for an educated populace. Standard Two states that
the "information literate student accesses needed information effectively
and efficiently". Performance indicators for this standard include
identification of appropriate information systems (or resources), developing
effective search strategies, and retrieving the information.
Our module focuses on this particular area of Information Literacy for
several reasons:.
* Despite their assertions to the contrary, students are not effective web
searchers.
* Use of a common introduction puts everybody "on the same page".
* Improved web searching brings immediate positive results and helps
students with their daily information needs across all of their classes.
* These instructional activities can easily be modified to match students'
ability levels (since we occasionally have students with almost no prior web
experience).
* The activities, resources listed, and examples used can be adapted for
different subjects and different levels of knowledge about subjects (i.e.,
master's level special education majors, pre-service secondary social studies
students or doctroal level educational leadership students).
Despite their usefulness, web searching skills and strategies are rarely
directly taught and practiced in other classes in a systematic way. Developing
this module also gave us an opportunity to model a systematic approach to
teaching Information Literacy that pre- and in-service educators can apply in
their own classrooms. While Information Literacy is a critical skill for
everyone, we firmly believe in this "ripple in the pond" impact when
it comes to educators.
The remainder of this article describes a systematic web-searching module
developed over the past five years. It is presented in its most general form and
includes three components: web search basics, web search tools (directories,
search engines, metasearch tools, kids search tools, and specialized search
tools) and the use of pathfinders as an alternative to searching. The examples
mentioned are those that we have found particularly useful. Given the rapidly
changing nature of the web, we're always watching for something new and exciting
to add to the module--we hope that you will do the same.
WEB SEARCH BASICS
INTERNET AND WEB STRUCTURE
Understanding the structure of the Internet can be challenging. By defining
the Internet defined as a worldwide network of interconnected computer systems
and computer networks we demonstrate that searching for information may involve
searching Many formats of electronic transfer. Email, bulletin boards, gopher,
FTP (file transfer protocol) sites, discussion lists, or the World Wide Web are
included in this array. The World Wide Web (WWW) is defined as a worldwide
series of linked documents written using the protocol (computer language) called
HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol). Further discussion focuses on the Web
because it is the easiest place to find information and most of the time it
proves to be an adequate source of information.
Today the Web can be separated into two parts, the Web as we usually
consider it (sometimes called the "visible web") and the so-called
"invisible web." We point out to our students that the visible web is
composed of a large and rapidly growing set of linked web pages (some 3 billion
is the current estimate; Sullivan a, 2001) that are "indelible" --
that is, able to be cataloged by our current technologies and techniques. The
invisible web, however, is much larger (estimated to be 500 times the size of
the visible web) and is growing at a faster rate (Bergman, 2000). Invisible web
information is readily available to those who have the skills and the
inclination to find it. Why then, you may ask, do we concentrate on searching
the visible web with our pre-service teachers? The answer goes back to our
previous statement -- it is the easiest place to find information and most of
the time it proves to be an adequate source of information.
BASIC SEARCHING STRATEGIES
This area of our module has undergone some significant modifications over
the past year. Previously, we introduced all of our students to Boolean logic
and walked through several examples of constructing search strategies using
Boolean operators. We still provide this information for our school library
media students but we've come to the conclusion that for most general purpose
search tools (described in the next sections) a simpler approach is often just
as effective and is less confusing. Search Engine Math (2001) presents a
simplified approach to Boolean logic, utilizing "+" and "-"
to construct search statements.
One concept related to search engine math is another building block of
Information Literacy: being able to specify the information needed in precise
terms. We ask students to tell us what kinds of information needs they have
using assignments from other classes. This is a very popular exercise since we
use different search tools to demonstrate how the "+" and the
"-" makes finding the information needed for actual assignments much
more precise. The other special search strategy we demonstrate is the use of
phrase searching, which most search tools recognize when quotation marks enclose
the search phrase. These simple, yet powerful, strategies are easy for most
students to remember. Students can see how much more effective their searches
can be by the results they see.
WEB SEARCH TOOLS
Once students understand the structure of the WWW and general search basics,
we highlight examples of the following general categories of search tools (all
commonly misnamed "search engines"):.
* Directories.
* Search Engines.
* Metasearch Tools.
* Kid's Search Tools.
* Specialized Search Tools.
Use of any of these tools involves understanding one truth not evident to
most of our students -- that when they "search the Web" they are never
searching the real-time web, but they are searching a database that has been
constructed at a previous time to represent the web. The size of that database,
the way that database was constructed, the way that the database is searched,
and the way the search tool presents the results erns the choice of search tool.
Even the largest database represents only a small portion of the Web. The most
recent scientific study found that the largest database indexed only 16% of the
total WWW and that the 10 largest databases only index about 42% of the Web
(Lawrence & Giles, 1999). Still, there are many useful search tools
available for educators and our next step is to demonstrate these tools by
category.
DIRECTORIES
Directories are lists of information arranged in hierarchical categories. A
person (who may or may not be a librarian) establishes the categories and their
relationships. Directories are the most library-like in appearance and function.
To use a directory, one must enter the category structure and then follow the
hierarchy down to the final piece of information. Because editors review and
categorize web pages for inclusion in the directory, directories can be small
but focused. However, if your subject of interest is included, the results often
provide a list of good, relevant sites.
Yahoo!, the most familiar directory, is composed of 14 top-level categories
providing access to some 1.5 million unique links (Sullivan b, 2001). Another
very useful directory, the Librarians' Index to the Internet, contains more than
7,900 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their
usefulness. Using the Librarians' Index to the Internet, it is easy to
demonstrate the value of the annotations in selecting educational web sites. It
is also useful to compare the clearly defined categories in the Librarian's
Index with the overlapping and confusing category structure of Yahoo!.
SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines construct their databases automatically using software
programs called "spiders" or "bots" that "crawl"
from one web page to another using the hyperlinks as a path. The size of the
database clearly is an important factor. Another important factor is the
algorithm that is used by the search engine to identify and rank returns for
relevance. Each search engine is different and these characteristics frequently
are not obvious, so finding a good search engine that works for you is
important.
We suggest that our students try Google. It has the largest database (1.4
billion pages claimed as of July, 2001) and uses a relevancy algorithm called
PageRank that analyzes links in terms of how many there are and who they are
linked to. Yahoo! uses the Google database when searching for pages and not
categories. FAST Search is our second choice for a search engine. It has the
second largest database size and claims that it will grow with the Web -- and it
is fast! When time permits, or if our audience is more experienced, we show how
these search engines can be personalized and what features are available for
power searching. For students in advanced courses we also like to demonstrate
the search features of Northern Light.
METASEARCH TOOLS
Metasearch tools permit the simultaneous use of multiple search engines.
They return a single, integrated and ranked set of results that is usually
limited to 50-75 highly relevant items. We encourage our students to try Ixquick.
Ixquick has a very clean interface and uses a very useful and intuitive
relevance ranking. The site with most stars is ranked the highest. Each time a
site is ranked in the top ten returns when the query is submitted to the ten
individual search engines it receives a star. Ixquick also translates advanced
search techniques to each search engine's syntax. Metacrawler's advantages
include a customizable feature and access to the large Google database.
KID'S SEARCH TOOLS
Kid's search tools are a category of search tools new to most of our
students. Obviously, when searching for educational resources, it is important
for teachers to be able to locate resources for student use as well as resources
for their own use. Kid's search tools are an excellent way to show pre-service
educators how to evaluate the reading level of a web page and to look at other
factors like the depth of information included and the amount of advertising on
a page.
ALFY is very popular with early childhood education students. ALFY has been
developed for non-readers, so the categories are "read" when the mouse
passes over the icons on the page. Even though the ALFY database is very small,
it is an excellent tool to demonstrate how web resources can be identified for
young users. KidsClick! is excellent for identifying resources for elementary
aged students, while Searchopolis has sets of links for elementary, middle, and
high school students. Whenever we give assignments we always try to
differentiate between web resources that are appropriate for use by K-12
students and those that teachers would use for information.
SPECIALIZED SEARCH TOOLS
Specialized search tools can be defined as search tools that search for
specific kinds of information, perhaps in a single subject or for information in
specific formats. One need that our students have is to find graphics to use in
preparing different assignments. We like to demonstrate Ditto, Google's Image
Search, and AltaVista's Image Search as examples of specialized search tools.
When a search term is entered, results are presented in terms of thumbnail
graphics. This makes identifying an appropriate graphic much easier than the
alternative of reading through and guessing from the text based results lists
produced by general search tools. Other examples of specialized search tools
include EduHound and EdView, which are limited to "educational"
content, and FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) which allows
searches for resources across governmental agencies.
PATHFINDERS
Pathfinders are the final category of search tools presented in the module.
Usually, at this point students are suffering from information overload so they
are usually relieved to hear that there is an alternative to searching.
Pathfinders are resources developed and maintained by people with interest and
expertise in a subject area. We believe that a "good" pathfinder is a
well-organized list of links that is regularly maintained and is limited to a
defined target audience. Probably the most familiar educational pathfinder is
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. Other examples of pathfinders include
S.C.O.R.E., which provides links related to children's and young adult
literature and Gander Academy's Theme Related Resources on the World Wide Web.
Most state departments of education and major professional associations for
educators now maintain similar links libraries that can be helpful pathfinders.
We stress that pathfinders can be excellent starting points when information is
needed. Our students usually love the idea that somebody else has done the work
for them and they are amazed the there are people willing to do this amount of
work just because they want to. Of course many faculty and education librarians
have developed their own pathfinder pages so this is an excellent opportunity to
point students to these "local" resources.
CONCLUSION
We provide our students with this Information Literacy framework and
foundation through in-class lecture and demonstration. Even more important is
how we follow through by providing distributed, targeted, hands-on practice.
These two exercises have worked well for us and can be adapted to almost any
kind of higher education setting. Students work in groups to look for different
kinds of information using each of the search tools. We encourage students to
use assignments from any of their classes for this activity. Students have to
describe the strategies used and evaluate their results in terms of the
usefulness of the information retrieved. Students choose a content area theme
early in the term as a focus for all in-class activities. This theme is used as
a search term. This provides ample opportunity to discuss the importance of
refining search terms to improve the usefulness of the returns as they complete
a variety of assignments. This is also useful in demonstrating the limitations
of the web. By limiting their searching to a particular content area, we usually
find that students begin to return to print resources for breadth and depth of
coverage.
When referring to the art and science of Web searching, Paul Gilster (1997)
notes that "ungoverned and perhaps ungovernable, the Internet's vast
holdings catalyze your thinking only if you master the primary skills of the
digitally literate searcher." (p. 3) Unfortunately, few students seem to
realize their own limitations in terms of web searching skills and they may
doubt that we can teach them anything about it. The instructional module
presented here is simple, direct, and adaptable. Staff and faculty working in
education libraries could partner with college of education faculty to build
this component into classroom instruction and team teach the concepts. The time
spent is well worth the results.
Added material.
Judy Repman & Randall Carleson are affiliated with The College of
Education, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA.
E-mail:jrepman@gasou.edu.
E-mail:rcarlson@gasou.edu.
REFERENCES
Bergman, M. (2000). The deep web: Surfacing hidden value. Brightplanet.com
LLC. Retrieved on July 30, 2001 from http://www.brightplanet.com/deep_content/index.asp.
Block, M. (2001). Teaching kids indirectly. Library Journal netconnect,
(summer) 33-34.
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Retreived
July 30, 2001 from http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html.
Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York: Wiley Computer Publishing.
Lawrence, S. & Giles, L. (1999). Accessibility of information on the
web. Nature, 400, 107-109.
Search Engine Math. (2001). Retreived July 30, 2001 from http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html.
Sullivan, D. (a).(2001). Search engine sizes. The Search Engine Report,
April 6, 2001. Retrieved July 7, 2001 from http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/sizes.html.
Sullivan, D. (b).(2001). Search engine sizes, The Search Engine Report,
Retrieved April 6, 2001 from http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/directories.html.