learningactivities

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 * WWW Search Strategies ... Learning Activities **======


 * __Activity 1__**: I started at []. From there, I chose the Education Search Engines and clicked on Dr. Knowlton's Virtual Know-It-All ([]). I liked that the searcher could choose to look for "any word", "all words", "exact phrase", or "sound-alike matching". I chose to search for all words in the search "Children's book characters". No exact matches were found, but there were several sites listed that were selling children's books, and one site had a recommended list of children's books ... [|www.chinaberry.com], a bookstore promising that every book sold on that site has been carefully read and classified by reading level.

I then went back to the Education Search Engines and chose Education Index ([|www.educationindex.com]), a site that claims to rate and review every educational institution in America. I searched for the three elementary schools the Magnificent Seven attend, but none of them were found. I'm not that impressed with the Education Index.


 * __Activity 2__**: When I clicked on [|www.teoma.com], I was re-directed to [|http://answers.ask.com]. I chose to search on the web, instead of using the default Q & A. The first three sites were the same when I searched //**renewable resources**// (no quotation marks) as when I searched **//"renewable resources"//** (with quotation marks). Those three sites were the Renewable Resources Coalition, a wikipedia reference to non-renewable resources, and a school site that had "renewable_resources" in the URL. After those top sites, the search without quotation marks listed mostly departments or data centers that had renewable resources in their titles. The search with quotation marks listed activities actually dealing with renewable resources. For example, a reference to Beijing's new renewable resources recyling day was on the first page. The differences between searching with quotation marks and searching without punctuation were more subtle than I expected, but I do see some variations in the results.

a. I went to Google and searched Children's AND book AND characters. All of the results were about characters in children's books ... crafts featuring characters, costumes of characters, popular baby names from children's books & show characters (interesting hit), and a discussion of children's favorite book characters. b. Using the Boolify puzzle pieces, I chose **Children's AND book AND characters NOT baby names NOT costumes**. The search changed as I added puzzle pieces ... which was a nice visual to help me narrow my search. I still had 16.1 million results, so I added **AND picture** **NOT list**, which cut my search to 631,000 results. c. I think the Boolean strategy has been very helpful in narrowing my search.
 * __Activity 3__**:


 * __Activity 4__**: When I went to [|www.easywhois.com], I entered **okstate.edu** as the domain I was researching. The site listed **//March 3, 1986//**, as the date the domain was activated. However, when I went to [|http://archive.org], the first posting for **okstate.edu** was **//Dec. 26, 1996.//** I wonder how the domain name was registered ten years earlier ... definitely before the internet became public.


 * __Activity 5__**: I used Boolify to search **domain AND use AND .(the domain name)** to find the uses for the following:

.aero = used in the aviation business

.asia = for businesses in the Asia-Pacific region

.biz = "must be for 'bona fide business or commercial use'."

.com = "derived from //commercial//, indicating its original intended purpose for networks of general commercial character"

.coop = "the only domain name created specifically for the use of co-ops and co-op organizations"

.edu = "derived from //education//, indicating its intended use as a name space for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States ... in 2001, it was officially restricted to accredited post-secondary institutions and organizations"

.gov = "name is derived from government, indicating its restricted use by government entities in the United States"

.info = "derived from //information// indicating that the domain is intended for //informative// Internet resources, although registration requirements do not prescribe any theme orientation"

.jobs = "strictly for corporate employment ... an organization can only use this domain to link job seekers to internal career opportunities

.k12 = public K - 12th grade school districts can use this domain, followed by the state of residence and the .us domain ... example: Deer Creek Public Schools in Edmond, OK, uses the following domain name [|www.deercreek.k12.ok.us]

.mil = used by the US Department of Defense

.mobi = "derived from //mobile//, indicating its use by mobile devises for accessing Internet resources via the Mobile Web"

.museum = "used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession"

.name = "personal sites of individuals"

.net = "derived from //network//, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies"

.org = "originally intended for non-profit organizations or organizations of a non-commercial character"

.pro = "derived from //professional//, indicating its intended use by qualified professionals ... originally launched in June 2004 with registrations restricted to lawyers, accountants, physicians and engineers"

.sch = "a second level domain used by several countries, including Iran (.ir), Saudi Arabia (.sa), and the United Kingdom (.uk), as a subdomain to represent primary and secondary schools"

.tel = "The domain's intended purpose is as a single management and publishing name space for Internet communication services, providing a global contacts directory service by housing all types of contact information directly in the Domain Name System."

.travel = used by the travel industry


 * __Activity 6__**: I wanted to find lighthouses in Scotland. Unfortunately, the only country designation I could find was .uk for the United Kingdom. So, I went to [|http://www.altavista.com] . In the search box, I typed ".uk lighthouse". The first site listed was for Scotland's Bell Rock Lighthouse. Yay! (P.S. I couldn't get "host:" or any variation of "host" to work in the search box, so I left that out, and the searches seem to work fine.)


 * __Activity 7__**: I went to [|http://www.altavista.com] and searched ".org tractor", getting 1,180 results involving tractor giveaways, tractor pulls, tractor rides, etc.


 * __Activity 8__**: Wow, what an amazing wealth of knowledge on the Google search features site! I especially like the **synonym search** using the **~** symbol ... who knew? When I'm traveling, I will use the **local search** when I'm craving a certain type of food, the **weather search** to make sure I pack appropriately, and the **maps search** when I'm trying to book a hotel near a specific location. I also appreciated the **Query Refinements** information, as I didn't realize that Google ignores common words unless a **+** sign is placed in front of them.


 * __Activity 9__**: I told my sister-in-law about [|www.boolify.org]. She is in her first year as a fifth grade teacher and was excited to use this search engine with her students.


 * __Activity 10__**: I shared information with my sister Kim about the family-friend search engine [|www.surfsafely.com]. She has three daughters, ages 11, 7, and 5. Kim was thrilled to learn about a searching site that guarantees its pictures and content are safe for children.


 * __BONUS__**: I created a search engine using all of the sites I visit when planning a business trip. The Business Travel Search Engine is available at the following URL: [].