Using Search Engines
Search engines are like indexes or catalogues to files on the Web. Search engines match key words that you provide with those in Web documents they have indexed. When you enter your information, the search engine provides you with a hyperlinked list of Web pages that most closely (or, occasionally, most obscurely) match what you are looking for. Some search engines also provide general categories to choose from (also called directories). These links lead you to more and more specific category lists. When you have drilled down to the appropriate category level for your topic, you view titles and descriptions of relevant Web sites and link to them.
Every search engine has its own system for searching, organizing and displaying information. Therefore, it will save you a lot of time and frustration if you read a search engine's help files before you begin. There are many search engines, but a few of the most popular are Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com,AltaVista at http://www.altavista.com , Infoseek at http://www.infoseek.com and Excite at http://www.excite.com. You can access search engines directly or by using the search button provided by your browser.
To get a sense about how a search engine could help you in the classroom, take a look at the following two examples. Imagine that your ESL class is reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Your learners are interested in learning more about the author and finding out about what else she has written. You go to a search engine and type in the words Sandra Cisneros author. In a few moments, the search engine displays a list of matches. You scroll down the list of titles and descriptions and see links to a short biography of the author, a bibliography of her work, an interview, and a multi-cultural teacher's guide. You preview the sites and decide which ones will be most valuable for your learners. You are then ready to prepare a lesson on Sandra Cisneros that will incorporate one or more of the Web sites that you found.
Imagine, again, that you are teaching about the workings of the U.S. government in the Social Science section of a GED class and you need a copy of The Preamble of the United States Constitution. You decide to see if you can find it online. You go to Yahoo and see a list of categories including: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economy, and Government. Click on Government and a new list of categories is displayed. Click on Documents. Another page loads with a list that includes the headings Constitutions, Libraries and Treaties, Pacts and Agreements. Click on Constitutions, scroll through the list of countries and click on United States. Now you see a list of Web sites with titles such as The Constitution of the United States of America, or United States Constitution Search, or Our Constitution etc. You try one site, but find you must purchase a copy of the Constitution. The next site you select has the text of U.S. Constitution, in its entirety, for free. You print it out and make copies for your students.
Since search engines are a necessary, but often confusing, Internet tool, it is a good idea to provide teachers and students with some guidance on using them. Here is a simple and flexible lesson you can try for teaching Internet searching basics. Once you understand how the lesson is structured, you can change the items teachers and learners search for to correspond with your curriculum or specific themes. For example, you can modify this lesson to focus on writers and artists, women's history or scientists and inventors. Please note that you should not include any items in the lesson that you have not first searched for and found on the Web yourself. Wild goose chases through cyberspace are very frustrating, especially for beginners.
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