March 27, 2014

How Do You Search for Information on a Topic?

Search! / Jeffrey Beall / CC BY-ND 2.0

Searching for information on the web seems so easy nowadays. The abundance of sites available provides all we need or want to know. Or so it seems.

But are we finding the best sites? And are we being efficient with our time?

I used to use a search engine to search for key terms in the topic that I was researching. Period. That worked well then, but today I would use miss much good information if I limited myself to that technique.

Today when I research a topic I use these resources… in this order:
  1. my bookmarking site for my bookmarks and those of others
  2. curated information published by others interested in the same topic
  3. blogs by folks I follow who often write about my topic
  4. Twitter comments
  5. the web as accessed by search engine(s)

Why?

As ideas flow through my daily work process I bookmark those that I think will prove helpful for upcoming courses or workshops or that relate to areas of personal interest. Those bookmarks often get me off to a running start. While at my bookmarking site I also check the bookmarks of the folks I follow on that site. I follow only a few folks there… individuals that I’ve seen post frequently in areas in which I’m interested. And I check the bookmarks of the whole community at that site. If someone else thinks a website has relevant information about the topic I’m researching then it’s worth investigating. Why should I re-invent the wheel?

In the past year my knowledge about and respect for curated information has grown. I have found curation tools that help me curate and that point me toward curated materials published by others on topics that interest me. Using these tools I review information that others have found… and I also do a search with curation tools for current information to add.

I follow some excellent bloggers. They amaze me with their knowledge and their creativity. And they are a rich source of information. I would be foolish not to use what they have shared.

Twitter is a rich source of information on many topics. A variety of tools and techniques helps me search Twitter for leads to useful sources for my topic.

These methods help me to be efficient in my use of time as I prepare to teach or write about a topic. Standing on the shoulders of giants… or just everyday folks with the same passions for learning and sharing that I have… helps me learn more quickly and provides a perspective that working alone I might miss. So, at this point I am ready to use a search engine on the web to complement the work I’ve already done.


A Little More Detail About…

Bookmarks

I use some bookmarks everyday… and others to support my research in various areas for teaching, writing, and speaking. I want the everyday bookmarks in sight and the research bookmarks easily accessible.

My solution? I use a launch page for the everyday stuff. I set each of the browsers I use at home and at work to use that page as its home page. And the computers I use that are located in labs or at a friend’s home? In those locations I can easily access my launch page, Skloog.com, on the web.

For research bookmarks I use Delicious. I can tag and—if I choose—annotate my bookmarks. I can search bookmarks others have posted. And I can follow other folks who post interesting and useful bookmarks. Most of my 6,000+ links are public, but a few are private. I follow a small number of users and a few follow me.

I think these are some of the best sites for organizing launch page bookmarks…
If you are not yet using a bookmarking site, you might want to investigate some of the many available ones. The following list includes the sites I’ve seen recommended the most and that I have investigated. Of these I have used Delicious, Diigo, Evernote, LiveBinders, Pinterest, Pocket, StumbleUpon, and Symbaloo either for bookmarking or other purposes.

Curation
Junction C / Kivi Leroux Miller / CC BY-NC 2.0

During the past year I have begun using more curation tools. Initially I used them as a place to store information I found and wanted to keep so I could use it later. Actually my bookmarks on Delicious allowed me to do that. But my bookmarks are just the first step in curating, namely gathering. By using a curation tool to select, annotate, order, and create a coordinated unit I made my collection more useful… to myself and to others. At that point I decided that these curation tools could be used effectively as sites that I share with my students when teaching. Rather than post my content within a course or workshop site I could make its storage more generic by storing it with a curation tool. That also eliminates some of the restrictions (e.g., frames) of content management systems. I have experimented with several curation tools and found that some were more useful for me than others. During this experimentation phase I became more confident in the ability of these tools to also find valuable information to curate. Using some of these curation tools is like having a personal assistant!

Some of my favorite curation tools are:

Blogs and Bloggers 

Blog Icon / photologue_np / CC BY 2.0
I follow some outstanding blogs and bloggers. Some I have followed for years; others are recent additions. I’m hesitant to list the “very best” because I’m bound to accidentally miss listing someone that I should have included. So, let’s just say that the following list—in alphabetical order--includes some of the blogs that I follow and access when I’m researching. Since these folks frequently write on topics of interest to me, it’s worth creating a Google custom search. (I also include an old blog of mine on this list in addition to my current blog so that my searches include what I have written about topics I am researching.)

Google Custom Search information is available at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/11/google-custom-search/ and https://www.google.com/cse/create/new

I created a Google Custom Search Engine for these blogs and posted it on a private blog. (That private blog is also my playground when I’m trying new ideas.) I think it would be rude for me to create a search engine for another educator’s blog and post it for the world to see.


Twitter
Twitter Profile / Rosaura Ochoa / CC BY 2.0
I use several techniques for finding information on Twitter.
  • TweetDeck makes it easy to manage my Twitter timeline. Multiple Twitter searches (for keywords or hashtags) can occur simultaneously, each occupying its own column.
  • Storify pulls media from multiple social networks, including Twitter. I use Storify to help find current relevant information about topics that I am researching.
  • And favoriting tweets is sort of like bookmarking. Well, at least the favorites can all be viewed as a subset of the Twitter firehose!

Search Engines
Search Engine Strategies / Ken Yeung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I usually use Google as my search engine. Sometimes, however, I use an alternative search engine.
  • Duck Duck Go does not track me, the interface is less cluttered, and the ads appear to be less spammy.
  • Bing provides an interesting collection of results and a less cluttered interface.
  • I have not yet used Yippy (formerly Clusty) in any serious research. I am interested in seeing the results from using this Deep Web search engine.
But… no matter which search engine(s) I use this final step finishes my research on topics.



Interested in Learning More?

Articles about Search Engines

Introduction to Search Engines...
Search Engines for Academic Research...
Search Engines for Students...
Search Engines for Researchers...

 Articles about Bookmarking

Articles about Curation

March 14, 2014

Resources for Graphic Organizers, Concept Maps, and Mind Maps

We are learning to use graphic organizers in a class I am teaching this semester. I'm sharing with the students (social studies majors) a list of resources for those new to graphic organizers, concept maps, and mind maps. The academic discipline used for most examples in this list is social studies. Another post later in this blog will share resources from additional disciplines.

Teachers and Their PLNs

Inspiration software provides a good introduction to using graphic organizers including concept maps, mind maps, and webs.

Visual Thinking and Visual Learning
overview, introduction
This site has links to graphic organizers, concept maps, mind maps, and webs

graphic organizers, mind maps, concept maps samples
Social Studies Examples for Inspiration Software


Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has published a list of resources and of additional tools to use.

graphic organizers and overview list
Teachers Guide on the Use of Graphic Organizers in the Classroom

Ways to Use a SMART Board
Several sites share mind maps, their history, and samples.

mind maps introduction
Mind Map

mind maps introduction
History of Mind Mapping

mind maps introduction
What is a Mind Map?

mind maps introduction
Mind Mapping: Visualizing Historical Thought

mind maps samples
History Mind Maps

Tools for Teachers
A variety of introductions, resources, and samples are available for concept maps.

concept maps introduction
Concept Map

concept maps introduction
Concept Maps

concept maps introduction
Concept Mapping Resources

concept maps introduction
Classroom Assessment Techniques Concept Mapping

concept maps samples
French Revolution Concept Maps

Graphic Organizers Display / Katie Appleton Day / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The term “graphic organizer” is sometimes used to discuss just one type of graphic organizer… and other times it is used to include graphic organizers, mind maps, concept maps, and webs.

graphic organizers introduction, samples, rubrics
50 Uses of Graphic Organizers and Rubric
Teacher-Created Graphic Organizers
Rubric for Graphic Organizers

graphic organizers introduction and samples
Social Studies - Graphic Organizers & Mini-Lessons

graphic organizers introduction and samples
Content-Area Graphic Organizers - Social Studies

graphic organizers introduction and samples
Graphic Organizers

graphic organizers introduction and samples
Social Science Toolkit of Graphic Organizers

graphic organizers samples
Graphic Organizers

Pinterest Swag / Julochka / CC BY-NC 2.0

Pinterest is by its very nature a visual tool. So it’s a great place to look for other visual tools.

graphic organizers resources

mind maps resources

concept maps resources

social studies resources

history resources


Note: The samples used in this post were created by Jo Schiffbauer with Inspiration software that is designed to be used for visual mapping, outlining, writing, and making presentations. The license on the diagrams is CC BY-NC 3.0 (a Creative Commons license).

March 8, 2014

Finding New Virtual Field Trips Resources

A trip to a sunny climate would certainly be fun during this very cold and snowy winter. Maybe I need to look for a trip to Sarasota or Santa Fe. Instead I'm updating my virtual field trips resources for an upcoming workshop.

Preschool Veggie Picking Field Trip / Grace Family / CC BY 2.0
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Here are some virtual field trips resources I found at Scoop.it!

Scooped by April...
10 Wonderful Virtual Field Trips for Your Students
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/04/10-wonderful-virtual-field-trips-for.html
Note: these virtual field trips truly are wonderful... I spent entirely too much time exploring them because they are so interesting!
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History... explore on your own or take a tour
  • Arctic Tour... are you ready to explore via dog-sledding?
  • Moon Tour... 3D models, 360-degree photos, TV footage, landing site tours narrated by Apollo astronauts... using Moon in Google Earth
  • Google Art Project... imagine an art museum with images from museums around the world and with tools to help you learn about art and art history... explore, take a tour, view art in detail, build your own gallery, share
  • Planet in Action... tools that take your exploration and use of Google Earth to new levels
  • World Wonders Project... explore and/or tour wonders of the ancient world and the modern world
  • Eternal Egypt... tour and/or explore ancient Egypt with virtual environments, 3D views, 360-degree views, animations, webcams, and zoomable pictures
  • A Virtual Tour of Museums and Exhibits... visit more than 300 tours created with text, pictures, sound, and/or videos
  • Digital Field Trip to the Rainforest... this site sells their education products including some virtual field trips... however some free resources and demos are available
  • Virtual Field Trips... a list of many virtual field trips

While at the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning site I followed a link about using Google Hangouts on Air to facilitate virtual field trips. 
Google+ Connected Classrooms Brings the World into Your Class
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/11/google-connected-classrooms-brings.html
This virtual field trip uses Google Hangouts On Air (live video conferences). Note: you can watch past field trips and/or participate in upcoming field trips such as the following ones:
  • virtual tour of a facility
  • discussion with an expert
  • demonstration of museum artifacts
  • collaborative activity with another classroom elsewhere in the world
  • student activities
  • sessions that permit students to pose questions to the live participants

----------
At LiveBinders I was intrigued with virtual field trips resources that include instructions for using Skype, podcasts, and Google Earth.

Virtual Field Trips 
Kathy Pryor
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=229243
Her virtual field trips include Skype, podcasts, and iPad apps.

Virtual Field Trips 
Vicki Johnson
https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=139864
This resource includes an extensive section on Google Earth.

Many more virtual field trip resources are available in LiveBinders. I pulled out two resources that interest me. However, you may have other needs or uses than I do and, thus, choose different resources.


----------
Here are some virtual field trips resources I found on Symbaloo webmixes.

The first time I saw some of the excellent work of Jayme Linton was when I discovered her Symbaloo webmix for Virtual Field Trips. It is one of my favorites.
https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/virtualfieldtrips9
Even though I am searching for new virtual field trips resources I am including hers on this list in case you have not seen it yet.

Take Your Students on a Virtual Field Trip Every Day
Jayme Linton
In this article Linton recommends using virtual field trips as an alternative to regular bell work or morning work.
http://techtipsforteachersblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/take-your-students-on-virtual-field.html
Note: you may find this idea for using virtual field trips useful for your classroom.

To find additional Symbaloo virtual field trip resources go to the Symbaloo Gallery to search for virtual field trips


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Next I used Storify to search for discussions of virtual field trips on social media.
http://storify.com/search?q=virtual+field+trip

Storify allows you to examine the tweets, images, videos, and links about virtual field trips that appear in social media... and then choose the ones you want to use.
Pick and choose to find links for virtual field trips, advice and suggestions, new ideas!

Here's four ideas Storify found on social media for me:




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My last search for virtual field trips resources was on Twitter... well, actually, on TweetDeck.

I searched for #virtualfieldtrip and for virtual field trip.

I found Virtual Trillium Trail

Maria C. R. Harrington’s, Ph.D. 
http://www.virtualfieldtrips.com/drupal1/ 
This site looks very interesting.


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In the past I have searched for virtual field trips in Delicious and in Google using keywords. This time I used a different approach. Scoop.it!, LiveBinders, Symbaloo, Storify, and Twitter / TweetDeck serve me well for curation and communication. So, I used them to see what's new on the topic of virtual field trips.



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If you have not previously used virtual field trips, you might want to check out this lesson (http://online.howtomaster.com/training/html/itc2/itc20201/start.html) about virtual field trips. It is available on the SimpleK12 free teacher resources Symbaloo webmix (http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/simplek12?searched=true).

March 3, 2014

Sharing... Augmented Reality, Color, Presentations, Twitter, Classroom Project

Woman in Cafe on Laptop Computer / Lynn Friedman / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0



Time today spent "catching up" with reading blogs led to some interesting discoveries.






I thought you might like to check these out, too!