On a daily basis I use google for the primary reason of their search tool bar. It is on every web browser I have and on the home page of my smart phone. Therefore, this GAIN is extremely useful to me because it builds upon the information I already use with google search every day.
I chose to look at google images search in section B. While I knew that you could search for images using the images tab at the top of the page, I did not know that you could actually load an image and search for similar images. Also, the advanced image search allows for more specificity in the search so if I searched for images from the Vietnam War, it would not bring up different photos of celebrities that have nothing to do with it as a basic search would, but it brings up specific images depending upon the keywords or what colors used in the image or the region the image is from and many other things. The other feature of the advanced image search that I especially see as useful in a classroom is the SafeSearch option. You can turn on filtering so that if you take your class to the computer lab and use this search option they will not be exposed to certain images. Again if they were doing a project on the Vietnam War and you didn't want them to see specific violent images then you could set a strict filter. This tool is great to use for classroom projects!
The second tool of google search I looked at was the section C about custom search. This feature allows for websites to customize their search boxes to their specific needs in their website. This could be especially helpful if you created a classroom website for your students and you wanted to customize it in order to help them better navigate the web page. Also this tool could be used in the classroom to help students better use resources on other web pages that have the custom google search. This feature provides relevant search results and helps with time management and simply finding exactly what you need. Overall, would be great for research projects and quick in class assignments.
The last part of google search that I really liked was the Google Alerts feature. I had no idea that Google offered such a tool. This would be perfect for a classroom setting like mine in which students will at some point have to complete a research assignment and perhaps a large research assignment at that and having an alert to bring you an ongoing information stream would be extremely useful and practical. For instance, this would be fantastic for my current assignment for Dr. Bond's class that every time new information about brain development and autism came up I could read more about the subject of study. The amount of availability and custom needs given attention by google astounds me. This search tool makes it much easier to stay informed and in the loop of current information about different topics and aids in further learning.
Overall, google search is just as useful as I always believed it to be, but these features especially bring a new level of access, ease, and usefulness for my future classroom than I ever knew before.
Cammie, not sure you understand Custom Search fully. Other pages do not have to have custom search. The point to custom search is that you can limit the web sites your students search to sites that you know to be useful and appropriate. For example, you could limit your students to using The Smithsonian, The Weather Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc.
ReplyDeleteWell done, though. :-)