Friday, October 19, 2012

Learning Module 3: 21st Century Skills- : Efficient and Effective Searching


This was a very interesting learning module for me. I learned quite a few things about searching the web that I did not know before. I am so glad I learned about the deep web. I now know that there are trusted sites I can go to for information, and know that the information I get is correct. I love that! Thank you for incorporating that in the lessons.

Actually I have to tell you the truth, I have googled myself before, and found all this info. I am glad you found a way to get our info off of Spokeo though. I think that the public record info should only be on the original site(s), I don't think that other sites should be able to use that info, and make it readily available to anyone who is looking for it.

I learned how to use certain keywords and to enclose them in parenthesis if you want a more targeted search. If you don't include the parenthesis google and some other search sites automatically puts an “or” in between them, so it will search for the first word, then it will search for the second word, and so on.

I also learned that I should be using more than one search engine because they all search a little differently, so I will get different sites on different search engines. The two I use the most are google and dogpile. I have used them for a long time.

I used the book and your lectures and exercises as resources this time, I did try searches on different search engines and came up with different lists. I tried searching for the same thing on the same search engine but on different computers, and came up with different lists. Interesting.

I hope this is OK, but I am going to use wordle again for a list of my terms That was really neat!

Life and Carer Skills for the 21st Century. These are really good skills for the workforce. I have used all of them from one time or another.:
  • You have to be able to adapt to any changes – Media changes quickly!!!!!
  • Manage your time wisely
  • You have to be able to work independently because there isn't going to be a teacher or manager there telling you what you have to do. You have to be able to do your job without a lot of guidance.
  • Demonstrate that you are willing to learn
  • You have to be able to interact with your co-workers and bosses effectively.
  • You have to be able to manage projects and produce results

Media & Technology Skills for the 21st Century:
  • Access and Evaluate Information
  • Use and Manage Information
  • Analyze Media
  • Create Media
  • Apply Technology Effectively

Terms I learned:

Deep Web – web based resources not indexed by web crawlers. They are usually dynamically generated by a search query, unlinked to other pages, or private or password protected.

Web Crawlers – Software that search engines use to browse the web and automatically add the URLs and other information about the web sites to an index that is searchable. Also called bots or spiders.

Boolean Operator – a conjunction used in a logical expression (AND, OR, NOT). You can use these in your searches (make sure they are in all caps) to narrow down your list of results.

Stop Words – Small unimportant words in a search query that are ignored in the query. Examples: where, is, the, of, in, etc.