Searching without Google

I've been landed a job that looks tough: persuading the teachers and trainers in the school where I work (International House Barcelona) that they should use the 10 eBeam interactive whiteboards (IWBs, or "smartboards") that we've just acquired (image, right, the annotation tool palette).

It looks tough first of all as I don't have a lot of experience actually using an IWB as a teacher; secondly because I've preferred not to, being cynically unable to see the return on investment -- by which I mean the amount of learning produced for the time invested.

So -- obviously -- the first thing I did, this morning, was open my browser... and then I didn't go straight to Google-is-Evil. What I wanted was a few expert opinions on how the technology should be used, how we might increase that return on investment.

Instead, I went to places I already knew and trusted and thought might well have ideas (not something I can say of Google), and used the search options there:

• Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog
• TeachingEnglish.org.uk
• Nik Peachey's Learning Technology Blog and his Quick Shout Blog
  

I did go to Google-is-Evil afterwards to search for "interactive board": the Wikipedia interactive whiteboard entry was first, there were some resources, particularly for UK schools [here and here], but not necessarily for language learning and teaching -- but what I was really looking for, expert opinion, wasn't there, at least not in the hundreds of results for people trying to sell me an IWB.

But that's Google-is-Evil for you... Fortunately there are some excellent alternatives.

Just landed in my mailbox

Inside Out: useful stuff landing in your own mailbox

I'm not 100% convinced that cricket is a topic that is going to excite your learners but (as I used to play myself) it caught my eye in my mailbox.

It's a free "e-lesson" that comes to me from Macmillan's Inside Out every Monday (along with one for business English), as I subscribe to it.

Personally, I prefer not to download, print and use lessons (are they really any better than your textbook?), but they can be great if you're teaching 1-2-1 and don't have a coursebook.

And I also think it's so much better to have things come to you, rather than waste time searching the digital dungheap (aka The Internet).

>> More stuff in your mailbox

Vista, Word 2007 tutorials

The ribbon: understanding it is vital to using Word 2007... See below for explanation

Some of the people I work with are finding it tough to get used to working with Word 2007. If you are similarly challenged, here are some tutorials you might find useful...

If even finding Word is challenging enough, it might be worth starting here, with the basics of Vista 2007.

Two things to start with
There are two important things you need to do to get started. One is to get the hang of using the ribbon.

You use the ribbon to navigate your different tools -- it replaces the drop-down menus you were used to. You need to click the tabs to access the different groups of tools: in the image (above) we're currently in the home tab (red arrow); you need to click the other tabs (black arrows) to access other tools.

The second important thing is to realise that some of the things you want (like "save as") are hidden behind that button, "A" in the image below. Click that, and you do get a drop-down menu ("B"). That's got to be the FAQ I answer most often...

The button: Ah-hah! So that's where it's hidden!

If you'd rather have a text-based tutorial than video, here's one on getting started with Word 2007.

Look on Google and you'll find lots more tutorials...

Somewhere else worth going -- rather than Google -- when you are trying to get your head round technology is YouTube, where you'll find some great tutorials. Here's a very simple one on using the Word 2007 ribbon...

And TeacherTube is another place I'd go... Lots of Word 2007 video tutorials there too.

Go get yourself used to it
Word 2007 is not really that complicated, or so very different -- once you get used to it.

I'd suggest that getting the hang of Word 2007 is a bit like driving a new car, or using a new digital camera: you've got to make just a little bit of effort yourself to get used to it. Get your head round "the ribbon", and you're away...

Finding technology tutorials
How did I find all of these things? See the first comment (below) for some search tips.

Something else I didn't have to search for

Here's an idea for a lesson -- an article on Forbes.com on Fifteen Things We Wish Someone Would Invent.

A lesson plan to use with this came to me in my mailbox, in one of DevelopingTeachers.com's weekly Teaching Tips [see current tip; full index of past tips; subscribe].

You could also just get your learners to brainstorm ideas for such things, and perhaps write (blog?) about them...

>> More stuff in your mailbox

Can you trust Wikipedia?

Wikipedia entry on Constructivism, 7 June 2007

I was looking for something about constructivism in order to provide further reading for an online course and about #3 on Google was the Wikipedia entry.

It currently carries the proviso "An editor has expressed concern that this article or section is unbalanced" and there is a second doubt about its neutrality (see screenshot, above).

Can you trust Wikipedia?
Well, "trust" is maybe not the word, but I certainly use Wikipedia myself, and recommend it to people. I'd read Wikipedia entries (and anything else I found online) with a touch of skepticism, and compare and contrast the information it provides with another source (possibly one of the sites Wikipedia itself links to for further reading).

Can you trust Wikipedia? Not entirely... Can you trust sites #1 and #2 on Google? Not entirely either!

Wikipedia, not the worst place to look

Wikipedia... Not the first, or the only place to look, but no worse than anywhere else

An article on Tim Stahmer's excellent Assorted Stuff blog caught my eye among in my RSS feeds this morning.

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia gets knocked because "anyone" can contribute to it, but as Tim suggests in his Finding Value in Wikipedia post, "anyone" can also deceive Google.

Wikipedia isn't the first place I'd go to find out about -- say -- TEFL, but then again neither is Google.

What you do get with Wikipedia is as good a starting point as anywhere else on the cyber dungheap (aka the Internet). If Wikipedia doesn't give you the answer, often the links it provides you with will...

Don't waste time looking for pictures on Google

Of course you could get your images off of Google-is-Evil (assuming that you don't mind a spot of stolen property, that is...)

But one problem with that is that Google has zero interest in the quality of the images... or in how much language you could get out of them.

An alternative soure are newspapers and magazines -- which do have a vested interest in presenting their readers with striking, interesting photos (including ads:..).

I habitually rip images out of the newspapers and magazines that are about to go in the recycled bin, and store and classify them in folders (in the image above, you can see my "transport" and "sports" folders)... just in case they might be useful in class one day...

Finding information on the Internet

My own advice would always be "Don't search!" -- don't use a search engine, that is -- if you can possibly help it. If you've got a book or a tutor or a colleague at hand, often you'll find that that they're faster and more authoritative sources of information.

But then again, at some point, you won't have any choice (or at least a search engine will seem to be the most readily available choice).

If you are going to use search engines ("Not just Google-is-Evil!" I would say), it pays to know how to use them efficiently. Some resources:

Refining searches
A tutorial from the BBC

Tutorials
More tutorials on searching the Web (Pandia.com)

Finding information on the Internet
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/

Information Literacy: Search Strategies
How to choose the best search option for your information need

More "21st Century Literacies"
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/21c.html

RSS: Don't search -- have things come to you

Above: my Bloglines site this morning, with the sites I am currently tracking on the left

RSS (or "Real Simple Syndication") is one of the ways in which we can have information come to us, rather than have to go to places like Google to search for it.

Basically, you use what is called a "news aggregator" to go off to the sites you are interested in (blogs and an increasingly large number of websites) and then alert you, on a single page (see image above) if it finds new content on the sites it has trawled.

There are a number of possible choices, with Bloglines being the one I use personally, and can recommend.

You can pick and choose which sites you want, can subscribe and unsubscribe easily, and have a variety of options such as seeing just the headlines, summaries (my setting on the BBC Learning English site you can see on the right of the image above) or the whole articles.

Learn more
There is an excellent introduction, RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators, from the (also excellent) Weblogg-ed site.

See also >> RSS feeds for ELT

Don't waste your time on the Internet!

You have to teach the difference between the present perfect and the present perfect progressive.

Which of the following would you turn to, in what approximate order?

• A good grammar reference book
• Google
• Your "Favourites" (aka "Bookmarks")
• A second grammar reference book
• CeltaStars (our email support group)
  
• The notes in your Teacher's Book
• A second search engine (eg. Yahoo or MSN...)
• A colleague or tutor
• Something that might be in your mailbox
• A directory or portal
• A news aggregator (which uses RSS)
  
• Something else...

In the hand-out for the session, I provided further notes on the above, and in the "comments" (see below), I've suggested my own answer.