Better Searching
We've all been there - when you just know that someone else, somewhere, has already produced the resource you need and you don't want to reinvent the wheel.
So we turn to our trusty friend Google, which offers souped up searching using cheats, some of which are listed below:
- "DFES Primary Strategy" - will only return pages with the complete phrase within quotation marks.
- define:computer - gives you definitions of a computer.
- ~counting - searches all synonyms for counting.
- KS2 Maths site:www.bbc.co.uk - will limit results to those found on the BBC site.
- related:www.primary-teacher-uk.co.uk - returns pages related to the Primary Teacher UK site.
Sometimes though, Google isn't specific enough and you might need a specialist search engine:
General Search
- Metaglossary.com - returns only definitions of words, phrases or acronyms. This could be used easily by older KS2 pupils.
- Scandoo.com - Safe search engine that rates page results according to content theme or how loaded with viruses and spyware they are. This uses the Google, Yahoo and MSN engines.
- Dumb Little Man (Blog) - 20 tips for efficient searching.
Multimedia
- British Universities Film and Video Council: Moving Image Gateway - "The Moving Image Gateway (MIG) is a new service that collects together websites that relate to moving images and sound and their use in higher and further education."
- Picsearch.com - Usually returns better results than Google Images and offers much clearer thumbnail images.
- Flickr.com - literally millions of (mostly!) high-quality digital photographs taken by enthusiastic amateurs. Try searching for your home town or topic-related images; you're sure to find thousands of suitable photographs.
- Creative Commons - searches Google, Yahoo and Flickr for media that can be used without any copyright issues.
- Findsounds.com - "a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples."
Documents
- Docufarm.com - Specialist search engine for documents (choose one of PDF, PowerPoint, Word Document, Rich Text File or all of these at once) Can be used to good effect when searching for planning and resources.
Search Engines for Children
On a totally unrelated and irreverent note, will extreme pen spinning become the big next craze over here? Thanks to Andrew for sending me the link. This is a Youtube clip and cannot be embedded on this site because school firewalls tend to block it. It's fun though!
PS: If you do want to include Youtube videos in your Smart or Promethean documents, try using the Zamzar website to convert the video to an flv file.
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