General
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UNIT 5:Computer Research
1. Study the picture below. What is happening in the picture?
2. How can you help the learners in the picture?
5.1 Introduction to Search engine
Activity 5.1 Introduction to Search engine
1. Open google search engine using your XO-laptop.
REMEMBER – The XO-laptop should be connected to the
internet first.
2. Type these words ‘ Rwanda Education Board’.
3. Click on search. What can you see?
We can use the Internet to search for information. To do this, we use
a web search engine. A web search engine is a software system that isdesigned to search for information on the World Wide Web (www).
Talking Point1. Look at the images below. Do you know the images?
2. What are the images used for?
3. Research about them. Give their uses
Examples of search engines are:
• Google • Bing • MSN
• Ask • Yahoo • Wikipedia• Netscape
Role of search engines
Search engines allows internet users to find specific information from the
web, based on keyword criteria that is entered by the user.
5.2 Search engine techniques
The two main techniques of conducting internet search are:
• Keyword searching• Phrase searching
a) Keyword Searching
Case Study
1. Search your own mind and come up with the most unique
keyword you can think of.
2. Log on to Google web browser.
3. Type the keyword and search its meaning. Write the meaning
down.
4. Use the other web browsers to search the same keyword. Write
the meaning in your notebook.
5. Compare the definitions from the different browsers. Are theythe same?
A keyword search is a basic search technique that involves searching
for one or more words within a collection of documents. The documentsreturned by the search engine are called the search results.
You can also make your search for images, videos, maps, books or
news by just clicking on the options you want to search for as shown in the image above.
Remember!
Keyword searches are usually punctuation-sensitive. Therefore, omit apostrophes, parentheses, hyphens, among others when typing the keywords. For example, type ‘dont’ instead of don’t, CD ROM instead of ‘CD-ROM’ and so on.
b) Phrase Searching
Phrase search is a type of search that allows users to search for documents
containing an exact sentence or phrase, rather than single keywords.
Note: Anytime you have more than one key word, you have a phrase.
Although each search engine is different, know when you should use this
method.
Examples of Phrase searches include:
• “Rwandan President” • “Spirit of St. Louis”• “Ozone layer depletion” • “Gulf of Mexico”
Work to do
Repeat the case study under Keyword search to search for the phrasesabove. Compare your search from the different browsers.
Activity 5.2 Assessing the search results
1. After you complete a search, glance over the first page of
search results.
2. Did it return what you are looking for, or is it just a lot of
unnecessary information?
3. If your search results do not seem to be very good, you mayneed to try different search keyword or phrase.
Remember!
The search engine cannot read your mind, it just looks for matching
words. For example, if you just search for the word ‘polish’, the search engine does not know whether you are looking for ‘shoe polish’ or ‘history of the Polish language’!
You could improve your search results by searching for ‘shoe polish’.
However, this still may return a variety of websites, including:
• Stores that sell shoe polish
• Guides on how to polish shoes
• The history of shoe polish
To get the best results, ask yourself, “What exactly am I looking for?”Specific terms usually return better results.
Activity 5.3 Conducting a basic search
1. Go to www.google.com
2. On the Basic Search screen, type in the following keywords
exactly as they are written below and take note of the results.
Chocolate health food or health risk
NOTE: You do not need to link keywords with AND. Google does this automatically.
3. Click on Search. How many results are retrieved?
4. Go back to the Basic Search box and type the following:
(chocolate OR cocoa OR “dark chocolate”) AND (diet OR
nutrition).5. Click on ‘Search’. How many results are retrieved?
Successful Search Skills
Case Study
1. Search for the phrase “river boats” using google search.
2. Now, search for ‘river’ AND ‘boats’ then ‘river + boats’ separately.
3. Compare your results in the cases above. Which results are more relevant?
Searching for ‘river boats’ will give you more relevant results than searching for, ‘river and boats’ or ‘river + boats’.
Activity 5.4 Use of keyword and phrase search
Think about the appropriate keywords or phrase to use, to search for
the various cultural practices in Rwanda. Using google or any other
search engine, type the keywords or phrase then search. List down the
cultural practices in your notebook. Compare your work with those of
your other class members.
Before you even open your Internet browser, prepare a list of keywords.
This will help to eliminate being overwhelmed with millions of irrelevant
results. Follow these guidelines to create your list of keywords:
• Identify the main concepts of your topic.
• List keywords for each concept.
• Include synonyms and alternate spellings.• Determine the logical relationships between your keywords.
Self –Test 5.1
1. What does www stand for?
2. In pairs discuss the benefits and risks of using Internet.
3. Explain the role of search engines in our lives.
4. Name and compare different search engines using keyword and phrase search techniques.
5.3 Types of search engines
Most search engines give general information. They are examples of
general search engines. The general search engines can be put into
three categories namely:
• Primary
• Secondary
• Targeted
Other examples of search engines include:
• Meta search engines
• Science-specific search engines
• Social sciences-specific search engines
• Art and humanities-specific search engines
• Format-specific search engines
a) Primary Search Engines
Activity 5.5 Using primary search engine
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Search for the phrase ‘ One laptop per child Rwanda’.
3. Repeat the search above using “Yahoo” and “Bing”.
4. Compare your search results.
The most popular search engines used nowadays are known as primarysearch engines. Examples include Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
• Google – This is the most widely used search engine.
• Yahoo - This search engine has been around for many years and is
one of the most widely used as well.
• Bing – This is relatively new. It is Microsoft’s latest attempt atdeveloping a search engine
b) Secondary Search Engines
Activity 5.6 Secondary search engine
1. Go to www.ask.com
2. Search for the question: ‘Who is the president of Rwanda?’
3. Write down the results of your search.
Secondary Search Engines are targeted at smaller, more specific audiences
although the content itself is still general. Examples of secondary search
engines include Lycos, LookSmart, Miva, Ask.com and Espotting.
Of the search engines in this category, Ask.com is the most common:
ASK.com is based on a question and answer format where most questionsare answered by other users or are in the form of polls.
c) Targeted Search Engines
Activity 5.7 Using targeted Search Engine
1. Go to city search and search for ‘the first astronaut to visit the
moon’.
2. Go to Yahoo Travel and search for ‘the most amazing park in
Rwanda’.
3. Go to Music Search and search for ‘ Rwanda Musicians’.4. Write down the search results in your notebook.
Targeted Search Engines are sometimes called topical search engines.
These search engines are narrowly focused usually to a general topic like medicine or branches of science, travel, sports or some other topic.
Examples of targeted search engines include City Search, Yahoo Travel and Music Search
d) Meta search engines
Case Study
1. Go to www.metacrawler.com and search for the process of
digestion.
2. Go to www.dogpile.com and search for ‘ the process of digestion.
3. Compare your results in the two cases. Which site gives more
accurate information?
Meta search engines take the results from all the other search engines
and combines them into one large listing. Examples of Meta search
engines include:
• Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com)
• Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)
e) Science-Specific search engines
Case Study
1. Go to http://scholar.google.com and search for “cause of
climate change” and “how we can slow it down”.
2. Repeat the search above using:
a) http://www.sciencedirect.com
b) http://www.getcited.org/.
3. Compare your search results above. Which is more accurate?
These are academic search engines used for finding and accessing
articles in academic journals, repositories, archives or other collections
of scientific information and other articles. Examples include:
• Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com
• Science Direct - http://www.sciencedirect.com• GetCITED - http://www.getcited.org
f) Social science specific search engines
Case Study
1. Go to behavioral brain science archive and search for
‘populations of sub-saharan African countries’.
2. Repeat the search above using:
a) Social Science Research Network:
b) SocioSite
c) SocioWeb
3. Compare your search results above. Which is more accurate?
Several Internet search engines are available to assist in locating abstracts
and other information about the social sciences. Examples include:
• Behavioral Brain Science Archive.
• Social Science Research Network.
• SocioSite.
• The SocioWeb.
g) Art and humanities specific search engines
Activity 5.8 Using art and humanities specific
search engines
1. Use the search engines:
a) http://www.vads.ac.uk/search.php
b) http://wwar.com/
To find out about the origin of Kinyarwanda language. Write
short notes on your research findings in both cases. Compare the two search two results.
2. Back at home, ask your parent or guardian about the origin of
Kinyarwanda language.
3. Compare your findings in (2) above with your search results.
Humanities are academic disciplines that study human culture. These include ancient and modern languages, literature, philosophy, religion,and musicology. Examples of search engines used to extract informationin these areas are:
• VADS visual art images
http://www.vads.ac.uk/search.php
• Arts Search (World Wide Arts Resources)
h) Format-specific search engines
Activity 5.9 Format-specific search engines
1. Use the internet to search for information on:
a) the game parks in Rwanda
b) Rwanda athletes
2. Use different search engines i.e Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com,
MSN, Wikipedia and Netscape and compare the results of the
search.
A format-specific web search engine focuses on searching for web pages in a certain area. This area could be format, subject area, geographic region or domain. There may be overlaps between one or more of these areas.
5.4 How to search for information using different
search engines
In this section, you will learn how to search for information using differentsearch engines.
a) Google
Google search engine is the most popular search engine and the most
popular product from Google.
To do a search in Google, type the key word or the phrase in the spacein a window similar to Fig. 5.4 below.
b) Bing
Bing is an equivalent to Google but from Microsoft company. It is the
default search engine in Microsoft’s web browser. It provides different
services including image, web and video search along with maps.
To search using bing, type the keywood or phrase in the space shown ina window similar to Fig. 5.5 below.
c) Yahoo
Yahoo apart from being the most popular free email provider, it is also
a search engine. However, it is not much popular in search engine area.
To search using yahoo, type the keyword or phrase in the space shownin Fig. 5.6.
d) Ask
Ask.com is a question and answer search engine. Using ask.com, you
can get the answers to your questions. It integrates a large amount of
archive data to answer your questions.
To search using ask.com, type the question in the space shown in Fig. 5.7below.
e) MSN
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps
for Windows and mobile devices provided by Microsoft.
It is the best in news, sports, entertainment, money, weather, travel, health,
and lifestyle searches.
To search using MSN, type the keyword or phrase in the space shown ina window similar to Fig. 5.8 below.
f) Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia that allows anyone to search and
edit articles. It is the largest and most popular general reference work
search engine on the Internet and is ranked among the ten most popular
websites.
To search using Wikipedia, type the keyword or phrase in the spaceshown in a window similar to Fig. 5.9 below.
g) Netscape
Netscape is an Internet browser first introduced as Mosaic Netscape 0.9
in 1994. Netscape is no longer supported or used, but old versions canstill be downloaded
Self –Test 5.2
1. Name and classify the different types of search engines.
2. Click on the ‘MAPS’ link:
a) Type in the search box: ‘Rwanda Population’.
b) Write down the search results.
c) Compare the results from different search engines.
3. Using different search engines, find out the population of East
African countries. Compare the results from different search
engines.
4. Make a research on how we should keep our environment clean.
Compare your results using different search engines.
5. Find out the cause of climate change. How can we slow downthe process? Compare the results from different search engines.
UNIT TEST 5
1. Find a website that sells books. What is the website address?
2. Find a website with news in your first language. What is the
website address?
3. On google.com, find a Weather Website.
a) Find out what the weather is going to be like on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday in Rwanda.
b) Write it down in your notebook. How will you dress on
these days?
4. On google, find information on the cause of climate change.
a) What is the name of the website you found the information
from?
b) Find out how we can slow down this process.
c) Write down the information you get.
5. In the address bar of google.com, type the following:
www.reb.rw
a) Find the school calendar.
b) What information did you get?
c) Write down the calendar for the second and third term.
6. Open google, search for the ‘Population of Sub Saharan Africa”.Write your findings in AbiWord.