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Web Search Strategies Web Searches.
For the general search engines category I chose Google, which I use almost exclusively for my web searching, and two that I have never used before, AltaVista and Excite. Google’s and AltaVista’s home pages are designed very similarly, while Excite’s home page is designed with a different approach—it is packed with advertisements, very colorful and, for me, somewhat too chaotic. I typed “Quadratic functions” in each of them and got a simply overwhelming amount of links on Google (1,680,000), and AltaVista (1,600,000), while Excite gave only 71 links, and among them I even spotted “Exponential Functions” and “What could you win today” which, of course, have nothing to do with quadratic functions. The links that I checked on Google and AltaVista were pretty much the same; some of them were just great, and I bookmarked a few for myself. Excite’s links were much weaker, and most of those that I checked were designed for quick help with homework (“type your question here and “Algebrarer” will do a problem for you”). I have the impression that it is not a great site for educational research. I suppose that the most distinctive feature of general search engines is the huge amount of links provided by them with only some degree of ordering by relevance; the decision of choosing the best links is up to the person searching the web. For the multi-threaded search engines category I chose SearchCaddy. This site has a very different approach to searching for information. The two main features are: “Select a Category” (“Reference,” “Search engines,” “News,” “Software,” “Music,” or “Images”) and “Select a Search Engine,” which provides constraints on the scope of the search. Depending on the type of category chosen, one gets a list of search engines best suited for searching that category. For example, I chose the “Reference” category and got a list of four engines: Britannica, Infoplease.com, MW Dictionary, and MW Treasures. In “Enter Keywords,” I typed “Quadratic functions” and got 120 results, but practically none of them was of any use to me. I suppose that SearchCaddy is more suitable for looking for things to buy online than for finding a good source to use in math lessons. (I was also surprised that SearchCaddy is specifically designed for Internet Explorer.) For categorical search engines I chose Yahoo! From the 16 categories provided to choose from, I chose “Education and References” and again typed “Quadratic Functions.” I got 123 results, but I was surprised that all of them (that I looked at) were in the form of, “Can anyone give me a good site for learning quadratic functions?” or, “Do (sic) anybody know how to do quadratic functions in college algebra?” The best answer for the question chosen by the user was, “okay i kind of get what you saying and you was right about that confusing part. okay so i want to give u 2 problems that i have to work. so say the first problem[…].” I don’t think I will be a frequent visitor to Yahoo! My impression is that Yahoo! is a kind of “web site club” where members post questions and answers, or play games, or exchange their opinions. For finding quotes, the best site (from those that I researched) is Google. I typed, “To be or not to be?” on all five sites, and only Google provided a few references to Shakespeare; others gave references to all kinds of information, from “Shop at Amazon.com for low prices on Or Not To Be” on AltaVista, to “results not found” on SearchCaddy, to “Not to be, unless you want it to be and make it be” on Yahoo! All of researched sites perform Boolean operations. Google seems to be the best for using Boolean commands. (On Google “Or” operator requires upper case letters. Operator “AND” isn’t even required, as it is included by default.) SearchCaddy performs Boolean operations very well. Excite performs them too, but it gives less results and not of them are equally good as the ones found on Google. Even Yahoo! performs Boolean operations. With AltaVista Boolean operations required using advance search page.
1. http://www.cut-the-knot.org/index.shtml - Target audience: As the authors themselves say, “This site is for teachers, parents and students who seek to engage in mathematics.” - Content area: Mathematics - Type: Educational site with ample information for everyone interested in mathematics - Topic: It is a multi-topic site. There are more than 30 links covering a variety of topics from games and puzzles, to book reviews, proofs, and other math sites. - Description: This is an absolutely great web site. It is very well designed, attractive, and very informative. “Many of the topics are accompanied by Java illustrations. There are nearly 800 Java applets.” (from the description of the site) There are interactive activities, graphs, and animations.
2. http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html - Target audience: Teachers and educators in general - Content Area: all subjects - Type: educational site for teachers - Topic: It is a multi-topic site - Description: “DiscoverySchool.com offers teachers of all subjects an array of powerful tools that help you [sic.] create your own material." from the description of the site). The site offers, among other things, a variety of sample lesson plans, which are very useful for education students or inexperienced teachers working on their assignments. The site also provides a lot of information pertaining to the realm of education.
3. http://mathdemos.gcsu.edu/mathdemos/family_of_functions/trig_gallery.html - Target audience: High school and college students, teachers, and anyone interested in trigonometric functions. - Content area: Mathematics /trigonometry. - Type: “demos illustrating selected families of trigonometric functions.” - Topic: Trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions. - Description: This is a site specializing in animations that illustrate trigonometric functions. “These animations can be used by instructors in a classroom setting or by students to aid in acquiring a visualization background relating to the change of parameters in expressions for functions.”
4. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Chronology/1625_1650.html - Target audience: High school students, college students, teachers, and anyone interested in the history of mathematics. - Content area: History of mathematics. - Type: This is a site specializing in the history of mathematics and related topics. - Topic: History of mathematics. - Description: This is a wonderful site, a real treat for anyone interested in the history of mathematics and mathematics in general. This site was developed by the School of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Constructed as a time line, it provides links to biographies of mathematicians, to bibliographies and photographs, and even to famous curves with their equations and graphs. It provides a list of mathematical societies, medals, prizes and other honors mathematicians can win today. It is probably the best site on this topic one can find.
5. http://mathematica.ludibunda.ch/fuzzy-logic.html - Target audience: middle school students, but also high school students, their teachers and parents. - Content area: Mathematics. - Type: an educational, but also very entertaining and enriching site for younger audiences. - Topic: Mathematical stories and fairy tales, puzzles, stories about mathematicians, problems to solve, etc. - Description: This is a unique site. Keeping mathematical rigor, the site distinguishes itself by its elegant design, colorful graphics, and choice of topics that must be very captivating for younger students. I tried to learn something about the authors, but I found only their first names and their role in creating “Mathematica Ludibunda” (which is the name of the site). Judging by their names, and by the fact that the site is available in English and German, I suppose that the site originated somewhere in Europe. I read a few opinions about the site from its guest book, and here is one that tells all: “this page is wicked, we have never seen anything like it. we would rather come on this site than go shopping! it is just so cool! we hope every one else liked it”. © 2006
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