Information, reliability, validity and bias

DinosaursDuring this unit you will be briefly covering several different topics to give you a taste of ICT.

The overall aim of this unit is to create an interactive powerpoint about Dinosaurs...

The first topic is searching the internet1Search EngineA database on the World Wide Web that enables you to use search terms or key words to find relevant pages or websites.

Examples include Google, Bing, Ask

2KeywordsKeywords are the terms in a webpage that would be used to match the search term a user enters into a search engine.

If you search for ICT then the search engine will find you every page on the web that has ICT in the body text, the header and the tags.

3Search engine resultsOn your Search Results page, find and label the following items:

The search term usedThe number of results foundHow long the search took to return your resultsThe title of the one of the search resultsThe snippet of text which gives you a quick overview of the content of the pageRelated searches that you could tryMore pages of your resultsImages of search topicThe URL (web address) for a search result

4Give pupils a printed copy of the Search Results worksheet and ask them to label the parts listed aboveSearching for Information

5Go through different parts with pupils, ask them to score out of nineSearching For InformationDuring this and next lesson, you will be finding out about some of the following things: What a URL means How to search for information effectively on the Internet How to make sure that the information you find is accurate How to choose appropriate information to help you develop a presentation about a given topic.

6Different Search EnginesWe now recognise the different parts of a search engine, but do all search engines return the same results?

Have a look at the table on the next slide...

Different Search EnginesResultswww.google.co.ukwww.ask.comwww.bing.comFirst resulten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfishwww.goldfish.com/www.rippleswaterlife.co.uk/ Second resultwww.barclaycard.co.uk/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfishwww.RocketAquatics.co.uk/Aquariums/ Third resultwww.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/wild/pets/goldfish.shtmlwww.thegoldfishbowl.co.uk/Dreamstime.comFourth resultwww.thegoldfishbowl.co.uk/www.redgoldfish.co.uk/www.petgoldfish.net/Fifth resultwww.dailymail.co.uk/.../Great-grandmother-tagged-selling-goldfish.htmlwww.kokosgoldfish.com/www.ebay.co.uk/petsExplain that the same search term was entered into three different search engines. The URLs from the top five results were pasted into the table.Ask pupils what they can see from the results in the table.Ask pupils why they think the results are differentPossible answers might include:Different algorithmsDifferent methods of indexing sitesDifferent weighting given to search resultsAsk pupils what this tells them (answer: to be aware that different search engines may give different results)

8Different Search EnginesNow we know that different search engines return different results, lets get some first hand experience

Complete the Different Search Engines worksheet from the ICT SoW

Ask them to complete table 2 using their own search term.

Extension tasks available if required9Uniform Resource LocatorsLets take it a step further now and start to look at the what a URL is...10Uniform Resource LocatorsFor you to stand any chance of finding what you want on the Internet, there has to be an easy way to locate a particular web page.Luckily every single one of those billions of web pages has its own unique address a bit like you have your own unique address at home.These web page addresses have a name they are called Uniform Resource Locators or URL for short.11Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)These are some examples of the URLs that you may have come across:If you type these URLs into your browser, you will go to the exact site you wanted without having to use a search engine.http://www.google.comhttp://www.facebook.comhttp://www.amazon.com12Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)A URL can often tell you a lot about a website before you even visit it. http://www.amazon.co.ukProtocol is the way that two computers have agreed to talk to each other. There are many different protocols available. For web pages, the method used is called HyperText Transfer Protocol or HTTP.http means the protocol used13Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) http://www.amazon.co.ukThe www is short for World Wide Web. The www in the URL does not really do anything, it simply grew out of popular use. You will now find many websites which do not have www in their URL.14Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) http://www.amazon.co.ukAmazon.co.uk is called the Domain name.It is part of the URL. However, it also tells you which organisation owns the site. In this case, a company called Amazon.15Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)This can tell you a lot about the type of website that you will be visiting. In this instance, it means that the website belongs to a company or business. http://www.amazon.co.ukNotice that part of the URL contains the word .co16Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)Other URL endings that you may come across:.govGovernment site.comInternational company.coCompany.orgOrganisation (often a charity).acAcademic often a university.schSchool.edEducation.netNetwork of websites 17Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) http://www.amazon.co.ukFinally, notice that this URL ends with .uk This means that the website is registered in the United Kingdom.A website which ended with:.fr would mean it was registered in France.cn would be registered in China.nz would be registered in New Zealand18Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)Lets put your knowledge of URL to the test, have a go at completing the URLs worksheet from the ICT SoW19PlenaryWhat did you think the most important points of todays lesson were?

Complete the lesson summary square from the ICT SoW

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