EmTech Q1M3

Empowerment Technologies

Quarter 1 – Module 3:

Contextualized Online Search and Research Skills

Multiple Choice

A reliable source is

• Biased

• Trying to sell you something

• Trusted

• Google

Multiple Choice

To broaden your search on advertising, you will search the term

• advertising OR commercial

• advertising AND commercial

• advertising BUT commercial

• advertising NOT commercial

Multiple Choice

Which of the following do you not need to include in a citation?

• author, if available

• title of the article

• date of publication

• call number

Multiple Choice

Any information coming from these domain types are usually reliable except

• .com

• .org

• .edu

• .gov

Multiple Choice

What symbol will you use to search for the exact term or phrase?

• ( )

• “ “

• &

• –

Open Ended

Online Search Activity:

Do an online search to answer the given question using any search engine. Provide the required data below. Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Question: When do you say that an information contained in web pages is credible or not?

Search engine used: _____________________________________________________________

Keywords: _______________________________________________________________________

Number of Search Results: _______________________________________________________

Sites used to answer question:____________________________________________

​Did you type the whole question on the search box? Are you sure that you get your answer from reliable websites?
Are the authors of article you get your answers from are credible?
Are there articles listed on the search results that re irrelevant to your question?

OBJECTIVES

1. Use precise keywords to improve online searches; and

2. Evaluate website’s credibility

​Tips on Improving Search and Research Skills

​1. When searching online, narrow your topic.

​Identify the key concepts or important ideas. Assuming that you would like to search for the answer to this question:

“What precautionary measures should you observe when you are logged-in in a public computer?”

Do not type the whole question in the search box. Typing the whole question often leads to a large number of and inappropriate search results.

From the question, the keywords are: precautionary measures, observed, logged-in, public computer.

Keywords are terms that are used in by most search engines to find related documents.

2. Put the word “AND” between each keyword to create a search string.

You may type the following in the search box:

Precautionary measures AND observe AND logged-in AND public computer

You will notice a decrease in search results

3. Identify synonyms of the key words.

Not all databases or articles use the same words to describe a topic. Group similar words together by using the word “OR” for a quick and relevant search.

In the case of our example: the synonyms of some of the keywords are:

Precautionary measures – preventive measures

Observe – pay attention to

Logged-in – signed-in

You may type the following in the search box:

Precautionary measures OR preventive measures AND observe OR pay attention to AND logged-in OR signed-in AND public computer

This gives you another set of search results:

4. Review the first pages returned

If these are not helpful, change your keywords for a better description.

In this case you may remove the phrase “pay attention to” and then type the following in the search box:

Precautionary measures OR preventive measures AND observe AND logged-in or signed-in AND public computer.

This gives you another set of search results.

4. Review the first pages returned

If these are not helpful, change your keywords for a better description.

In this case you may remove the phrase “pay attention to” and then type the following in the search box:

Precautionary measures OR preventive measures AND observe AND logged-in or signed-in AND public computer.

This gives you another set of search results.

​If you think you have found what you are searching for, then you may stop here. Otherwise, you may proceed with these other techniques.

5. Use the plus (+) sign for a more specific search.

Just type + before a keyword to indicate that the word after the sign is a required word that must be found in the search.

Example: +preventive measures

6. Use the minus (-) sign for a more specific search.

If you want to exclude a word from your search, place a minus sign just before (without any space) the word you want to exclude.

Example: public computers -personal

7. Use wildcards for a broader search.

Wildcard characters (*) let you find variations of a word.

Example: measur*

8. Use quotation marks to find phrases or names.

Enclose the phrase or names that you want to search in quotation marks.

Example: “precautionary measures"

9. Use several search engines.

Search engines are programs that look for documents based from specified keywords and return these documents where the keywords were found. Major search engines include Google, Yahoo (which uses Google), AltaVista, Bing, and Lycos.

Open Ended

What is the significance of using keywords when searching for information on the web?