Topic 2 Users’ needs, search techniques and their implications
Every learning activity aims to engage learners with new information in order to achieve certain tasks. In adult education, educators need to take under account the personal needs for information of the adult learners in order to find it interesting and useful.
The search of the appropriate information for every subject is a complicated activity and educators along with learners should employ certain search strategies in order to achieve their common goal.
After obtaining the information with search tools and techniques, the information need to be examined for its validity and truth because otherwise the results will not be as indented and solutions for problems or decisions will be based on incomplete, false or biased data.
When your search the internet for new information you have already chosen your search strategy. Are the results as expected? Watch the following video.
A law is passed to allow single parents to adopt children. Describe your search strategy on approaching the issue as widely and as unbiased as possible.
Finding relevant and correct information
Online Web content is increasing day by day. Around the world millions of users get content by searching from Search Engines to get their desired information. Web popularity has generated a crucial problem for users on the internet to find relevant and correct information from huge content available on thousands of websites. In this regard Search Engines (SE) provide most relevant information that is being searched by users. SE have become integral part of every users connected to internet. It is one of the greatest functionality of any search engines to satisfy the users by collecting and filtering the most related content matching with the search term en
Defining search tools
The terms Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. The Internet provides the electronic communication structure and WWW uses the structure to find and display information from a variety of sources. You can search for information on the Web using any number of different search engines which are large databases of web page files. Most of the information is free, though there may be links to sites that are not free.
Web pages found by search engines do not go through a review process and that means that anyone can publish their ideas, so you must evaluate the site and information carefully.
Analyze your research topic
Searching for information can be frustrating and the results overwhelming. Analyzing your topic, and then using search techniques effectively, will help you obtain the information you need for school or personal use.
- First take time to think about exactly what you are looking for – be specific.
- It may be useful to write out your topic in the form of a sentence or question to help clarify exactly what type of information you need.
- Once you identify your topic break it into key concepts or points.
- Write down all the keywords and phrases that best describe your topic.
- The word(s) you use will determine the information you find. Using different words in your search may give you additional information tered by users.
Search strategy
Defining a search strategy will be helpful in order to make your search more focused and get results that will answer your questions.
- To do a basic search on most search engines type in a keyword you have identified. This will produce the greatest number of results, though often not what you want
- A multiple keyword search retrieves more specific or focused results
- Use “ ” marks around phrases to make sure they are searched exactly as is otherwise most search engines will look for each word separately
- You can refine and improve your search by using different techniques to broaden or narrow your search results
There is no right or wrong approach. It depends on the topic you choose, the time you have and how exhaustive your search needs to be.
Validity of information
Information found after an Internet search needs to be checked for its validity before used for any application. The methods for validating information found on the Internet can be similar when validating information from other sources. A check must be performed on the validity, reliability and accuracy of the information.
In the UK, SCONUL has been a prime mover in encouraging consideration of information literacy in the UK. Their “Seven Pillars” model, for students in higher education, identifies seven “headline skills” forming information literacy:
1.Recognising an information need;
2.Identifying what information will fulfill the need;
3.Constructing strategies for locating information;
4.Locating and accessing the information sought;
5.Comparing and evaluating information obtained from different sources;
6.Organising, applying and communicating information;
7.Synthesising and building upon information.
Read the following chapter in order to get familiar with the practices used when obtained information needs to be checked.
Evaluating Information: Validity, Reliability, Accuracy, Triangulation
(17810_5052_Pierce_Ch07.pdf)
Example: I want to research dyslexia
What about this topic are you interested in?
Do you want to know the extent of the problem (statistics), signs/symptoms, effect on learning, how to help someone with dyslexia, what age group?
An interesting research about Internet searching.
Internet Searching Technique, Information Retrieval and the impact on Search engine
(Research-Paper-13.pdf)
It is October of 2020 and the Greek government is ready to announce new measures in order to contain the pandemic of Covid-19.
You work for a strategic consulting organization and you have been assigned the task of providing the government, a list of measures for the pandemic containment, based on your search.
Your team must locate unbiased information about the pandemic from reliable sources. You can extend your search to other countries that faced the same threat.
You must provide a list with at least 5 measures, that will help managing the containment of the spread of the pandemic of Covid-19 in Greece.
Internet search is the most popular way to obtain information on a matter that there is an interest for. The information must meet the needs of the person that is conducting the search. One should prepare a search strategy that will include the appropriate tools and techniques. When the information is obtained a number of checks should be carried out in order to avoid implications.
