i think my first use of a search engine was in school and it was alta vista??? or the one that had a really cute dog as its logo?!?! i soon changed to google and revolutionised my search capabilities as google swept me under its wing and opened my eyes to the wide world.
BUT NOW... there is a new wave of search engines that i had no idea existed. at most i would occasionally mix it up a bit by using googleimages or googlescholar on the odd occasion but wow there is so much more out there. so specific and so tailored to my needs. is it restricting by not over-exposing me? is it only because i have well developed search skills that i am able to field off the rubbish from the gold and know where to go at the right time? does sending students to these tailored sites to early prevent them from developing the multiliteracy skills they need to "crap detect" (Howard Rheingold, 2008). perhaps its one of those once you know the rules you can break them type ideas, where there is a time and a place for students to be directed to certain searches and other times where they need to work it out on their own.
iv stumbled across the recently developed www.trove.nla.gov.au website of the National Library of Australia. Brilliant! its relevance and importance to issues relating to education in Australia is perfect for getting me the 'relevant literature' that is sometimes so painful to obtain. here is a search that is so relevant to my needs that it almost rights my assignments for me. but will it tell me if Britney has had her next breakdown?!?!
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Well done on finding the NLA site which, as you say, only went live very recently - I'm sure it will revolutionise our searches for Australian content!
ReplyDeleteI'm spoiled, that's what it is, I clicked on the bold type and expected a hyperlink. The site is worth the new tab openingness - I've tweeted it, with thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou make good points on the risk of sheltering students from the difficult bits, and the need to choose for each task what level of freedom you allow.
It is a challenging job, designing "learning experiences" to get them out of the shallows of the sea of facts and factoids and exploring without kindly program protectors .
Julie