Web Research

© Copyright William Rowan 2007

Objectives

By the end of this you will be able to:

• Use search engines and *URL’s on the internet as a research tool

*Uniform Resource Locator

Definitions

What is the Internet

Internet-

a large computer network linking smaller

computer networks worldwideAmerican Psychological Association (APA):

internet. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved January 12, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/internet

Image source: Microsoft Clipart Online

Definitions

What is the World Wide Web (WWW)

• The complete set of documents residing on all Internet servers that use the HTTP protocol, accessible to users via a simple point-and-click system. American Psychological Association (APA):

world wide web. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved January 12, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/world wide web

Internet Safety

• The next couple of slides will give you tips on how to ensure safe web browsing and helping you to keep safe

Image source: http://www.bestanimations.com/

Internet Safety

• Find out what the rules are in school and at home for using the internet

• Tell a teacher or a parent if you come across anything that makes you feel uncomfortable on the internet

Internet Safety

• Never give out any personal information such as your name (use a nickname), email address, photos of yourself without getting permission first to do so

• Keep passwords safe so that no one can get them

How to access the internet on your computer

• On the desktop double click on the following icon and a new window will open

• When the window opens it will display your homepage. This is a page that will always load each time the internet explorer is opened

Back/ Forward

Address barSearch Engine

Stop

Home

Refresh

Glossary

Here’s what happens when you use the following buttons shown on the previous page• Back- this returns you to the previous page you visited• Forward- after returning to the previous page you can go

forward to the• Address Bar- here is where you type in the address (or

URL’s) of the website you wish to visit• Refresh- this will refresh the current page to show the

latest version• Stop- this stops the page you are visiting downloading• Home- this will return you to your homepage

Web research

When using the internet as a research tool, you can use two things to aid you in finding material:

1. URL’s

2. Search engines (example shown on a previous slide)

Using URL’s

What is a URL?

• A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is basically the address of the webpage available on the WWW

• It starts with http:// followed generally by www.thenameofthewebsite.com

e.g. http://www.technologystudent.com/

Using URL’s

Not all websites use .com, here are some other examples

• .ie – Irish Website• .co.uk – UK website• .com.au – Australian Website

Sometimes you may see https//, this represents that you are using a secure site. This is usually associated with online buying

So how to use URL’s

• To use a URL you will need the URL or the address of the website before you log onto the internet e.g. www.howstuffworks.com

• Once the Internet Explorer is open you can click on the address bar and delete the text that is in it. Once this is done you can type in the URL you want to view (see next slide)

So how to use URL’s

• The address bar once you have clicked it

• The address bar once you have pressed delete

• The address bar after you have typed in the URL of the page you want to visit

• Once the URL is typed in press the Enter Key to load the page

So how to use URL’s

• The new page loads and you can now use links on this page to locate the information you need (see next slide)

• Once you click on one of these links a new page opens again and there may be further links from this page that you can access

Links

Search engines

What is a search engine?

• A search engine is a website where you can search for information on the internet

• There a number of them available on the internet

Using the search engine

• Again here you will need the URL of the search engine to locate the search engine e.g. http://www.live.com/

• Type this into the address bar as described earlier and press enter

• The page will then load and you can start searching information

Search Engine

Using the search engine

• To use the search engine you must first click on the search box so that you can type in the information that you seek

Click cursor in here

Using the search engine

• You can now type a word or a sentence for information you are looking for (search tips will be explained later on in the presentation)

• When you have typed the word in, press enter on the keyboard or with the mouse click the search button next to the search box

Searching for information

• For an example of how to search for information we are going to use the word “gaa”

• So in the search box type in “gaa” and press enter

2

3

1

Searching for information

1- This shows the amount of results that are available for the search conducted

2- This is the link to the webpage

3- Here is the URL for the webpage

More Search Engines

• Below are some other search engines that can be used to search information

• www.google.ie

• www.yahoo.ie

• www.altavista.ie

• www.msn.ie

• www.ask.com

Searching for information

So how do I get onto these webpage's?• To access the webpage(s) you want to view you

can click on the link and it will open in the same window you are viewing

Or• You can right click on the link and open it in a

new window or open in a new tab• A number of windows and tabs can be open at

the same time if desired

Searching for information

Searching for information

• If you choose to “Open in New Window” then a new window will open for this webpage separate to the one you are viewing as can be seen in the next slide

Searching for information

• If you choose “Open in New Tab” then a new tab will open along the top of the window you are viewing from

Searching for information

• It is also possible to search for images of topics if you want

• Just follow the same procedure as outlined above for searching just choose the “Images” tab at the search box

Searching for information

• There are some websites that also have their own search box on their webpage that allows you to search for information on that website

Image source: http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Some Tips for Searching

1. When searching for a topic use specific terms that relate to the topic as general terms will return thousands of possible sites

2. Use quotation marks “ ” to find a specific sentence on the web

3. Use the advanced tab to help your search be more specific

Some Tips for Searching

Advanced Menu

Now you try!

• Go to the following website:

http://www.ncte.ie/

• Find the link on this page for “Internet Safety” and load this link

• Read through this page and after this click on the “advice” tab and again read through this page as well

Now you try!

• Now using a search engine do a search for the word “webwise” and see if you can find an Irish website that has being created with information about safely using the internet and its applications i.e. email, etc…