Anyone who works with students on digital image projects knows what a major battle it can be to get students to use copyright-appropriate media. "Why can't I just search Google images?" becomes a frequent whine.
Well, now they can.
Using Google Image Advanced Search allows students to set a variety of criteria when they search. Specifically, the "Usage Rights" option offers to limit results to those "labeled for reuse," generating entire banks of rights-friendly images for media projects.
The other options provide even greater control. Search by size, orientation (tall, landscape, etc)file type and color or black and white.
In fact--and I really LOVE this--click on the options link, and you can search for images with a dominant color. Here are the results for a "civil war" search with yellow selected. This is great for art teachers and projects that need some color-coordination. You can even select the "Face" option, returning only portrait results. Flickr creative commons is still a wonderful tool, obviously, though one that's frequently filtered in schools. Google Images now provides a viable and easy alternative.
How many times have you had a senior comment "This is the first time I've checked a book out of the library!" I hear this far more often than I'd like. While our students read, they're far more likely to just buy what they want at Borders than check a book out of the library.
Part of that is because my fiction collection leaves a lot to be desired. I'm working on it. But it's also because I don't have much display room. For some ideas on how to display books digitally, check out this post from Joyce Valenza. I found some great ideas for rotating digital displays on the library website. Can't wait to try them out.
Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about Google Search...they introduce the options button. I bet you didn't even notice. I sure didn't!
Here's a quick tutorial video, and below I'll discuss some of the implications/uses for this in library and research.
There are three options here I especially love.
1) Related Searches/Wonder Wheel. Most of us know it's an uphill battle getting students to plan their searches, generate key words, etc. When they can't find information within the first few hits, they give up. Other search engines provide related terms lists. Below you'll see a comparison of the results in a)Yahoo and b) Google. (Full disclosure: I was a beta-tester for the Yahoo related search options)
The search terms they suggest are fairly similar (though Google adds in some odd ones), and I do think students would find the "related concepts" in Yahoo helpful. Google sold me, however, with one link Yahoo doesn't offer: French Revolution Documents.
As students make increasing use of primary source material--our History Dept. requires students to use at least 7 in their research papers--they will welcome any help in what can often be a grueling search task.
Google takes the related search idea one step further by offering the Wonder Wheel, a graphical presentation of search options (ala Visu-Words) that not only leads students into ever more specific search, but also nods to learning styles preferences.
The Timeline can be used in two different ways. With the "French Revolution" search, for example, the user can drill down into specific dates. Clicking on the 1800's section produced a page on the Battle of Marengo on June 14th, 1800.
It can also reveal trends. Run a search on "autism," and you'll see an explosion from 2000 on, along with an odd spike in the 1940's. Upon further exploration, it turns out autism was identified in 1943, hence the high number of pages in that time frame.
Finally, the "Reviews" section in All Results. Students frequently--at least at our school!-have to find reviews of current topical books. If the NYT Book Review doesn't have it, they're often at a loss for where to look. A search for Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded turned up the NYT Book Review, Slate and wired.com, among others.
What I especially like about all of these options is their ease of use. For some reason, I can't seem to get the students to use the Avanced Search Options, though I keep plugging away. I suspect it requires too much thought/planning for them. ("Do I need all of these words, or just one of them?")
Options makes it a little easier for them to broaden their search options. However much I might decry their lack of initiative in generating their own search terms, if these tools keep them searching and digging longer, with useful results, who am I to argue?
Anyone who reads this blog regularly, has probably figured out I can be pretty full of myself sometimes. Over the past two years I've been to many tech workshops and left most of them feeling "So tell me something I DON'T know." In a few I even would suggest easier ways to do something to the presenter.
So I started thinking I actually know a lot about the educational application of technology. When I was accepted to the GTA, I was excited, but wondered what I would really learn. After all, I've been using and teaching about Google Apps for years, right?
Silly me.
Within an hour, my brain was on overload and I was seriously humbled...and inspired.
Over the next few weeks..even months...I'll blog about some pretty cool Google stuff I didn't know about, and you may not either.
I'll also post when they announce the next GTA. And I just have one word for you about that: APPLY!
Ever since I started at my school, I've been angling to get them to drop our current CMS, which I hate, and use Moodle. So test piloting it this year and guess who gets to be the administrator...?
Our tech guys loaded it on my laptop when school was out and OF COURSE I waited until now to start playing with it. Aack! I think it's going to be great, but it's not quite as intuitive as I thought.
Apple provides basic "how to get up and running" tutorials for many of its apps, but doesn't always explain some of the cool stuff. Macvideotutorial on YouTube hosts several how'to's for common Mac apps such as Keynote, Pages, iMovie09 and more.
I hate Excel with a fiery and long-burning passion, so I'm trying to learn Numbers instead, and the tutorials here have helped this severely math-challenged learner.
I'm off to the Google Teacher Academy next week. I'm very excited, to say the least! It looks like a diverse group of participants (and I think Wes Fryer, of Digital Storytelling fame, is one of them!?) and I'm sure there will be lots to learn. How we'll cram it all into one day, I don't know!
I will definitely blog it, of course. I've let all things educational take a dive this summer so I could have a real vacation, but it's time to get back to it. My garden looks great, though! Just harvested my one broccoli plant yesterday...
I finally got my school to start using Moodle, too, and I need to start playing with that since I'll be the one showing the teachers. Our tech guys are fuming that I haven't even started yet, since they put it on my laptop before school was out for the summer. Oh, well.
