Web Search Strategies

Strategies
for Searching the World Wide Web

Strategy #1: Use specialty sites devoted to supporting the needs of teachers like yourself

The Educators Reference Desk (which used to be AskERIC--a premier Federally funded resource for teachers)
EduFly: Where Education Takes Flight with a wealth of web resources sorted by grade level (K-college)
Tammy Payton: A dedicated and enterprising First Grade teacher
Carolyn Cole: A teacher who knows that busy teachers need all the help they can get
Discovery School's SchrockGuide: An award-winning Educators' Resources web site

and many more, including, of course.....

and (drum roll.....)

Bernie Poole's EdIndex which has links to dozens of other web indexers like himself. He has his Education majors at UPJ help him maintain his EdIndex of Educators' Resources

Strategy #2: Use search engines/web guides,and learn how they work!

The following websites have useful tutorials on how best to search the web.

Check out the Help button on a search engine such as Yahoo! or Google's Advanced Search Guide and find out how a search engine works

More (hits) is not necessarily better
The first 10 or so hits are usually the most promising
Here are some more hints and tips about Search Engines and Web Directories (aka Web Guides)

Strategy #3: Use specialist websites for special types of data (still images, video, sound)

Alix Pleshette's nicely organized set of links to image resources on the Web
Animation factory is a good source for free animations--and an even better source if you're willing to pay!
A really good search engine for images, video, and audio is Altavista's Multimedia search engine. Note the very important Family Filter options here, which can be turned on or off and protected by a password.
Google has an excellent search engine for images, with different levels of filtering, too. But it's not password protected...
Archive.org is a good site for full length movies, text, and audio.
freefoto.com is an excellent resource for photo images on every subject under the sun.
Digital Saskatchewan, with over 7500 images freely available for use in schools.
Flikr.com, the best way to store, search, sort, and share your photos.
Yotophoto.com--find free photos fast!
Pix4Learning.com--copyright friendly images for education.
Owl & Mouse at YourChildLearns.com--free maps and other learning games.
The Hamilton Museum of Art, with digital images submitted by teachers and students for others to use.
History and Politics Out Loud--great site for audio clips.
coolarchive.com is another good resource for clip art, fonts, graphics, animations, and other multimedia tools
freeplaymusic.com offers a wide selection of broadcast quality music--all styles

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