Excavating information on the Net

Ekta Singla

Any information, whether it is booking your tickets to travel, history of your city, learning to play an instrument or perhaps repairing your own car, one can find information on anything without leaving the confines of one’s house or school. And yet, in this brave new world of Internet, finding relevant information is like finding a needle in a haystack. You can spend hours on the Internet, trying different combinations and permutations and never be sure if the information you dug through is factually correct.

Over the years, as a student of research, interactions with colleagues and teachers have taught me skills and attitudes that channel me, in a relatively short time, to relevant information online. I want to share them with you, in the hope that you may benefit from them and more importantly add to this checklist to be a better online searcher.

1. Where do I begin? How do I find information relevant to me?

Finding relevant information is not just about learning to search optimally but also training your brain to think clearly, sequentially and in a decisive way.

• Search for one thing
In my early days of Internet search, I often opened multiple tabs, looking for ten things at a time. At the end of it, I felt exhausted, unsatisfied and frustrated. In addition, I wasted time, energy and computer power. Learning from that experience, I now focus on one information search at a time and I recommend the same to you.

• Narrow your search
Start by defining the kind of information you need, e.g. a video, scholarly or news article, government report or an image. Next, decide the format of the content, e.g. word file, pdf document, jpeg image. You can narrow the search further by region, date or time. This process will help you bring focus to your search. It will also save time and effort by deleting unrelated content from the search engine.

• Tricks and Tips
There are numerous articles and videos that will help you learn some quick tricks to search appropriate content in no time.

• Use the relevant search engine Google is the most common and reliable search engine for information. However, it is not the only one. Others include Bing.com and Yahoo.com, among others which may use a different algorithm to classify information. In addition, different search engines and websites now specialize in content they curate. For example,
1. For videos – YouTube.com
2. General information – Wikipedia.com
3. Images – Google Image, Creative Commons, librestock.com, Pexels.com, Unsplash.com
4. Government reports – Google scholar, data.gov.in
5. Free books – Readprint.com, Manybooks.net, Freecomputerbook.com, Gutenberg.org
6. Audiobooks – Librivox.com, https://archive.org/
7. Presentations – Scribd.com
8. Children’s content – http://en.childrenslibrary.org/, https://goo.gl/G9fdJe

2. As a teacher, how can I use the Internet for the benefit of my students?

Depending on the time and resources available at your disposal, you can use the Internet in many creative ways.

• Use the content for a new experience Universities and organizations working on creating educational content have made available very interesting content on the Web that may help your students gain a new perspective on a topic. For example, http://scaleofuniverse.com/ is an interactive page that compares the size of things around and beyond us to understand relative sizes. Similarly, http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/ provides an interactive experience with ancient India.

• Connect with students, teachers and experts from across the world Websites such as globalpenfriends.com, penpalsnow.com or interpals.net provide great opportunity for students to connect with other students across the world. Whereas, forums such as https://www.digitalhumanlibrary.org/about/, https://www.worldvuze.com/, http://www.globaleducationconference.com/ or https://education.microsoft.com/ can help you connect with educators and other experts from around the world. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter also have groups and pages to connect with experts and teachers within and outside the country. E.g., People in Education, Teachers of India.

• Find out about student opportunities Use the Internet to broaden and challenge your students’ skills and worldview. Various competitive opportunities in the field of art and design, social and physical sciences are available for your students. Some of these can be found at https://studentcompetitions.com/, http://www.scholasticworld.in/, https://www.thinxygen.com/stem-competitions.

3. Do I need to be wary of the information I come across online?
Yes, very much so. As the number of Internet users have expanded, so has content of various kinds, not all of which is factually correct. It is always healthy to process information with a pinch of salt. Content especially of political nature, has recently seen a surge in fake or factually incorrect news. Internationally, websites like snopes.com, Google or Facebook have taken steps to remove fake content. In India, website like check4spam.com has taken the onus of fact checking certain Internet content. To know more read https://goo.gl/mm1Nvu.

A few mindsets will also help to protect you from the onslaught of incorrect content. For example, be a skeptic. Whenever you come across broad claims, find alternate links, websites and sources on the similar topic. Be open to alternate viewpoints and look for sources that give you different perspectives on a topic and do not just confirm your biases. This not only helps in learning new information but also helps expand worldview.

4. How do I get better at finding information online?
Searching for information online is like any other skill. The more you use it, the better you get at it. In addition, you can take online courses or watch videos that will teach you some handy tips. E.g., http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com. Talking to people about their own online search practices and skills is another useful way to improve your own skill.

5. How can I use the Internet to develop my professional skills?
There are numerous websites that now offer thought provoking and exciting courses at no cost at all. Some of these include edX.org, Coursera.org, udacity.com, Firki.co, https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm, https://online-learning.harvard.edu/, among others.

6. What else can I do on the Internet?
Have fun! Play games, watch movies and videos of comedians from around the world, learn to make music with spoons and so much more.

The author is an associate at Firki.co, a Teach for India initiative. She can be reached at ek.singla@gmail.com.