So I asked my class
to search on Google for some information about Vikings and I started thinking
about how I could improve the results that they got. We all go straight to
Google when we want to find something out; after all to “Google” is a verb in
the Oxford English Dictionary. However, few people do much more than type in
what they want and wait. Before we cover the theory of how Google works it
would be a good idea to teach how to improve the results of our Google
searches.
https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search
is a really good place to start. By filling in the boxes you can include words
or phrases in the search or exclude certain words. This should make it easier
to improve a search.
You will notice that there is a drop down menu called usage
rights. The work done by children is non-commercial so selecting the
non-commercial use with modification would be appropriate.
Children need to know that they are responsible for
respecting the rights of others’ property, including copyright. They will
probably have some knowledge of this in connection with films and music but may
not realise that it extends to text and images. At this point it is worth
mentioning “Creative Commons”. It is widely held that it is necessary to use
Creative Commons images to comply with the law. CC is an organisation with a
highly respected licensing system; they seek to make it clear when images may
be used and modified freely. Websites like behold and photosforclass will only
return images that CC have labelled as available for reuse and modification so
are really easy to use to ensure that the results can be used. However, by
making an appropriate selection in either Bing or Google it is also possible to
comply with copyright responsibilities.
Happy searching.