Yesterday I had occasion to deliver a brief workshop on Google Search Tips & Tricks.  Many of the concepts covered in my post of last week were covered, though by no means all.  To make sure the attendees had a chance to practice the concepts covered I set up a Search Contest Quiz in our workshop Blackboard component, and made it available for all workshop attendees for six hours only, from 6pm to 11:59pm January 29.  This morning I have had two of the attendees say they simply could not find the time to do the quiz and could I open it up again.  I will do so in the Blackboard workshop area, but...

I am going to be doing a Google Search Tips workshop next week (Tuesday at noon in room LL-109).  For those who will not be able to attend, here is what we will be covering. Google Search Basics 1. Every word you put in the search box counts.  Don’t use too many words, but the right word and word order matter. Don’t ask a natural language question that a human would understand. Don’t worry about spelling, Google will correct it. The search algorithm understands only terms you give it, so express your search in the terms that might appear on the page(s) you are looking for. Stop words (the, and, a,...

Is it easy to find out about someone on the Internet?  Was George Orwell a writer?  Of course. I’m going to be offering an Internet Basics workshop next week—really, really basics— but in preparation I am gathering resources that attendees might find useful.  About half the workshop will focus on search.  With that in mind, take a look at the infographic below.  Now think of someone.  What can you find out? via The Internet is a major, perhaps THE major, influence on civilization in the early 21st century.  This is for better or worse.  The infographic above demonstrates how easy it is to gather...

We had a terrific summer Tech Camp.  Thanks to all who attended.  I feel that valuable skills were obtained and hope that they will be used in your instruction in coming semesters.  We featured a number of educational tools and products during camp, and I thought I would summarize the highlights here for those who have lost their notes. The real-time Twitter polls we used were from Polls Everywhere.  The free, educational version allows a max of 32 votes.  With a little creativity and multiple instances of a poll, even a class larger than 32 can use this fun feature.  Remember, you are not limited to...

We will be conducting our annual summer tech camp August 3-6.  Don’t bother signing up because it is fully subscribed.  (Sorry).  It is still over 5 weeks away, but I thought I would review the tentative agenda we have pretty much agreed on so that attendees, and perhaps those planning similar events at other schools, will have some insight into what we are doing. Our inspiration for tech camp this year is the TED talks concept.  If you are not familiar with ted.com, rush to that web site without delay to be exposed to the best and brightest people in the world in the fields of technology,...