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My stacks include Information Literacy, Search Engines, Innovators in Computing, Technology News, Instructional Technology, and Computers In Societyhttp://www.delicious.com/stacks/beverlyannsharon

Efficient Web Searches and Information Literacy

                We satisfy our decision making needs with information that comes from a variety of sources.  The most popular way to gather information at this time is the Internet and for a variety of reasons: Education, Business and Industry, Entertainment,  Health Care, Government, Law and Politics.   In our discussion of Web Searches the one thing all of us agree on is that we want to find data and information in a timely manner and that it is credible.  

                There are many search engines with a vast amount of pages.  Google alone has 1.5 billion pages.  We also discovered there are several ways to do efficient searches.  Some of the search methods include:  identifying key words, Boolean: and, or, and not; Implied Boolean: plus and minus; phrase searching, title searching, and host searching (Source:  2004 Donna Flanagan, and the African Journal for the Study of Educational Issues).

                 Information Literacy skills are the ability to find, evaluate, use and share information. (http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/info_literacy/) These abilities will relieve some of the frustration of sifting through the vast amounts of information on the World Wide Web.   Keeping these skills in mind changes the way we look at things.  We will be employing best practices for the use and distribution of information.

These skills should be taught to ensure quality work from our students.