Mr Bass Online

Google has given educators a number of tools for use in the classroom, but their main purpose is still to find information through their search engine. They can find information for us in seconds, but so many times that information is spread across so many different sites that deciphering it becomes the real challenge. Google Squared (http://squared.google.com) is an attempt to make those search results a little more usable. When doing a search in Google Squared, the search term pulls specific information that it sees as relevant and puts it into a grid with categories to organize the information. Here is an example of one I did on British poets.

If you visit the site, you’ll see that the search has pulled the name, picture, description, date of birth, etc. into a grid allowing students to compare the poets in a meaningful way without have to visit site after site. They can then use their critical thinking skills to decide what information is important and what is not. They can even change the categories, share their “squares” or export them to a separate spreadsheet program. Finally, these “squares” can be saved as a webpage, exported to a spreadsheet program or simply save it for future use. It uses Google’s searching techniques, but organizes the information differently. We still need to help students learn how to search for relevant information, but the layout of Google Squared lets students sort that information in a different, and possibly more meaningful, way.

Google Squared
British Poets Save Square
Filmmakers Square

Cross posted on Northeast Middle School Friday Flyer

One of my favorite tools in the Google arsenal is that of Google Alerts. Essentially, Google Alerts is a tool that will do an ongoing search for you automatically and then email you the results on a regular basis.  So, imagine that you are in the market for a new netbook (as I was last summer).  Asus had just come out with the eeepc 1000HE and I was interested. However, I wanted to let some of the early adopters get one and make their recommendations as to the feel and workings of the machine.  Instead of going everyday and doing a blog search looking for reviews, I set up a Google Alert to do a comprehensive search on the term “eeepc 1000HE” and to email me the results once a day.

From then on I got a daily email anytime there was a website that would have shown up in my search results.  I love Alerts for the same reason that I love RSS, it saves me time and energy. My searches come to my inbox automatically and I can use my time in other ways.  Give it a try.