Module 1: What's out there?

Finding Internet sites

How to find useful sites
Subject directories and search engines

To perform the searches suggested in the remainder of this module, you will require a live Internet connection.

How to find useful sites

So far in this module you have explored some Internet sites and have probably found some that have something to offer your classroom. The next step is to find more sites you can use.

This section will help you find more sites without spending hours online. Surfing the Internet may be fun, but it can also be frustrating and time-consuming. It's wise to set time limits when you are searching.

You will want to find the resources you need as quickly and efficiently as possible, but like other forms of research, you are unlikely to find something useful if you only have ten minutes to spare.

The problem is that the Internet is essentially disorganised. You must find the information yourself. Once you have found it, you must then evaluate its worth. Evaluation is dealt with in Module 2.

You won't find everything you are looking for on the Internet. You will use Internet resources in addition to the print resources you already use, such as those from Curriculum Corporation Catalogue. (Listings of print resources from Curriculum Corporation Catalogue are at Learning Resources (http://www.curriculum.edu.au/catalogue/). Click on Bookshop and then select The Arts in the learning area. Choose Primary or Secondary and click Go.)

Subject directories and search engines

There are two major services that can help you find information on the Internet: subject directories and search engines.

Subject directories are a way of trying to impose some order on the vast body of information available on the World Wide Web. The human designers of each directory create a hierarchical structure by selecting and organising resources into subject categories and sub-categories. This hierarchical structure is also common to the structure of websites, where users work their way down through layers of information from the home page.

Access to a particular subject involves following pathways from the first, or root directory, by drilling down through increasingly refined sub-directories. There is generally at least a cursory evaluation of all the sites added to the directory.

Subject directories have a categorised subject-based structure that can be browsed to find relevant sites. They are useful for finding a list of sites on a subject.

Search engines are programs that search pages on the World Wide Web. In response to specific keyword requests they will return a list of documents in which such words are found.

Search engines are useful for finding information on a specific page within a site or very specific information on a topic across the World Wide Web.

In practice, the line between subject directories and search engines is becoming blurred as many subject directories provide keyword searching facilities and many search engines attempt to categorise some or all of their links.