Thing 10: Search Tools Ninja

Thing 10: Search Tools Ninja

I am always trying to find new search tools to encourage students to use something other than Google for their online searches, so I started my Cool Tools journey with Thing 10.  I looked at several different search tools, including Duck Duck Go, Sweetsearch, ListenNotes, and Wayback, as well as kids’ search engines like , Kiddle, KidRex, Dibdabdoo, Sqoolqarium.  These are all great resources and most function in a similar format that makes each easy to use.  DuckDuck Go is unique in that it does not track you online so you gain privacy over other search engines like Google.  This search engine would work for all age levels and its format is very similar to Google.  Sweet Search is supposed to be designed for student use. I noticed the results seem to be more heavily commercialized.  Sweet search offers a biography link that is very useful for students searching for information on a person.  This search engine credits finding some of the web site results that are buried on other websites and posting them first.  Sweet Search also offers a news and history search for more specific searching.  Listen Notes is a great search tool to locate podcasts.  You can search for a specific podcast, search best podcasts or favored trending podcasts, and also save podcasts for listening to later.  Wayback is a really neat site that offers a searcher the ability to actually go back and search the actual pages from as far back as the 1990’s.  It shows top collections that are archived on the site and popular, as well as how many actual items are in each archived topic.  I had to check out the news articles from 911, as was suggested in the article “Archive.org and the Wayback Machine” written by Alan November.  Seeing the actual articles unfold as the events were happening is impactful and would certainly give those who did not experience this event a real feel for what it was like.  This site offers so many possible opportunities for student learning.

As for search engines for younger students, there are several that are very similar in appearance to google but with a noticeable appeal for younger students.   These include KidRex, Sqoolqarium, Choosito, and Kiddle.  These sites are more user-friendly for younger students and provide child-safe searching.  Sqoolqarium provides a nice link to video material.  Choosito is a really neat site allowing you to select the reading level of the material results so they are geared for the individual student who is researching.  In addition, it provides suggestions for related searches and allows students to rate the sites based on how useful they find the site.    SweetSearch is another great site for children to use for research,  and has now added Sweetsearch History which includes many primary resources for students to access and SweetSearch News which includes articles from over 1600 credible newspapers, magazines, and other current events sources.  All of these sites offer some viable options to allow younger students the ability to search the web and find information at their level that they can use.