Lab 04: Using Internet Search Engines

Description: You have probably used a search engine before and may even have a favorite! Is it Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Ask Jeeves? Yet, just as you have used any or all of these search engines, you have probably been frustrated by the search results generated. There are so many web sites out there! And none of them seem to have what you are looking for... With some knowledge about how search engines work and how to use specific modifiers in your searches, your results will improve, helping you find faster and higher quality results.

Reading: Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning, pp. 209 – 213; 391
Applications/Equip: Windows OS, Microsoft Word, Web-Based Email Client, Web Browser.
Lessons: Finding Info on the Internet.

Links:

Using Search Engines
Finding Information On The Internet: A Tutorial from UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops.
How to Search the World Wide Web: A Tutorial and Guide for Beginners from David P. Habib and Robert L. Balliot of the Middletown Public Library.
Web Searching Tips from SearchEngineWatch.com, helping you to use search engines better.

Plagiarism and the Internet
Plagiarism and the Web - Bruce H. Leland, Professor Emeritus, Western Illinois University
Turnitin.com - Tool used by teachers and professors to scan papers for online plagiarism.
Myfreeessays.com - Tool used by students to find and potentially to crib essays on common research topics.

Lab Procedure:

1. Write a one-page response paper to two articles you find about Internet plagiarism (use Lexis-Nexis or any search engine). Be sure to include at least one quote from each article, and reference each article. Also, read Bruce H. Leland's Plagiarism and the Web, and comment on his suggestions for combating Internet plagiarism.

2. Save your response paper in a word document, appropriately named (jones_lab04.doc), with your last name, email address, and lab number at the top.

3. Send your word document to my AC230 Digital Dropbox on York’s Blackboard. The subject line should give your name and the lab number (Frank Jones Lab 04).

4. You will not receive credit for labs missing your name OR lab number. Late labs will never receive more than 50% of the total points possible. Labs more than one week late will receive a zero. Labs 3 – 15 and 18, 19 MUST BE SUBMITTED TO MY DROPBOX IN BLACKBOARD.