Finding information online is easy. You go to a search engine, type in what you are looking for and with a few mouse clicks you have an answer...most of the time. Teaching kids how to search is easy. Teaching them how to do quailty search is a bit of a challenge but not impossible. When I was in the classroom, one of the hardest things to teach was organizing information found on the web in such a way that it was easy to see and garnish what was needed.
One
June 3, Google unveiled, quietly, what they say is the next "big-thing"
in search. Google Squared changes the way you look at information on the web. But what is it? Why is it so good and why do I think it will
change the way students conduct research online.
First, Google
Squared is a search engine. It works just like the regular ol' Google Search you turn to. Type
in a search term and you are presented with results. What is different
is how the results are presented and what you can do with the data.
For
this review I am going to use the search term "British Prime
Ministers." When you do a regular Google Search you get what you
expect, several sites that contains lists of British PM's. Students
would then have to work through each of the links, trying to find the
information, not knowing how that information is going to be organized
on each resulting page.
With Google Squared the search results
are presented in a table. Results are organized horizontally with
several pieces of information (or what Google calls Attributes.) In the
case of the British PM's you get the name, picture, description, date
of birth, religion and who they were proceeded by. All of the results
in each of those columns comes from different places on the web,
organized in the Squares. You can check the information for each Result
and Attribute but clicking the link in the Square. (Remember, its
always a good idea to double check where the information is coming
from.)
So
how could this be of benefit for students. Lets say I want my students
to research British PM's and I don't want them to know the religion,
rather, I want them to know the date of death and political party.
Again, these could all be separate searches on multiple pages, taking
lots of time. In the Square you can designate what Attributes you want
displayed. There are suggestions for Attributes or you can type your
own. In the case of date of death, that is a suggestion. However,
political party is not. So I type it in and am presented with the
political parties for all the British PM's.
Do
you not like one of the search results, or do not need one of the
search results? Press the X and it goes away. So basically your search
results are customized for your needs or what you want your students
need.
Try some of these cool searches:
Baseball TeamsTypes of DogsElementsRoller CoastersThese
are just some examples of how you could use Google Squared. Remember,
this product is still a baby, so there are going to be mistakes or
search results that just don't fit. But I am sure, just as other Google
products, it will get better. So, head on over to Google Squared and
give it a try!