Class #1: Web-based Skills

Hola Boricua!

It's 30 minutes before our class, and three men are standing on tables trying to get the projector to work. Welcome to another wonderful Boricua class....

What you're reading now is one of of my class blogs. I write up what I expect to do an hour or two before the class actually starts, as a record of what the objectives for that class are going to be. That way, as students start rolling in, they can start reading about what's going on in the class tonight, and students that miss the class know where to go to pick up missed work.

So since I'm not going to have a working projector, here's what we're going to do tonight: learn about Web search engines. By the end of this class you will know:

• How to access a variety of different search engines,
• Write "queries" to help you find the answer to various questions
• Begin your community research project, saving your work on a wiki page.

So let's get started!

Search engines have existed for fifteen years now, and all of them compare keywords you supply to an existing database of information stored on web pages. Google (or for you energy conservationists, Blackle) is the most popular one, but many others engines exist, and you may find some of them more helpful when "surfing the Web" for educational resources. For example, meta-search engines, like Webcrawler, or Dogpile, search multiple search engines at the same time. Ask.com is running a bunch of commercials to raise its standing. Most search engines have an advanced function that allows you to narrow your search.

A Chronology of Search Engines

Year Released	Search Engine
1993	Aliweb
1994	WebCrawler
	Infoseek
	(now Go)
	Lycos
	Metacrawler
1995	AltaVista
	Excite
1996	Dogpile
	Inktomi
	(nowYahoo)
	Ask Jeeves
	HotBot
	Mamma
1997	Northern Light
1998	Google
	Ixquick
1999	AlltheWeb
2000	Singingfish
	Teoma
	Vivisimo
	(Now Ask)
	Exalead
	Gigablast
	Turbo10
	Picsearch
2001	Grokker
	Kartoo
2002	FindSounds
2003	Info.com
	Blinkx
2004	Yahoo! Search
	Clusty
2005	MSN Search
	Answers.com
	Myriad Search
	Lexxe
2006	Windows LiveSearch
	Quintura
	AnooX.com
2007	Krozillo
	SearchWeaver
	Yotophoto

Don't just use Google! Quintura is an example of a graphic based search engine. Click on the link and type 'Boricua College' into the text box. On the right side of the screen you will see the standard list of links of information that pertain to your search terms. On the left, however, is a unique graphical map, which shows similar search terms that are connected in some way to 'Boricua College.' What the connection is to Barnard College, I have not a clue...

Another innovation is "natural language" queries. If I go to Lexxe, and type in 'why do birds fly south in the winter?" into the text box, I will get my standard list of links on the right, but on the left, I will find some possible answers to my question, like "it's too cold," or "they can find more food." Clusty organizes your search results into specific categories to help narrow your search. Answers.com offers similar technologies.

Let's practice using this blog, and using search engines. Look at the following list of questions:

1. What zoo in England has a white-faced saki?
2. This person -- the 15th of 17 children born of former slaves -- grew up to become a college president.
3. Many consider this doctor to be the originator of the Blood Bank concept.
4. Why did Michael Jordan choose the #23 to wear as his signature number?
5. What kind of shoes do football players wear?
6. Who sank the first 3-point goal in the history of college basketball, and in what year did he sink it?
7. In what city was the game of basketball invented?
8. Who was the "father of professional baseball?"
9. What color is a polar bear's skin?
10. How many times does your heart beat in a day?
11. Who was the first woman elected to the US Senate?
12. How many years have people lived in the Artic?
13. What was the name of the first professional baseball team, where and when was it located?
14. Which states do not observe Daylight Savings Time?
15. What kind of trees lose their leaves in the fall?
16. Mount Everest borders which two countries?
17. What percent of the Earth is covered by water? By ice?
18. What male animal hatches his eggs in his mouth?
19. What is the name for a beetle's hardened forewings?
20. What country has the most tornadoes?
21. When was the first world series? How much did a single ticket cost? How much money did each winning team member receive?
22. What unit of measure is equivalent to 4 miles?
23. In what year did two teams from Manhattan play in the World Series
24. What instruments are used to determine the altitude of the North Star?
25. In what year did two teams from Manhattan play in the World Series?
26. Which ancient Olympic event included both boxing and wrestling?
27. During the Chinese New Year, oranges and tangerines are believed to be symbols of?
28. What three national documents did Benjamin Franklin sign?
29. The current twelve month calendar we use (January, February, ...) is named after what person?
30. Who was the last teenager to rule England?
31. How many World War II soldiers are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns?
32. Which state borders the most other states? Name all the states.
33. What species are the world's largest reptiles?
34. When was the first United States flag officially approved by Congress?
35. Who was the first American female millionaire?
36. What is the last line of the Magna Carta?
37. What was it that made Nat Turner lead his famous revolt in 1831?

Use search engines of your choice to answer any of the above questions. Once you have found an answer, follow these instructions to post your answer to this blog.

• Open a new tab (Ctrl-t) and load this page a second time. By clicking back and forth on the tabs, you can read the instructions in one tab, and execute the commands in the other.
  
• Scroll to the end of this posting, on the line that starts, "posted by terminus," and click on the 'comments' link.
  
• On the right side of the screen, type your name in the text box.
  
• Type in the number of the question, and your answer, under your name.
  
• Below the text box, click on the 'Anonymous' radio button.
• Once you're happy with your answers (remember we're all going to read them in a few minutes) click on the orange 'Publish Your Comment' button below the text box.

NOTE: Once someone has correctly answered a question, no one else can answer the question.

Homework

Find a research topic that refers to something, anything that is located within the Northside Williamsburg neighborhood. Its boundaries are the East River, McCarren Park, the BQE, and Metropolitan Avenue. Here are several maps to help orient you:

• My Map
• Google Maps

Each student will save his/her work for this class on their own wiki page. Click on the link, and click on your name. This will take you to your page. To edit your page, click on the 'Edit This Page' button on the upper right side of the page. The Edit Toolbar will appear at the top of the screen. Type or copy/paste in all of your research. And now the most important part: make sure you save your information by clicking on the 'Save' button on the Edit toolbar. The toolbar will disappear, and your page will be updated. So long as you save your work, I will always be able to restore your work.