Lesson 1: Navigation and Search

February 17th, 2021

During this first class of Computer Science and Digital Competency we looked at the difference between web browsers and search engines and how to settle the privacy on these, we learnt different tips for looking on search engines, we talked about fake news and how to recognise when something is fake or not, libraries and content storage and finally, we looked at bookmarks and how to save links in an online webpage. 

First, we learnt about the web and the internet. The internet is the network of machinery that provide access to several communication services as it allows us the access to the web. On the other hand, the web is a collection of pages with different kind of content. We also learnt the definition of a page as it is "a document or electronic information capable of containing text, sound, video, programs, images and links to other resources that can be accessed through a web browser". Some web browsers are chrome, explorer, mozilla, etc. We also looked at the difference between them and the search engines as the web browsers are used to access search engines such as google. 

Later on in the class, we learnt a lot about the privacy settings in the web browsers, search engines and your email account in google. Attached is a photo about the privacy settings in a web browser however, you can access these settings in any type of web browser or search engine as you just need to look for the settings option or 'preferences' and look at all the different options that you have regarding location, microphone, camera, etc.  

We looked at the different ways to figure out whether news are fake or not as it is a current issue that is quite apparent in todays world. Some ways to check whether the information you are reading is true or not is to check for previous work, go upstream to the source, read laterally and circle back. They also suggest to be suspicious and follow your instincts, don't just keep the headline, check the content, look at the date, the amount of media they have published and if there is any misspelling. Some webpages to check for news are: Maldito bulo, VOST, El tragabulos and Snopes (in English). 

Libraries also offer websites where they publish information such as references of physical books and e-books which are a source of high quality information. There is also an option to bookmark specific webpages or articles so they are easier and faster to access. You may bookmark webpages in the different web browsers or search engines however, there are online platforms such as Diigo where you can bookmark URLs and share them with other individuals. 

The following individual task consisted of using the different search engine tips that we learnt during class and apply them when looking for webpages about our didactic unit: the water cycle. They went through all the different options we have to look for different websites about our topic. There are many different options to look for images, specific websites and all the different information available about a specific topic. You can also look for specific file types by just searching the topic and filetype:pdf. If you use quotation marks "" one can look for specific quotes and if you use '-' you can search for a topic without a specific word. 

For the individual task, I decided to use the Google search engine to find the three sources I wanted to bookmark. First, I wanted to search for a general overview about the water cycle to start with the basic information about the topic. I searched up the water cycle site: britannica.com as I knew that Britannica was quite a reliable source to find the basic information about our didactic unit. Then, I wanted to look for something that focused more on the processes of the water cycle thus, I searched for the Water Cycle OR processes. This resulted in a website that looked more in-depth and in a wide scheme at the specific processes of the water cycle. After that I wanted to look into the specific process of precipitation and therefore, I searched for the Water Cycle AND precipitation to have a more accurate or specific search. 

Subsequently, after looking at the first three sources for basic information in the google search engine, I then proceeded to look for sources in the section of google called Google Scholar. Here, there are more academic and reliable sources that will take the information one step further to understand it in a more complex way. I wanted to look for a pdf about the water cycle and evaporation so I searched up "the Water Cycle and Evaporation filetype:pdf" to find a pdf article specifically about evaporation. Finally, I uploaded all the links to my Diigo account and put a small description to know what each link is about. I put them all under the tag "thewatercycle" to be able to find them in an easier way for the final group project. Next I will continue to do more research about our didactic unit. 

Here is the link to my Diigo account: https://www.diigo.com/user/anamadrazo02 if you are interested in looking at the research that I accomplished for this activity. Below one can observe a screenshot of the websites that I chose to bookmark in order to make it easier to access when trying to research more about our didactic unit. 

Overall, I learnt a lot from this exercise as I got to know Diigo better while using all the different strategies that we learnt in class. I got to research more about our didactic unit and got to know the basic information about the water cycle. This will be very useful for our final project as we can go into our Diigo accounts and access the websites we have bookmarked in a faster way.