While many of us, and our students, are frequent users of search engines, how many of us could really call ourselves “power users”, that is, users who can do more than a general search that produces a huge number of hits, most of which are irrelevant?
This week, Google announced that they have opened registration for Power Searching with Google, a free, online, community-based course showcasing search techniques and how you can use them to solve everyday problems. According to Google, this course is “aimed at empowering you to find what you need faster, no matter how you currently use search”.
Power Searching with Google blends the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) learning format pioneered by Stanford and MIT with Google’s social and communication tools. The set of six 50-minute lesson cover diverse topics such as how to search for and read pages written in foreign languages, how to identify the location of a photographed objects, and how to identify a book by its cover.
The lessons are being released daily starting on July 10, 2012, and users can take them according to their own schedules during a two-week window. Each lesson includes interactive activities to practice new skills, and opportunities to connect with others using Google tools such as Google Groups, Moderator and Google+, including Hangouts on Air, where search experts can answer questions on how search works. Googlers will also be on hand during the course period to help and answer questions for anyone who gets stuck.
You can access a more complete description of the course and registration at:
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director