Posts Tagged ‘search’

In fifth grade I memorized the capitals of all fifty states. It took a while, and I got 100% on the test. To my knowledge that information has not helped me one single time since fifth grade. Fortunately I have Google today and any time I need to know some tidbit of trivia (sorry South Dakota) it takes about two seconds.

But how do I find the answers to more difficult questions? I am talking about the kinds of questions I am more likely to get.

Who is this?

I put together a search activity for my class. How many of these can you find?

How many can you find in two seconds?

What is the significance of this formula?

It looks like a circle with a line across the top and the bottom. What is the significance of the logo on the green shirt of the guy standing on the left side of this picture?

What is this substance?

The picture below is a movie poster. According to the poster, what is the main topic of the movie?

What is the name of this painting?

The pictures below are of the same tree. What kind of tree is it?

Here is a handy tool for anyone interested in finding a podcast about a specific topic.  Everyzing is a service that scans through an assortment of podcasts and converts all that speech into text that is searchable.  You can search for generic topics like “educational technology” or broad topics like “politics.”   Search results can be sorted by date or relevance.  By clicking on a hit, you can listen to the audio in the built-in player.

A link to your specific search term is also available so you can jump right to the part of the podcast talking about your topic.  In this way, you can quickly hear a phrase in the context it was recorded.

The site also searches online video clips and other multimedia.  The goal is to make all digital content searchable.  Imagine being able to find a video clip of someone giving a speech by searching for a few key terms from the speech.  You wouldn’t even have to know the speaker’s name.

EveryZing also sells a product that will convert multimedia content to printed pages.  This has potential for hearing impaired students.

I can even find someone I know in a podcast.  Here’s John… fifty times.