Is Google enough? New workshops will reveal a Web beyond search engines
Google is the first place most people go to find information on the web - for some it's often the only place. With so much information out there, and so many search sites to choose from, it's easy not to go beyond Google, especially as it often does its job well. But just how helpful is it to get several million hits? And how do you know if the sites Google finds are of good quality?
New workshops from Netskills, the Internet training service partly funded by Jisc, will answer these and other questions and show how critical use of search engines is vital to making the most of the Web. The workshops represent one strand of a new programme of training sessions being run by Netskills to support staff in FE and HE during the coming academic year.
Based at the University of Newcastle, Helen Conroy is a trainer at Netskills. Helen developed the workshop because there was a clear need expressed by a range of staff for support and guidance on finding up to date and reliable information on the Web. ‘People want to know about new developments on the Web,’ she explains, ‘where to find the most reliable information, what the different available sources are. Search engines can provide a useful first port of call, but there is much more that people should be aware of. This workshop gives them a range of tools, tips and hints to help them to discover a world beyond what the search engines give access to.’
The workshop has evolved from earlier information skills workshops run by Netskills, but the focus has shifted as people’s use of search engines and, in particular Google, has grown. Irene Stirling, Information Services Librarian at Strathclyde University, has attended the new workshop. She says that even though she was familiar with using the Web, the workshop taught her a great deal: "As someone who uses the internet frequently, I thought that I would probably know a fair bit, but I learned a lot about the mechanics of search engines and many new techniques to try out. My use of the internet will definitely be more effective from now on."
While feedback on these and other courses run by Netskills has consistently been excellent, Helen Conroy of Netskills is particularly enthusiastic about the signs that delegates use the skills they have gained at the workshops to train other users, both students and staff, when they return to their colleges and universities. ‘People come to improve their own skills, of course,’ she says, ‘but we also know that they run cascading programmes of user education and information skills training for others back at their institutions. We think and hope that this will be the case with these Google workshops.’
But these workshops are by no means the only ones being run by Netskills. The new programme recently published reveals a wide range of workshops, from training in e-assessment, detecting and deterring plagiarism, Web-based content management systems, XML and much more. Apart from the Google workshops, other new workshops devised for the upcoming academic year include introductions to Cascading Style Sheets, i-skills (or information skills) and ‘m-Learning’. Helen Conroy explains: ‘Cascading Style Sheets are a web standard. They allow people to use quite straightforward technology to give a sophisticated appearance to web pages. These workshops will provide very practical guidance on how to use them.’
And what of “m-Learning”? ‘m-Learning is Mobile Learning,’ says Helen, ‘which means the use of mobile phones, hand-held media devices and PDAs (personal digital assistants) in learning and teaching. These are increasingly being used in education and this course looks at what you can do with these devices and how they can support you in getting the most out of them.’
The new programme of workshops is set to provide high-quality Internet training for the FE and HE communities for the new academic year. As Helen Conroy says: ‘We at Netskills listen closely to what people say they need training, support and guidance in, and our new programme will we think have something for everyone who wants to use the Web more effectively.’
Click here to find out more about the wide range of courses offered by Netskills.