Flickr: Mark Anderson
At a recent conference, professor Kristin Fontichiaro described watching a seven-year-old work his way through do-it-yourself resources online. Because he was comparing concrete items (e.g., his circuit versus that in the tutorial), and not abstract concepts, the student immediately understood what was a credible resource and what was not.
Although the task was about building a circuit, the student was also demonstrating meaningful, informed judgments about the quality of a given source, and understanding clearly what the impact of a quality resource would be on his final project.
In the same way, using advanced operators when searching online can help students and makers zero in on exactly what they’re searching for. For example, when a student finds a great project on one of many DIY community sites, such as making a multi-color LED bracelet on Instructables, and wants to see what similar ideas that specific website offers, the site: operator makes it possible.
Another powerful operator for making and other pursuits comes from placing two dots between two numbers.
Take a look at these search results for the query [makerfaire 2006..2010]. What are those two little dots between the numbers telling Google to do? Continue reading