Big 6

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Big 6 Internet Sources
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Objectives

• What is Big 6?
• What are the 6 steps?
• Searching the Internet
• Website Evaluation and Big 6

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What is Big 6?

• Big 6 is a proven approach to information
  problem-solving. Using the Big 6 steps, students
  can find, use, apply, and evaluate information
  for specific needs and tasks. Every time you
  solve a problem, no matter how big or small it
  is, you are probably already using some if not
  all of the Big 6 problem-solving steps.

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What does Big 6 look like?
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Sowhat are the steps?

• Step 1- Task Definition
• Step 2- Information Seeking Strategies
• Step 3- Location and Access
• Step 4- Use of Information
• Step 5- Synthesis
• Step 6- Evaluation

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What is Task Definition exactly?

• Step 1
• Task Definition is asking questions to start any
  given assignment or process. Task Definition is
  also getting clarification if the task is not
  clear.

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Task Definition Examples

• Here are some questions that you would ask
  yourself during the task definition step.
• What are you being asked to do?
• What information do you need to complete a
  specific project or process?
• Do you need clarification or more information to
  complete this task?
• Where can I start looking for information to
  complete the assignment?

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Information Seeking Strategies

• Step 2
• During this step of the problem solving process,
  you would be identifying what types of
  information sources you can use to complete your
  given task. You would also be selecting and
  evaluating appropriate sources.

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Location Access

• Step 3
• During this step, you will actually be locating
  the sources that you want to use. Your source
  can be almost anything. It could be a person, a
  website, a book, or a periodical.
• By the way, what is a periodical?

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Location Access

• Step 3-Continued
• If your source is a book, you can easily locate
  the information you are looking for by using the
  Table of Contents, the Index, and Charts.
• If your source is the internet, you can locate
  your information by using a search engine, and
  website indexes.

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Use of Information

• Step 4
• During this step, you will read, listen, or view
  your source. You will take notes, organize
  information, and cite your sources.

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Synthesis

• Step 5
• During this step, you would possibly create a
  rough draft or an outline. This step would also
  include presenting your product or process once
  you have completed the construction process.

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Evaluation

• Step 6
• During this step you can look at your final
  product and ask the following questions.
• Did I meet all of the requirements?
• Did I give proper credit to all of my sources?
• Is my work complete?

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Search Engines and the Internet

• One of the best ways to locate information on the
  Internet is by using a Search Engine
• Good search engines to use are
• Google.com
• AltaVista.com
• Dogpile.com
• Ask.com
• The results that you get from a search are
  referred to as hits.

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Where do I find how many hits I have?
Google hits are usually found at the top right of
the screen.
For Altavista, look after the third result. It
can also be found at the top right with some of
their searches. This search resulted in 313,000
hits.
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Phrase Searching

• Use a Phrase Search to make your search more
  specific. This is done by placing quotation marks
  around the words you want to locate.
• Example USA Swim Team.
• Without the quotation marks, the search engine
  will search for each word separately.

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Without the quotation marks, this search would
result in 453,100 possible articles. Do you have
time to search through all of these if your
report is due tomorrow morning? Now lets look
at how using the quotation marks will help
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• Now we have added the quotation marks before and
  after what we are looking up. This search will
  result in 4,560 possible articles. Now, this is
  still a lot of information, but you have narrowed
  your search and will be more likely to find the
  accurate information you are looking for.

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Boolean Searching

• A Boolean Search is using the words AND, OR, or
  NOT within your search.
• Example Memphis and Jazz not Elvis
• This type of search will exclude any information
  you do not want and help narrow your search even
  more.

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• This search will result in 1,059,000 possible
  articles. This is an impossible amount to work
  with, so it is obvious that we need to do
  something to narrow the search.
• Now lets try adding some Boolean terms to
  the search.

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• By adding the Boolean terms, we went from
  having over 1 million articles to 53,500. This
  result is not perfect, but it is definitely a
  great deal better that over a million hits. If
  this didnt give us exactly what we needed, we
  can keep adding more terms to get even more
  specific.

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Using a Website as a Source

• The internet has become the most popular means
  for getting information that we need fast. Yet,
  how can we be sure that the websites that we are
  viewing are our best choices? This is when you
  can use the Big 6 process to determine if the
  site you are using is reliable.

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Website Evaluation

• Ask yourself the following questions before using
  a website as a source.
• Who is the author or web page creator?
• Is this person an expert?
• Is the information current?
• Is the source reliable?

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Questions?

• How many steps are there in the Big 6 process?
• Name one type of searching method I can use when
  doing a search on a search engine.