Sunday, August 12, 2012

InstaGrok: The Perfect Search Engine for Students

In this technological age we now live in, we are incessantly bombarded by vast amounts of information especially by way of the internet. The volume of information and the speed with which it can be communicated is daunting.  As a result, learning how to efficiently curate and collate information in an organized fashion is of utmost importance.  Students, in particular, will need to be taught key research skills.

 InstaGrok is the perfect search engine to teach students research strategies as it is specifically designed to find educationally-suitable, age-appropriate content.  This is very different from other all-purpose search engines as InstaGrok immediately filters out any non-academic information.  Another important research strategy students must learn is how to conceptualize a topic into manageable and content-related chunks.  InstaGrok's mind-map feature is excellent for this as it visually breaks down related aspects of a topic into separate easy to understand bubbles.  Accordingly, the availability of these main features alone will greatly assist students to fully understand and successfully complete their research projects.   


Additional Features of InstaGrok:

The video below further explains additional features of InstaGrok.  Please note that to use InstaGrok, one does not need an account; however, to take advantage of  InstaGrok's full capabilities, it is recommended.


InstaGrok is an excellent research tool for students.  Click here to start your first search!

 This post originally appeared on The Detective 4 Teachers.


 photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/7002668141/">AJC1</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photo pin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
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6 comments:

  1. Judy AshbyAugust 15, 2012 at 5:50 AM

    I will definitely share this with our Instructional Technology committee when school starts up again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LAugust 15, 2012 at 1:46 PM

    Fantastic! I am sure you will find it a very useful research tool for your students. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. mrs toddOctober 6, 2012 at 9:00 PM

    Hi Lynda
    What a great website! I like the visual aspect of the mind map- great use of an interactive graphic organiser. I can see that I will be using this for the next research activity that we do in our classroom. Thanks for sharing!
    Kate Todd

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    Replies
    1. LOctober 7, 2012 at 6:14 PM

      Great! I am pleased to hear that your students will be using InstaGrok very soon! It is a great tool for students who struggle with curating and collating information. Good Luck!

      Delete
  4. AllieNovember 4, 2012 at 8:19 PM

    Incredibly difficult site to use. Where's the help button? Can't find anywhere that explains how to create your own bubbles. The video says what the site is capable of but not HOW.

    Might be great for teachers, but if your stuck with your kid needing to do something for homework on the site it's plain TERRIBLE.

    So... teachers out there, don't do this to us poor parents.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LNovember 4, 2012 at 8:49 PM

    I am sorry to hear your initial experience with InstaGrok was not a positive one.

    If I understand your question correctly, you are looking to create your own bubbles. From my experience, InstaGrok does not offer that service. The purpose of the service is to narrow down a topic into manageable chunks. If you are unhappy with the results of the search, I suggest starting another search with related terms included in the search parameters.

    I do thank you for the feedback however, as it appears I will need to create my own video tutorial and add it to the post. In the meantime, this video tutorial should provide more assistance:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JJX6zqIdAg&feature=related

    Please feel free to contact me if you require further assistance.

    ReplyDelete

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