This entry deals with different search engines and ways to find information on the web. This week in technology class we discussed different web searches that can be useful in a classroom setting.
One search engine that really impressed me was Wolfram Alpha. (http://www.wolframalpha.com) As seen in the slideshow, this tool allows you to either get basic facts about a topic, or get a quick comparison snapshot. Wolfram Alpha would be a great tool in the art room for finding fast information about an artist or piece of artwork. The comparison tool is useful too- lots of art history research involves comparing and contrasting different artists. (I chose to compare Artemisia and Caravaggio because that was the basis of a research paper I wrote in an art history class!)
One search engine that really impressed me was Wolfram Alpha. (http://www.wolframalpha.com) As seen in the slideshow, this tool allows you to either get basic facts about a topic, or get a quick comparison snapshot. Wolfram Alpha would be a great tool in the art room for finding fast information about an artist or piece of artwork. The comparison tool is useful too- lots of art history research involves comparing and contrasting different artists. (I chose to compare Artemisia and Caravaggio because that was the basis of a research paper I wrote in an art history class!)
Another great search engine is Instagrok. (http://instagrok.com) This would be a good second step to use after Wolfram Alpha to get more in depth information about a topic. Instagrok creates webs of information about the topic you selected. When I searched for Yayoi Kusama, I got a great summary of her work and found excellent articles and quotes. This is much faster than using a more conventional search engine. This tool would be great for students writing reports about an artist or piece of art. I can definitely imagine using Instagrok in my classroom. It also has a quiz tool- but from what I found, the quizzes were not particularly useful, at least with the topics I was searching. But the way the site organizes information is cutting edge.
In my art classroom, I plan to use Wolfram Alpha and Instagrok as information finding tools. Students will be able to use them to get information when writing reports, or just fulfilling curiosity. Hopefully artwork and artists I introduce students too will catch their attention enough that they want to find out more!