Two tough weeks in a row. Had to leave for Trail earlier than I had anticipated to help out at home and then did not have internet access. This resulted in delayed participation. Not crazy about this as you do not really get to add to the discussion in the same way. There was not much that changed the way I look at teaching due to this module but it is always nice to try something you have put off trying! I also liked the try this and create something nature of the module.
The main focus of the module was to find something you of interest in then create a Google custom search that would focus on your topic. I had a number of topics that interested me, more on eportfolios, looking at formative assessment using polling tools as I suggested in a previous reflectionor look at gaming and education. As I would like to integrate Minecraft into my second semester class and use that game as a basis for students to do some, reflective blogging, research, creation of tutorials and screencasts I thought I would create an engine that focused on Minecraft resources.
Creating a custom search engine is something I have wanted to try for a while. I bookmark anything I find on the web that I actually want to try with a try_this tag in Diigo. So I can see that back in August of 2009 I had bookmarked the link to the google custom search engine page and had tagged with try_this. Nice to see that a few years later I actually get to try it as part of a course I am taking.
At its simplest level the tool is quite straight forward to use. Give your custom search a name and a description. Add the different sites you want to create your search on test the search then you are given a link to reach the search from. There are a number of other features, such as refinement, that I need to check more closely later.
The search tool also allows you to embed the code so you can make the search part of your blog. I tried that out on a blog I setup ICT7 Miners. The beauty of this is you could aggregate all of your students Minecraft related content using Feedwordpress and have a dedicated Minecraft blog with a custom search tool at your disposal!
All in all the custom search tool would be a useful tool for me to use in my class. Being able to create focused searches will make some activities easier for my students. In addition, showing teachers how to create custom searches and embed the searches in a blog might also be useful so I have added a basic “how to” add a custom google search to my WordPress guide.
