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  • 标题:ICT on line
  • 作者:Beharrell, Andy
  • 期刊名称:Teaching Business Economics
  • 印刷版ISSN:1367-3289
  • 出版年度:2002
  • 卷号:Summer 2002
  • 出版社:Economics and Business Education Association

ICT on line

Beharrell, Andy

ARE YOU STILL SEARCHING FOR A SEARCH SOLUTION?

Search engines can be one of the most muddling areas of using the web. On the face of it, they should be very simple; you just type in a keyword, press 'go' and then wait for all those useful web sites to pop up on your screen. However, as economics and business teachers we live in the real world and so we know it isn't like this at all! The biggest problem is simply one of volume. There are so many sites out there that the returns for any common keyword will be massive. For example, try searching Google (1) with the keyword 'inflation'. You will get nearly 3 million results including a fascinating looking one on Microwave Anisotropy Probes from the NASA site. Like most web users, you will almost certainly give up if the site you are looking for is not on the first few pages of results.

So what can you do to improve your web searching experience? Well the first solution may be to use a specialist search engine or portal and see if that gives the results you want. The first port of call for economics and business may be to use either the Biz/ed (2) or Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) (3) catalogues. Both these sites use the same underlying database of web sites, but if you are looking more widely for social science sites, then it may be worth trying SOSIG.You won't get anywhere near the number of returns you will from Google, but you can guarantee that these will be good quality and useful sites and you have the reassurance that these have been looked at and checked against quality criteria by subject specialists before they are put in the catalogue. These catalogues can either be searched or browsed by subject area and every web site mentioned has an abstract so you can check it is useful before you have to visit it for yourself.

However, these catalogues may not provide everything you want and then the next stage may be to use one of the major web search engines. But which one?

Well the choice is almost certainly based on imperfect information (does that sound familiar?), as very few people actually understand how good the search engines are, so I would recommend that you pick one and then stick with it. My personal recommendation would be Google (1) as it has excellent coverage, ranks the results well and is simple to use.

Once you have chosen your search engine, spend some time getting to know it, as you would with any web site (well almost any web site!). This is important because many search engine have excellent advanced features that will make the search much more effective. For example, have a look at the advanced search page on Google (4) (just click on the link to 'advanced search' from the front page of Google). Using this page you can do a number of very useful things:

* Use the 'File Format' option to limit the returns to just a particular file type. For example, try limiting the returns to 'Excel files' and then doing a search on 'Cash Flow` or 'Net Present Value' or similar.

* Use Google to search an individual site for something. For example, try doing a search on 'inflation' again, but limit the site to search to www.worldbank.org. Google will find all mentions of inflation on the World Bank site.

* You can see who links to your school or college site by using the 'Page-specific Search' option.

* You can match exact phrases or include and exclude certain words.

Finally, have you tried the image search on Google? Go to the front page and click on the 'Images' tab above the search box, and then try a search. You could try keywords like 'break even analysis' or 'John Maynard Keynes'. You may be surprised by the results, perhaps one of the most surprising being that a search on Keynes also gives an image of Ho Chi Minh!

(1) www.google.co.uk/

(2) http://catalogue.bized.ac.uk/

(3) www.sosig.ac.uk/

(4) www.google.co.uk/ advanced-search?hl=en

DATA FOR DAY TO DAY TEACHING

Finding up to date data has always been a bit of a challenge for economics and business studies. The challenge in the past has been a financial one as well as a practical one, but the web is beginning to change this with a wide variety of free data sites for company and other data.

Company data has generally been the most difficult to find and while this is still true of the more commercially valuable data, there are now various sites that offer good company information. For company accounts data, it may be worth trying Company Annual reports OnLine (CAROL) (1). You will need to register, but once registered there is a wide variety of annual reports and company profiles available. There are also a range of other company information sites. Sites like Corporate Information (2) and Hoovers (3) have a range of free content, though there are charges for the premium data. For a full range of company information sites, try searching in the Biz/ed Internet Catalogue under the search term 'Company Information' (4). There are various sources where the data can be purchased and perhaps one of the clearest is Accounting Web (5). Following the links to ICC data will allow you to buy time series data on all UK limited and public limited companies.

Economic data are a little easier to come by and more plentifully available. For up to date summary information, the HM Treasury Pocket Data Bank (6) is hard to beat. This is also downloadable in csv format and can then be loaded straight into a spreadsheet program for graphing and analysis, or processing and perhaps putting onto a school or college intranet site. The Treasury site also has a range of other information available and is worth a little time spent browsing. The annual Budget documentation has a wealth of information on tax and spending and also recent economic forecasts.

There is a dedicated page on Biz/ed (7) giving links to free data sources on the web and these include the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the World Bank, the IMF and the European Union. One interesting one is a Swedish site called EcoWin (8). Though telling your students it is a Swedish site may get them more excited than is justified for an economics data site, it is nevertheless very useful if you look at the charting section. You can select by country, and then by variable and the page will automatically graph that indicator or range of indicators for you.

The National Statistics site (9) has been looked at previously in these pages, but it is always worth looking back at and is constantly improving. The neighbourhood statistics section may be valuable for project and assignment work giving, as it does, an extensive range of local data. As a final aside, if teaching population, or if you need population data why not have a look at the US Census Data site (10). This has an extensive range of data, projections and will also draw population pyramids for individual countries. You could also get students to track the World Population Clock (11) over a few weeks to see how much it changes!

(1) www.carol.co.uk/

(2) www.corporateinformation. com/ukcorp.html

(3) www.hoovers.com/uk/

(4) catalogue.bized.ac.uk/

(5) www.accountingweb.co.uk/

(6) www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/ Economic_Data_and_Tools/ data_index.cfm

(7) www. bized.ac.uk/dataserv/ freedata.htm

(8) www.ecowin.com/charts.asp

(9) www.statistics.gov. uk/

(10)www.census.gov/ipc/www/ idbnew.html

(11)www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ ipc/popclockw

DEVELOPING DEVELOPMENT TEACHING

The Virtual Developing Country (1) has been mentioned in these pages before, but we thought it may be worth looking at some possible ways of using it in teaching. These ideas were suggested by Mark Waterson, the Head of Economics at the International School of Amsterdam. Does anyone have any others? Let us know if you have any other idea or ideas for using other web sites and we will try to publish it as a regular section.

1. What about getting students to develop field trips based around other issues of countries and then comparing them with Zambia? The field trips could be presented as:

a Web sites

b Presentations

c Assignments

d Data trails

2 The VDC could be used to design online information gathering exercises, perhaps as 'treasure hunts' For example, what about apoverty hunt'? Students could be asked to gather a range of evidence like:

a Collect a photograph showing people in poverty

b Find data that supports the fact that Zambia is an LDC

c Find a quote that supports the view that IMF policies worsen poverty

d Find some data that shows that poverty has worsened in the last 10 years and also data to the contrary

e Find some data that shows that poverty may be worse among women than men

f Find a piece of evidence that rejects the idea that everyone in Zambia lives in poverty Alternatively, students could try a 'copper hunt' to look for:

a Find three uses for copper

b Using an internet search engine find a picture of an object made from copper

c Find three photographs showing the importance of copper to Zambia

d Produce a graph showing the price of copper over the last 10 years

a Produce a graph showing production levels of copper

3 Or what about role play exercises? Get groups to take different roles and use the VDC to investigate the information they need before presenting their arguments.

4 Or perhaps a debate? For some further ideas and games for teaching development economics, why not have a look at the 'Just Business' (2) project web site?

(1) www. bized.ac.uk/virtual/dc/

(2) www.jusbiz.org/

FREE INTERNET TUTORIALS FOR FE STUDENTS - AT THE RDN VIRTUAL TRAINING SUITE

Do your students need help in finding good quality information on the Internet? Most students will assume that if they read something on the web, it is true. To help to teach students the realities of web searching and the skills they need the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) is delighted to announce the launch of new Internet tutorials for the RDN Virtual Training Suite specifically targeted at students in further education (FE).

The tutorials provide free, 'teach yourself training via the Web in Internet information skills and are ideal for AVCE students in Business, Leisure, Sport and Recreation and Travel and Tourism. There are specific tutorials for each of these subjects, but the tutorials will also be useful for other students of business. The tutorials will also help students considerably in developing Key Skills in Information Technology (IT).

Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (DISC), these new tutorials build upon the success of the RDN Virtual Training Suite (www.vts.rdn.ac.uk), a national service that has successfully offered free Web based training for higher education since July 2000. The Suite currently offers 44 tutorials directed at higher education users and 11 for students and teachers in further education. Teachers of economics and business may like to have a look at the Internet Business Manager and the Internet Economist as well as the new tutorials

Each tutorial teaches Internet skills via simple, step-by-step instruction with interactive quizzes and exercises to lighten the learning experience. The tutorials have 4 main sections that enable students to:

1 TOUR key Web sites for the subject

2 DISCOVER how to search the Internet

3 JUDGE the quality of Web sites

4 PLAN how to use the Internet effectively for study

All the tutorials have been authored by subject specialists from colleges, libraries and universities across the UK. The FE tutorials have been written by lecturers, teachers and librarians from colleges including Leeds College of Art and Design, Farnborough College of Technology and Derby Tertiary College.

The RDN Virtual Training Suite is widely used by lecturers and librarians to teach information and Internet skills and recently received endorsement from Estelle Morris (Secretary of State for Education and Skills), who selected it as one of her top three educational Web sites. Why not check out the Web site and see if it could help you?

Access the tutorials at: www.vts.rdn.ac.uk

The RDN Virtual Training Suite has been built by the ILRT: Institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University of Bristol.

Copyright Economics and Business Education Association Summer 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

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