Tutorial for using iEARN's WWW-based Forums

Using the "SEARCH" function in the Interactive Forums

We will introduce the process for searching for specific keywords in messages in the iEARN's interactive forums. If you are able and would like to actually work directly on the forums during the tutorial, place your mouse/curser over this address http://foro.iearn.org and a window will open automatically. You will need to Register and log-in before this will be possible. If you have not yet Registered, see www.iearn.org/tutorial/database.html

To demonstrate the Search, let's assume that you are studying the African country of Ghana and would like to know if anything has been posted about Ghana or by students and teachers in Ghana.

We will start with the Teachers' Lounge. Click on <iearn.teachers> in the section "Linking People and Resources" on the main iEARN Forums Page:

You will see a list of discussion topics similar to the one below:

At the very bottom of the page, you will see a number of buttons, including one that is labeled "Search."

When you click on the "Search" button, the following window opens:

To start the search, type in the word "Ghana" (without quotes) in the keyword field. Since we would like to explore all references to Ghana anywhere in the iEARN forums, we will not limit our search to the site we are currently in (which is the Teachers' Lounge). We will check the option "Search the whole site." If you would like to stay within one forum, click on "Search this location."

When you click on "Search," the computer lists a small portion of each message/topic that has a reference to Ghana--giving you the option of scrolling through the list to see if any are more likely to meet your needs than another. The most recently posted messages are listed first. To go to the message, click on the title of the message (in blue).

If we click on the first item, we are taken to that message--which, in this case, happens to be within the YouthCaN Project on environmental issues.

Similarly, if you recall seeing a discussion topic or response on a particular issue, but cannot recall which forum it was in or when it was posted, you can use the Search to find it quickly. You can also search for your students' work in the same manner.

Other parts of this Tutorial explain how to Post a Response or a new Topic, as well as how to "subscribe" to particular discussions so that you will automatically be notified if new messages have been posted to that discussion, without having to go visit it. To Log-in and enter the iEARN Interactive Forums, click HERE.