A website from the School of Education at the University of Michigan has advice on how to gather information on the web.
The department studied the way students search the web and realised most were looking for only one answer. The web is more useful for researching what the department calls “open, deep and interesting questions” such as “Why was Oliver Cromwell hung and beheaded after he died?” The department has developed a 10-step model for web searches which covers search terms and how to write web-friendly questions as well as techniques such as starting a new window in your browser each time you open a new website - tis makes it easier to check back and compare information from different sources. The department also recommends that students have easy access to a spell checker and a thesaurus as keyword searches often fail because students misspell words or need help with synonyms. Students need a word processor on which they can copy URLs and type their findings. For searches on science topics, the department has created a tool called Artemis, freely available, which provides all these facilities. Teachers can register at http:webartemis.org. General advice and research findings on web searches is at http:hi-ce.eecs.umich.edu