I learned about the beauty of Google research earlier this year, and now that I’ve used it a couple times, and talked to my co-workers about whether they use it, I think it is the most underrated tool in Google’s arsenal.
Getting Started With the Google Research Tool
Start by hitting “Tools” then select “Research”. These features may not be synched with docs and forms, but they are for docs, presentations and drawings. As soon as you do, a window pops up next to your presentation asking what you’d like to add to your presentation and what sharing settings that you prefer. This means not toggling back and forth between different browser tabs, downloading, or saving to the desktop. It’s just drag and drop.
Images:
The name says it all. However, the beauty of this is that you can filter images by no filter or creative commons. Once you drag and drop it into your presentation, there is already a source attribution link underneath so you don’t have to say where you got it.
Movies:
It’s always a few clicks to get to the “youtube” video of choice but a search for movies on Google research can immediately find movies that can be previewed or inserted.
Scholar:
Search for anything on a regular Google search and you’ll fine hundreds of thousands to millions of articles. A search on scholar will narrow down a handful of sites and make reviewing them much easier. Just make sure to use keywords of interests and you’ll find journal pieces typically published for academic reasons, not propagandist ones.
Quotes:
A quote search can bring up some interesting quotes to liven up a presentation. However, some creative works may be copyrighted so don’t get too attached to a particular person or saying. Chances are, you can still use it in your presentation.
Dictionary:
For teacher that work with ESL learners, it’s nice having a tool that quickly translates any terms for you that you may encounter while learning. Many of my students have complained when they don’t understand target vocabulary so this is a nice feature to make learning more accessible to them. There may even be full length article translations!
Tables:
I learned about this from Richard Byrne. The table feature allows you to look for statistics and also drag and drop a hyperlink to the information. For my presentation on “Minnesota” I wanted to compare the “Mall of America” by size to other malls of the world so this came in handy.
Google research makes it so much easier to find information that is credible and filtered for your use and I also forgot to mention that it allows for MLA, Chicago, and APA citation format which will accommodate most of your academic requirements. Give it a whirl and enjoy saving time and making a better product!
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Feature image courtesy of Flickr, Mild Mannered Photographer.
Another very useful post Gary. Thank you.