My biggest discovery was Learning Express. This database has tools that are very useful to high school students. I have had students ask for practice tests for the ASVAB and SATs. Now I can direct them to current practice tests as well as study guides for these tests. I already showed this database to our JMG (Jobs for Maine Graduates) teacher and also to our College Access Specialist. They were both wicked interested and excited about this resource.
Even though I was aware of the following databases, I was happy to take the time to learn more about them and will continue to promote them with teachers. EBSCO Host, Consumer Health Resources, NoveList, Maine News Stand, and Britannica are some of the databases that will be useful for my schools. Personally, I was glad to explore Ancestry.com and Hobbies and Crafts and will recommend them to anyone interested in those areas.
Promoting MARVEL is part of my teacher/librarian goals and has been for years. I have given sessions on MARVEL during inservice days for teachers, and always expose students to MARVEL as often as possible. I give a skimming overview during yearly library orientations, but also work with teachers to show students specific databases on MARVEL for their research. Once again, MARVEL is truly marvelous and I take any and every opportunity to promote it that I can get.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
EbscoHost
Academic Search Complete is my favorite database for research. I used it extensively for my graduate work. Recently I have been reading Bill Bryson's "Home" and became intrigued by Skara Brae, a 5000 year old village that was unearthed in Orkney, Scotland. I knew I was looking for historic information and browsed the publications looking for something that started with history or British. I found British Heritage Journal as well as the popular Time Magazine. In the basic search I entered "skara brae" and got 24 results. The first was great because it was written in a tour guide fashion. However, many of the other articles only had the "Article Linker" that always leads to nothing, "Sorry no holdings were found for this journal." If anyone else has success with the "Article Linker" please let me know what you are doing that leads to success.
Ebsco eBooks search on "Skara Brae" yielded nothing, so I tried "British History" and got 107 hits, I narrowed my search to Orkney and got 3 hits - one of which was about Vikings in Orkney, not about Skara Brae, but still archeology. I had trouble loading books, but was able to look at the table of contents which seemed to lead right into the book. I'm a little confused about this. I tried to enlarge the text so I could actually read it, but the "+" sign in a circle didn't do anything.
Constitution Day was an interesting topic. A search for "Constitution Day" lead to every country but the United States. I searched "Constitution" and the drop down menu offered "Constitution and United States" but still did not seem to offer anything useful. I changed the search to "United States Constitution" and found a couple of titles that might be useful: "Constitution in Congress : the Federalist Period 1789-1801" and "Representing Popular Sovereignty : the Constitution in American Political Culture."
I knew that 'Western history" through Nebraska Press or Oklahoma Press was going to be good. My sister showed me books by Nebraska Press years ago when she was researching the westward movement. They have an amazing collection. I was very pleased to see that some of them are available as ebooks. A couple that might be useful to students were: "Mountains we have Crossed : Diaries and Letters of the Oregon Mission 1838" and "American National Historic Trials."
Ebsco eBooks search on "Skara Brae" yielded nothing, so I tried "British History" and got 107 hits, I narrowed my search to Orkney and got 3 hits - one of which was about Vikings in Orkney, not about Skara Brae, but still archeology. I had trouble loading books, but was able to look at the table of contents which seemed to lead right into the book. I'm a little confused about this. I tried to enlarge the text so I could actually read it, but the "+" sign in a circle didn't do anything.
Constitution Day was an interesting topic. A search for "Constitution Day" lead to every country but the United States. I searched "Constitution" and the drop down menu offered "Constitution and United States" but still did not seem to offer anything useful. I changed the search to "United States Constitution" and found a couple of titles that might be useful: "Constitution in Congress : the Federalist Period 1789-1801" and "Representing Popular Sovereignty : the Constitution in American Political Culture."
I knew that 'Western history" through Nebraska Press or Oklahoma Press was going to be good. My sister showed me books by Nebraska Press years ago when she was researching the westward movement. They have an amazing collection. I was very pleased to see that some of them are available as ebooks. A couple that might be useful to students were: "Mountains we have Crossed : Diaries and Letters of the Oregon Mission 1838" and "American National Historic Trials."
Thursday, December 6, 2012
LearningExpress
I can't wait to show this to our college specialist who works with students to help them apply for post secondary education. I will also direct students to this site; I have had a few students ask me about practice tests for ASVAB or SATs, next time I'll show them LearningExpress.
Setting up an account was a piece of cake.
The test I chose was the Middle School Content Knowledge Praxis II. Finding the test and downloading it was seamless. I took the first page of questions, then stopped the test to see my score. I liked how it warned me twice that I was leaving the test and could not go back and continue taking the test if I proceeded. I was able to see the number I got correct and incorrect in each category. These tests will be very useful for students and teachers.
The course I took under "Job Search and Workplace Skills" was the "Vocabulary and Spelling #1." It gave a list of words and asked you to check the ones you knew by sight. It then gave the same list with pronunciations and asked you to check the words you knew. The next step was to give you the word in context and ask you to define it. This course went very smoothly and was easy to use. For anyone motivated to improve knowledge or skills, it would be great.
I found an ebook on interviewing entitled "Goof Proof Interviews." This ebook was easy to read and offered lots of good advise. The beginning of the book had basics like: making a date for the interview with do's and don'ts;, it talked about manners, and under the take time to prepare heading, it encouraged you to research the company and to practice the interview with a friend. Again a very useful tool.
Setting up an account was a piece of cake.
The test I chose was the Middle School Content Knowledge Praxis II. Finding the test and downloading it was seamless. I took the first page of questions, then stopped the test to see my score. I liked how it warned me twice that I was leaving the test and could not go back and continue taking the test if I proceeded. I was able to see the number I got correct and incorrect in each category. These tests will be very useful for students and teachers.
The course I took under "Job Search and Workplace Skills" was the "Vocabulary and Spelling #1." It gave a list of words and asked you to check the ones you knew by sight. It then gave the same list with pronunciations and asked you to check the words you knew. The next step was to give you the word in context and ask you to define it. This course went very smoothly and was easy to use. For anyone motivated to improve knowledge or skills, it would be great.
I found an ebook on interviewing entitled "Goof Proof Interviews." This ebook was easy to read and offered lots of good advise. The beginning of the book had basics like: making a date for the interview with do's and don'ts;, it talked about manners, and under the take time to prepare heading, it encouraged you to research the company and to practice the interview with a friend. Again a very useful tool.
Ancestry Library
Getting to a public library proved to be the hardest part of this assignment. Ancestry Library was very easy to use and is begging for me to return and spend more time on it.
Looking up myself, only yielded my address and birthdate. The information was old, from 1995 I think.
Finding my grandfathers was very cool.
My mother's father, Pierre Joseph Roy was listed in a draft notice for WWII. I thought this was odd because he was 53 at the time, but then I saw a note that referred to it as the "old man's registration." It offered his birthdate, address, and his employer.
I was unable to find anything on, his wife, my grandmother, Catherine Laramee Roy.
My father's father took more searching, his name was Alfred Levesque and there were several of them. It was the census that helped me find the right one, because I saw my father (age 12) and his siblings listed. The ages of all in the household were listed, his birthdate and location, that his father was born in Canada and mother in New York.
I had some trouble finding the "Photos and Maps." It took a lot of digging around. The first map I saw was of Bridgton 1871. I assume this was a Sanborn map. I will bring my husband, who is from Bridgton, to the library to check this out.
These Sandborn maps are wonderful. When I taught in Belgrade, Scott Davis - a 5th grade teacher at the time, used Sanborn maps to teach students the history of the area. They examined the Sanborn map for Belgrade village and then actually walked the area to look for evidence of past structures and boundries. The kids loved learning this way.
Looking up myself, only yielded my address and birthdate. The information was old, from 1995 I think.
Finding my grandfathers was very cool.
My mother's father, Pierre Joseph Roy was listed in a draft notice for WWII. I thought this was odd because he was 53 at the time, but then I saw a note that referred to it as the "old man's registration." It offered his birthdate, address, and his employer.
I was unable to find anything on, his wife, my grandmother, Catherine Laramee Roy.
My father's father took more searching, his name was Alfred Levesque and there were several of them. It was the census that helped me find the right one, because I saw my father (age 12) and his siblings listed. The ages of all in the household were listed, his birthdate and location, that his father was born in Canada and mother in New York.
I had some trouble finding the "Photos and Maps." It took a lot of digging around. The first map I saw was of Bridgton 1871. I assume this was a Sanborn map. I will bring my husband, who is from Bridgton, to the library to check this out.
These Sandborn maps are wonderful. When I taught in Belgrade, Scott Davis - a 5th grade teacher at the time, used Sanborn maps to teach students the history of the area. They examined the Sanborn map for Belgrade village and then actually walked the area to look for evidence of past structures and boundries. The kids loved learning this way.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Health Resources
Health Source
I didn't count the resources that Health Source accesses, but I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of them. They included periodicals as well as whole books. I noticed that I could determine the type publication by looking at the publishing date: books gave only one date like "full text 1/1/202" and periodicals offered a range such as "full text 7/1/1993 to present."
I researched leg cramps and found lots of good information. I read several articles and all of them were easily understandable. This is a great resource for the public as well as for students.
MedlinePlus
What's in the News offered articles on breast cancer disparities, the likely hood of hospital patients surviving a heart attacks and identifying genes that indicate a higher likely hood of Alzheimer's disease.
Some of the Top Searches were on Vitamin D, Cancer, Diabetes, Polio, and Malaria. I looked up Vitamin D under Drugs and Supplements and found good basic information on that vitamin, however I had to dig deeper to discover the daily recommended dose.
When searching for information under Health Topics for leg cramps, MedlinePlus offered an informational article much like an encyclopedia article. Below this article were links to articles from other sources. These were very readable. I would also recommend this resource to the public and to students.
I watched part of a video on anterior approach to total hip replacement. Wow, this was pretty scary. But, if I were having such an operation, I would want to know what they were going to do (I think) and this video really showed how it is done. This could be a great resource for many different types of inquiries.
I didn't count the resources that Health Source accesses, but I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of them. They included periodicals as well as whole books. I noticed that I could determine the type publication by looking at the publishing date: books gave only one date like "full text 1/1/202" and periodicals offered a range such as "full text 7/1/1993 to present."
I researched leg cramps and found lots of good information. I read several articles and all of them were easily understandable. This is a great resource for the public as well as for students.
MedlinePlus
What's in the News offered articles on breast cancer disparities, the likely hood of hospital patients surviving a heart attacks and identifying genes that indicate a higher likely hood of Alzheimer's disease.
Some of the Top Searches were on Vitamin D, Cancer, Diabetes, Polio, and Malaria. I looked up Vitamin D under Drugs and Supplements and found good basic information on that vitamin, however I had to dig deeper to discover the daily recommended dose.
When searching for information under Health Topics for leg cramps, MedlinePlus offered an informational article much like an encyclopedia article. Below this article were links to articles from other sources. These were very readable. I would also recommend this resource to the public and to students.
I watched part of a video on anterior approach to total hip replacement. Wow, this was pretty scary. But, if I were having such an operation, I would want to know what they were going to do (I think) and this video really showed how it is done. This could be a great resource for many different types of inquiries.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Business Resources
Business Source Complete
FM Radio was a tough topic for me to understand the results. I noticed academic journals, reports and periodicals as the types of sources. The visual search was "wicked cool." I used FM radio again, but then tried "green interior design" and the results made more sense to me. It didn't take long at all to see where the articles were located and how you could limit and adjust your search using "sort" "filter by date" and "display styles." Seeing this made me wish that all the databases offered a visual search (do they?). I'll have to take a look.... I just checked "Academic Search Complete" and it has a visual search - a whole new world has opened up for me.
Econ Lit
There were many results for "small business owners" most of them were academic journals but there was one icon I did not recognize, it had 3 overlapping images, the middle one being a book. From looking at the article, I think it means a chapter from a book. Since I liked the visual search, I tried to find "EPA" and "Small business" using that, but got zero results. I went back to the "advanced search" and had 3 hits with this search. Searching "Tax policies" and "small business" resulted in a number of
hits.
Regional Business News
National company: Follett Library Resources resulted in one hit, but it was in Chinese! So I looked up Amazon and most of the articles appeared to be about Google, no surprise. Regional company: I tried a couple of family businesses in Massachusetts, but found nothing. I looked for Hannaford and found some interesting articles about sustainable fish and their environmentally friendly store in Augusta. Locally, I struck out with a few tries, but found many articles on Cianbro.
Value Line
Guess I lucked out. Other than one of the links being blocked by our school filter, I navigated around with no problem. I explored all the links and it brought me to different sections of their newsletter - I think. Lots of information. I was able to look up one stock, but couldn't determine where the full record was.
Wall Street Journal
Small business and health care resulted in 19683 hits, but the offered keyword combinations suggested small business and health insurance which only resulted in 120 hits - much better. I was able to narrow my search by using "location" and other limiters.
FM Radio was a tough topic for me to understand the results. I noticed academic journals, reports and periodicals as the types of sources. The visual search was "wicked cool." I used FM radio again, but then tried "green interior design" and the results made more sense to me. It didn't take long at all to see where the articles were located and how you could limit and adjust your search using "sort" "filter by date" and "display styles." Seeing this made me wish that all the databases offered a visual search (do they?). I'll have to take a look.... I just checked "Academic Search Complete" and it has a visual search - a whole new world has opened up for me.
Econ Lit
There were many results for "small business owners" most of them were academic journals but there was one icon I did not recognize, it had 3 overlapping images, the middle one being a book. From looking at the article, I think it means a chapter from a book. Since I liked the visual search, I tried to find "EPA" and "Small business" using that, but got zero results. I went back to the "advanced search" and had 3 hits with this search. Searching "Tax policies" and "small business" resulted in a number of
hits.
Regional Business News
National company: Follett Library Resources resulted in one hit, but it was in Chinese! So I looked up Amazon and most of the articles appeared to be about Google, no surprise. Regional company: I tried a couple of family businesses in Massachusetts, but found nothing. I looked for Hannaford and found some interesting articles about sustainable fish and their environmentally friendly store in Augusta. Locally, I struck out with a few tries, but found many articles on Cianbro.
Value Line
Guess I lucked out. Other than one of the links being blocked by our school filter, I navigated around with no problem. I explored all the links and it brought me to different sections of their newsletter - I think. Lots of information. I was able to look up one stock, but couldn't determine where the full record was.
Wall Street Journal
Small business and health care resulted in 19683 hits, but the offered keyword combinations suggested small business and health insurance which only resulted in 120 hits - much better. I was able to narrow my search by using "location" and other limiters.
Friday, November 2, 2012
NoveList Plus
NoveList Plus is such a useful tool. I use it when ordering to check the different series for titles that are missing in my library. I also show students how to use NoveList Plus to see the sequence of books in a series. And now that I have explored more of this database, I'll use it for reader's advisory also.
Viewing the results of an author search for Sarah Dessen, I sorted by date to find her most recent book and also sorted by popularity to see which ones are the most popular. Both of these sorts would be useful for students seeking information as well as for librarians building a collection. The different views are cool. I like the grid and detailed views, probably because I am a visual learner, but think the images will also help students remember if they read a book or not.
I just looked at the read-alikes for this project. It was a huge help when a high school student came to me and said that she had read all of Sarah Dessen books and wanted other books like them. We brought Sarah Dessen up under "Author" and clicked on "Author read-alikes." Since she is an avid reader, she was familiar with some of the authors listed, but found a few new ones to explore. Success!
In addition to using NoveList for research, many of the lists from NoveList can be used for creating displays. Printouts of the grid view or series lists could be easily used to gather material for displays or become part of the display itself.
I love the menu on the left of the home page that lists genres and then expands into more specific genres. There are some very interesting categories such as "Canadian Fiction" and under "Murder" "Make Mine Hardboiled;" something for everyone.
Viewing the results of an author search for Sarah Dessen, I sorted by date to find her most recent book and also sorted by popularity to see which ones are the most popular. Both of these sorts would be useful for students seeking information as well as for librarians building a collection. The different views are cool. I like the grid and detailed views, probably because I am a visual learner, but think the images will also help students remember if they read a book or not.
I just looked at the read-alikes for this project. It was a huge help when a high school student came to me and said that she had read all of Sarah Dessen books and wanted other books like them. We brought Sarah Dessen up under "Author" and clicked on "Author read-alikes." Since she is an avid reader, she was familiar with some of the authors listed, but found a few new ones to explore. Success!
In addition to using NoveList for research, many of the lists from NoveList can be used for creating displays. Printouts of the grid view or series lists could be easily used to gather material for displays or become part of the display itself.
I love the menu on the left of the home page that lists genres and then expands into more specific genres. There are some very interesting categories such as "Canadian Fiction" and under "Murder" "Make Mine Hardboiled;" something for everyone.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Hobbies and Crafts "Oh My!"
What a wealth of information on hobbies and crafts! Although I already knew about this database, I haven't taken the time to explore it; now I'll be telling my friends about it.
I started out looking at the Browse by Category for Outdoor and Nature. I looked at Canoe and Kayak articles for basic "How to" information for a friend. I found several articles that worked for this purpose. I noticed that some of the PDF's were difficult to read on the screen. When I enlarged them, only the Hobbies and Crafts background enlarged, not the article. So, I tried printing it, hoping I would be able to read the print out - no such luck. Anyway, this was not the case with all of the articles, just some of them.
The magazines represented by these articles were; Canoe and Kayak, Kayaking, and Wooden Boat. I receive none of them in my libraries. It also accessed some really good books and gave links to the appropriate chapters. For a project, it offered several (real) boat making projects, however I found one I could make - a canoe from the "Little Book of Whittling."
I also looked for information on "Penny quilts," but was finding mostly quilting articles. Not sure how to narrow this search, I used Google and searched the same two words. Many of the hits on Google were entitled "Penny Rug Quilts" and when I searched for these terms on "Hobbies and Crafts" I found articles on this very narrow topic. But again, many were hard to read because of gray text color and printing did not improve it. This would be good feedback for the producers of "Hobbies and Crafts." I wonder if is the "core, proprietary articles" that are in gray text.
The "Help" had lots of information. I watched the video about Hobbies and Crafts which had a little different information from the MARVEL video. I looked up "Field Codes" because I didn't know what that was. As it turned out, it is using the codes that are in the drop down menu to the right in all the Ebsco databases "advanced search" pages, such as SU-Subject, AU-Author or TI- Article_Title.
I started out looking at the Browse by Category for Outdoor and Nature. I looked at Canoe and Kayak articles for basic "How to" information for a friend. I found several articles that worked for this purpose. I noticed that some of the PDF's were difficult to read on the screen. When I enlarged them, only the Hobbies and Crafts background enlarged, not the article. So, I tried printing it, hoping I would be able to read the print out - no such luck. Anyway, this was not the case with all of the articles, just some of them.
The magazines represented by these articles were; Canoe and Kayak, Kayaking, and Wooden Boat. I receive none of them in my libraries. It also accessed some really good books and gave links to the appropriate chapters. For a project, it offered several (real) boat making projects, however I found one I could make - a canoe from the "Little Book of Whittling."
I also looked for information on "Penny quilts," but was finding mostly quilting articles. Not sure how to narrow this search, I used Google and searched the same two words. Many of the hits on Google were entitled "Penny Rug Quilts" and when I searched for these terms on "Hobbies and Crafts" I found articles on this very narrow topic. But again, many were hard to read because of gray text color and printing did not improve it. This would be good feedback for the producers of "Hobbies and Crafts." I wonder if is the "core, proprietary articles" that are in gray text.
The "Help" had lots of information. I watched the video about Hobbies and Crafts which had a little different information from the MARVEL video. I looked up "Field Codes" because I didn't know what that was. As it turned out, it is using the codes that are in the drop down menu to the right in all the Ebsco databases "advanced search" pages, such as SU-Subject, AU-Author or TI- Article_Title.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Teaching Students About MARVEL
Silly as it is, I always tell students that MARVEL is marvelous. I give them background information on how access to all of these databases helps even the playing field among schools in Maine.
I am the district librarian for 5 schools; two K-5, one middle school and two high schools, so I am spread pretty thin. After reaching out to the middle and high school teachers, offering to help students with research, I have worked with 6th and 9th graders so far and will do many more lessons at point of need.
I have students work on their keyword list, prior to starting research. I make sure they understand that their keyword list is not static and will change as they proceed with their work. Also, that they will add new words they discover in their reading and eliminate words that lead them in the wrong direction.
When doing research on a variety of topics, I direct all students to Britannica Online first. This is to help them get good basic information on their topic that should help with the rest of their research.
I encouraged the 6th graders to go to "MARVEL Kids" "Elementary K-5." I explain that many of the articles found there are very appropriate for middle and even high school students. I give them the average Lexile range for their grade level and show them that the results are not necessarily "too easy." After this explanation, they use the "Elementary K-5" section without hesitation. However, I really wish that the name of this group of databases could be changed to "Grades K-8" and overlap with "Grades 6 and up."
For 9th grade I ask them to go to "Grades 6 and up." I encourage them to use Student Research Center because of its user friendly interface, ability to select the type of material you want to search and choose the Lexile level. If students have very specific needs, I point them to the "Select a Subject" list of databases on the left side of the homepage. Depending on the topic, I counsel them to use "consumer edition" or those most accessible to them.
With all students I show them how to create a search and how to read the results. I stress the importance of requesting "full text" and encourage them to email the article to themselves, so they don't lose it. I show them how to sort their results and how to narrow the "publication date." At this point, they are in danger of becoming glazed over, so I have them research their topic and trouble shoot on a case by case basis, unless a common problem arises when I address the whole class again.
I am the district librarian for 5 schools; two K-5, one middle school and two high schools, so I am spread pretty thin. After reaching out to the middle and high school teachers, offering to help students with research, I have worked with 6th and 9th graders so far and will do many more lessons at point of need.
I have students work on their keyword list, prior to starting research. I make sure they understand that their keyword list is not static and will change as they proceed with their work. Also, that they will add new words they discover in their reading and eliminate words that lead them in the wrong direction.
When doing research on a variety of topics, I direct all students to Britannica Online first. This is to help them get good basic information on their topic that should help with the rest of their research.
I encouraged the 6th graders to go to "MARVEL Kids" "Elementary K-5." I explain that many of the articles found there are very appropriate for middle and even high school students. I give them the average Lexile range for their grade level and show them that the results are not necessarily "too easy." After this explanation, they use the "Elementary K-5" section without hesitation. However, I really wish that the name of this group of databases could be changed to "Grades K-8" and overlap with "Grades 6 and up."
For 9th grade I ask them to go to "Grades 6 and up." I encourage them to use Student Research Center because of its user friendly interface, ability to select the type of material you want to search and choose the Lexile level. If students have very specific needs, I point them to the "Select a Subject" list of databases on the left side of the homepage. Depending on the topic, I counsel them to use "consumer edition" or those most accessible to them.
With all students I show them how to create a search and how to read the results. I stress the importance of requesting "full text" and encourage them to email the article to themselves, so they don't lose it. I show them how to sort their results and how to narrow the "publication date." At this point, they are in danger of becoming glazed over, so I have them research their topic and trouble shoot on a case by case basis, unless a common problem arises when I address the whole class again.
Maine Newsstand
I am an avid whitewater kayaker and am amazed as to how deaths from whitewater rafting get reported as heart attacks. So, I decided to look up articles on this topic.
My list of keywords was as follows: whitewater, died, death, heart attack, mortality, and accident. I explored all of these combinations, but I had the best results with the combination of "whitewater" and "death." However, the results list included many articles about the Whitewater scandal of 1997. To avoid most of the articles on this topic, I went to advanced search and looked for "whitewater" and "death" not "White House." This list of results was generally on topic, but I was able to "add a row" to my advanced search and include not "Starr." These results were even more on topic. The dates ranged from 1993 to 2012 and were easy to arrange by oldest or newest first using the drop down menu to the right that allows you to sort by relevance and publication date. I liked the use of highlighting, which made it easy to zero in on my keywords, and I really loved the publication date graph. I can see using the publication date graph with students when looking for a quantity of articles on the same topic. For example, if they were looking for the year with the most hunting accidents, this graph could point them in the right direction. By clicking on a section of the graph, you will get your search results for that year only.
I was uncertain about "Tags." My marginal understanding is that they are names attached to something (picture, article) to help organize information. If I attach "whitewater" to pictures and articles, I should be able to search for this tag and get my stuff with the "whitewater" tag. However, I'm not certain how to put tags on things.
RSS feed was another area I didn't know much about. Again, my marginal understanding is that it helps publishers send you information (articles) on a topic that you are interested in and have created a feed on.
When I tried to create an alert, I was stopped by the message: "Server error caused your requested action to fail..." I'm sure this is because I am doing this research at school and our filter is blocking this process.
My list of keywords was as follows: whitewater, died, death, heart attack, mortality, and accident. I explored all of these combinations, but I had the best results with the combination of "whitewater" and "death." However, the results list included many articles about the Whitewater scandal of 1997. To avoid most of the articles on this topic, I went to advanced search and looked for "whitewater" and "death" not "White House." This list of results was generally on topic, but I was able to "add a row" to my advanced search and include not "Starr." These results were even more on topic. The dates ranged from 1993 to 2012 and were easy to arrange by oldest or newest first using the drop down menu to the right that allows you to sort by relevance and publication date. I liked the use of highlighting, which made it easy to zero in on my keywords, and I really loved the publication date graph. I can see using the publication date graph with students when looking for a quantity of articles on the same topic. For example, if they were looking for the year with the most hunting accidents, this graph could point them in the right direction. By clicking on a section of the graph, you will get your search results for that year only.
I was uncertain about "Tags." My marginal understanding is that they are names attached to something (picture, article) to help organize information. If I attach "whitewater" to pictures and articles, I should be able to search for this tag and get my stuff with the "whitewater" tag. However, I'm not certain how to put tags on things.
RSS feed was another area I didn't know much about. Again, my marginal understanding is that it helps publishers send you information (articles) on a topic that you are interested in and have created a feed on.
When I tried to create an alert, I was stopped by the message: "Server error caused your requested action to fail..." I'm sure this is because I am doing this research at school and our filter is blocking this process.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Britannica Online - High School Edition is an excellent resource for high school students. It offers good basic information on a variety of subjects. This is where I recommend students start their research on most topics to gain good overall knowledge.
Our World Cultures classes are currently researching Latin American countires. Their challenge is to analyse a country's social and natural environment to learn how it effects the country's culture.
I chose Costa Rica as a country to explore and see what information Britannica Online offered. The information was extensive and provided many leads that could be followed up in other resources. Thirty-nine pages of information were indexed with active links on the left side of the article. Students could read the information from top to bottom or skip around and read the articles that fit their topic best. Britannica supports students with limited vocabularies by linking key words to their definition. To support different learning styles, students can print the page or article, save it to their workspace or email it to themselves. Britannica also gives them the article's citation in MLA, APA or other styles.
In addition to Britannica's article, there were links to "The Web's Best Sites" in a box on the upper right. Those included links to: Costa Rica National Parks, World Health Organization, BBC News - Costa Rica, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic Travel and Culture. These are all great resources. There is also a link in this box to "Journals and Magazines" provided by EBSCO.
All in all. This is not only a good place for students to start their research, but also a source of other useful resources to get more information.
I also explored the World Atlas link from the Britannica Homepage. Here you can look up a country and get a map, a summary, a profile (which is a table of key information), points of interest, and a short article on the country that links to the extensive article I discussed above. One nice feature is the map, which allows you to zoom in and move around. You can click on different parts of the map and have articles on that area pop up.
Our World Cultures classes are currently researching Latin American countires. Their challenge is to analyse a country's social and natural environment to learn how it effects the country's culture.
I chose Costa Rica as a country to explore and see what information Britannica Online offered. The information was extensive and provided many leads that could be followed up in other resources. Thirty-nine pages of information were indexed with active links on the left side of the article. Students could read the information from top to bottom or skip around and read the articles that fit their topic best. Britannica supports students with limited vocabularies by linking key words to their definition. To support different learning styles, students can print the page or article, save it to their workspace or email it to themselves. Britannica also gives them the article's citation in MLA, APA or other styles.
In addition to Britannica's article, there were links to "The Web's Best Sites" in a box on the upper right. Those included links to: Costa Rica National Parks, World Health Organization, BBC News - Costa Rica, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic Travel and Culture. These are all great resources. There is also a link in this box to "Journals and Magazines" provided by EBSCO.
All in all. This is not only a good place for students to start their research, but also a source of other useful resources to get more information.
I also explored the World Atlas link from the Britannica Homepage. Here you can look up a country and get a map, a summary, a profile (which is a table of key information), points of interest, and a short article on the country that links to the extensive article I discussed above. One nice feature is the map, which allows you to zoom in and move around. You can click on different parts of the map and have articles on that area pop up.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
MARVEL Videos
The three videos were good. I'm wondering if they would be good to use for a teacher's technology workshop about MARVEL or if they are too simple. I'll have to look at all the videos offered by MSL on MARVEL to see if there is a more comprehensive one.
For those of you who would like to access these videos from the MSL website here is the link: http://www.maine.gov/msl/mrls/coned/index.shtml
For those of you who would like to access these videos from the MSL website here is the link: http://www.maine.gov/msl/mrls/coned/index.shtml
Monday, October 1, 2012
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