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Study Plans |
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Mining the Web for Educational Resources Search engines are indispensable tools for Web-based research. Most, however, are too indiscriminate to be useful to young users. For example, searching for "White House" on the search engine Alta Vista returns over a half-million hits, most of which will be irrelevant or inappropriate for elementary-school students. To prevent frustration and inefficiency, experiment beforehand with search engines designed specifically for children. Bookmark the ones you like best and organize them into a "search engine folder" on your Web browser. Limit your students to these as they explore specific topics you have researched in advance. About
Search Engines False
Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth about How Search Engines Work:
Webresearch Guide of ScienceDirect:
http://www.webresearch.sciencedirect.com/ Search
Engines Ask Jeeves
for Kids: www.ajkids.com Bubl Link:
http://link.bubl.ac.uk/linksearch CompletePlanet: http://www.completeplanet.com/ Copernic:
http://copernic.com/ Dib
Dab Doo and Dilly Too: http://www.dibdabdoo.com/ Google
Local Search: http://local.google.com/lochp HealthWeb: http://healthweb.org/ INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections: http://infomine.ucr.edu/search.phtml Kartoo
Metasearch: http://www.kartoo.com/en/kartoo.html KidsClick!:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/kidsclick! Mamma:
http://mama.com/ NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY Internet Resource Index OAIster
Search Interface: http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/index.html
ProFusion:
http://beta.profusion.com/, Search Engine Showdown: http://searchengineshowdown.com/ Teoma:
http://www.teoma.com/ Turbo10 search Engine: http://turbo10.com/ Vivisimo
Document Clustering-automatic categorization and content integration: http://vivisimo.com/ WhittleBit
Search Engine: http://whittlebit.com/index.php Yahooligans:
http://www.yahooligans.com/ HANDBOOK
of ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECTS: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/help/index.html
Learning
Through Dynamic Simulations: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/edu/icm/
Digital
Video for Educators: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/DVE/FusionDVE/
Are We There Yet?: http://www.ncrtec.org/pd/wisdwww/arewe/thereyet.htm If you are itching to begin using the Internet in the classroom but need some help, be sure to visit Internet 101: http://www2.famvid.com/i101/internet101.html. This simple guide defines Internet terminology, describes how the Internet works, and explains search engines, email, and viruses. The
CyberLibrarian's Reststop: http://www.angelfire.com/in/virtuallibrarian/
Sure,
the Internet is a valuable educational resource. Sure, it makes research
a snap. Sure, it can provide you with reams of information on almost every topic
under the sun. The question is, how much of that information can you actually
use?
Ways to Take Charge of the Web |
ThemeScape
is not a search engine. It does help find information, but in a different way.
Just as geographic maps can visually guide you to your destination or help you
explore new places, information maps can guide you to documents or resources while
exposing new information you may wish to view. ThemeScape: http://www.cartia.com/products/demo.html
emerged from the research efforts of the Pacific Northwest national laboratory
for a consortium of government intelligence agencies that wanted to relate huge
numbers of documents based on common themes. Additional On-line Resources Students can be introduced to Web-based research with Little Explorers: www.littleexplorers.com, Enchanted Learning's free on-line picture dictionary of more than 1,100 entries. Children easily navigate the site by licking on a letter of the alphabet, which stretches in bright colors across the top of the home page. Clicking on n, for instance, leads to a page of entries, each consisting of a picture and a one-sentence definition beginning with that letter. Most entries also provide links to related educational sites. While pre-readers may not have the skills to use these, they will enjoy perusing the picture dictionary as they build basic computer skills. English-French, English-Spanish, English-German, and English-Portuguese versions of the dictionary provide an opportunity to introduce foreign-language concepts and vocabulary. NYSC&TE has established a partnership with ThinkQuest. ThinkQuest, Inc is the largest and fastest-growing Internet-based non-profit education program in the world. ThinkQuest provides an educational and highly motivating opportunity for students and educators to expand their academic and technical skills and increase their awareness of the Internet by encouraging them to create high quality, innovative and content-rich Web sites that are made freely available to others via the Internet at http://www.thinkquest.org. One of their first competitions of the year is called ThinkQuest Junior. ThinkQuest Junior is a classroom-based competition that encourages girls and boys in grades 4-6 to take a meaningful interest in computers and technology. ThinkQuest Junior helps teachers promote the "Internet Style" of learning an interactive, participatory method that encourages students to take advantage of the Internet as a constantly growing source of information and as a powerful collaborative tool. Making learning fun for other students of the same age, ThinkQuest Junior teams create educational Web sites on a variety of subjects. More than $250,000 in cash, and awards are given to winning students, teachers and their schools. The Odyssey: World Trek for Service and Education www.worldtrek.org. It has lesson plans that can be mailed to the teacher each day. Visit
http://hometown.aol.com to learn more and
get up to 12 MB of free Web publishing space. Not an AOL member? No worries,
you can still create Web pages in Hometown. If you have a screen name for AOL
Instant Messenger, My AOL, or Personal This site began
in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch.
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