Educational+Websites

Educational Websites (Sites to Use with Children)

//The Book Seer | What should I read next//. n.p., n.d. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is a cute little site that recommends books to read based on the last book you read. I would give this to students or put a link to this site on the school library's website. I found this site through LM_NET and while I really like the design and simplicity, it finds the book recommendations from Amazon, and a student could just go to Amazon themselves.

// findingDulcinea //. Dulcinea Media, Inc., 2009. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is a great site that provides web guides (which are fabulous), historical articles, and featured articles. This is definitely a site that I would link on the school library's website so the students could use it for research and website evaluation. I heard of this site on LM_NET and it's a very well-designed and well-researched site, and it's one of my favorites that I've found recently. This site has ads, though, which I find problematic on an educational site.

//Glogster//. n.p., 2011. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is a tool to make electronic posters, and it would be great to use with students for creative projects. I heard about this site in Kym Kramer's class, Information Inquiry for School Teachers, although I didn't use it personally until recently. This tool is very easy to learn how to use, but it might be too simplistic for high school students.

// NoodleTools //. NoodleTools, Inc., n.d. Web. 23 April 2011. This is an online citation management tool, which includes a note taking function, and I learned about this in Information Inquiry for School Teachers. I've suggested that teachers in my school use this tool, and they've been very receptive to this idea - I can't believe that they've never heard of this resource until now. I think this is a great resource, and the only downside is that you have to pay a subscription fee.

// Prezi //. Prezi, Inc., 2011. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is a presentation tool which allows the user create 3D, zooming presentations. I've used this with students and I think it's a great resource because it forces the user to think in a non-linear way. I heard about this tool in Information Inquiry for School Teachers, and another student in that class used Prezi for her in-class presentations. The great strengths of this tool is wonderful tutorials, it's free, and its novelty. A downside is that it's more complex than PowerPoint and therefore more difficult to teach how to use for students.

// simplebooklet //. n.p., n.d. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is an online publishing tool, similar to Microsoft Publisher, but you can add video, music, and code. You can create booklets, brochures, class reports, and more. I think this would be a great alternative to Publisher, which students at my school use frequently. I heard about this site from LM_NET, and I like that it's free and very easy to use. A downside is that it's not as well-known as Publisher, so I don't know if the students will benefit in the future by knowing how to use this tool.

// ToonDoo //. ZOHO, Corp., 2011. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is an online cartoon maker, and it's really fun to use. I think this could be a creative presentation/publisher tool for students to use to create final products. I heard about this tool from LM_NET, and it's very easy to use and learn, but I worry that it can be a bit limiting as it's hard to import different graphics.

// TRAILS: Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills //. Kent State University Libraries, 2011. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is an assessment (test) of students' information literacy skills. I think this would be interesting to use with students twice a year - once in the beginning and once in the end to see what gain had been made over the course of the school year. I think administrators would appreciate this type of concrete way of seeing the real benefits of a school library program. I also heard about this tool from LM_NET, and while I think it's well-designed, I'm not in love with the idea of standardized tests.

// Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds //. Jonathan Feinberg, 2009. Web. 23 April, 2011. This is a tool for creating word clouds. It's very easy to use and creates really good-looking word clouds (much better than other tools I've used). I found it by searching "word cloud" on Google, and I would definitely use it with students for creating final projects or just for fun. The only downside that I found with this tool is that you cannot download your word cloud as a file.