Remembering vs. Searching
To be efficient and focussed researchers, teachers and tudents should actually know content-rich resources by name rather than relying always on search engines and random links. It is particularly important that in a time of information flux we are able to carrying a personal memory-bank of dependable sources around with us from one learning situation to another. Bookmarking is a kind of digital memory but it can become too easy a depository to "dump" things into. Everyone can remember YouTube and Google's URL. Where would you repeatedly go for a good online dictionary or almanac?
To be efficient and focussed researchers, teachers and tudents should actually know content-rich resources by name rather than relying always on search engines and random links. It is particularly important that in a time of information flux we are able to carrying a personal memory-bank of dependable sources around with us from one learning situation to another. Bookmarking is a kind of digital memory but it can become too easy a depository to "dump" things into. Everyone can remember YouTube and Google's URL. Where would you repeatedly go for a good online dictionary or almanac?
A New Blog Series Starts Today
As a teacher-librarian, I can not resist beginning a new series here which identifies key websites for teaching, learning, and curriculum support. I will use a directory approach that allows you to see all of the sites at a single glance. All links are live from this blog.
As a teacher-librarian, I can not resist beginning a new series here which identifies key websites for teaching, learning, and curriculum support. I will use a directory approach that allows you to see all of the sites at a single glance. All links are live from this blog.
The criteria I use to choose these sites are the same six that I would teach in the school library: authority, accuracy, currency, relevance, comprehensiveness, and accessibility (aka. friendliness). For this blog, I will concentrate on sites which are mainly free of charge, clear of ads when possible, and not based on database subscriptions that many school libraries are otherwise able to offer.
Reference Websites Kickstart Research and Inquiry
Like traditional reference books, reference-based websites are dependable friends, often used to begin a research project. They both strengthen students' research and inquiry in five ways. They
- quickly establish a point of departure
- summarize important factual information about people, places, and things
- establish answers to explicit factual questions.
- present overviews of information that might otherwise swamp apprentice researchers.
- encourage deeper browsing and discovery, through directed references and hyperlinks.
Reference Websites for Secondary Schools: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Almanacs, etc.
My first list today is of key reference websites for secondary students that highlight online encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, etc. Canadian sites are in red. Please let me know if you find these sites useful and if you have additional favorites.
By the way, each time that I add new lists, they will be added as tables in convenient groupings to the Pages section on the right frame of this blog. Check the first one here.
- Abbreviations and Acronyms Resource
- Biographical Dictionary
- Calendars Guide
- Canadian Dictionary of Biography Online
- Canadian Encyclopedia/The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
- Convert Plus Online Units Conversion
- Dictionary Search
- E-STAT Statistics Canada
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Info Please Almanac
- L'Encyclopédie Canadian/Encyclopédie de la music
- Nation Master
- Quotations Page
- Rankings and Awards
- Ref Desk: Fact Checker for the Internet
- Thesaurus.com
- Wikipedia
In the coming weeks, I will provide similar lists for information portals and web directories, news and media sites, and libraries, museums and galleries. I will then proceed to cover the same territory for elementary schools.
Become a real webmaster. Amaze your friends and memorize the url or name of these sites!
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