If you want to a see a blank look on students’ faces, ask them about the
Dewey Decimal library classification system. For better or for worse,
the Internet has become the alternative to a library card catalog for
browsing and locating resources. But how do you navigate that system,
and how can you trust what you read on the web?
"Frankly, this is my main concern, along with stumbling onto inappropriate material,"Just because someone publishes something on their home page, it doesn't make it gospel—many kids don't know this."
Learning how to find the information you need on the Internet, and how
to evaluate and appropriately use the information you find, can be
challenging for both parents and students. The following is a look at
some of the most comprehensive—and reliable—educational websites a
student can bookmark and use to research school projects and homework
assignments.
All
students—no matter what age—need help navigating and evaluating the
ever-growing store of information available on the web. This University
of Idaho site is an information literacy primer that will quickly turn
any half-hearted or random searcher into a savvy Internet detective. It
guides students through a series of modules that teach them how to
distinguish different kinds of information on the Internet, search for
and select research topics, search databases and other collections,
locate and cite sources, and evaluate the sources they find.
A
merger of the Internet Public Library and the Librarians' Internet
Index, this site is a comprehensive source of "information you can
trust." Thousands of volunteer library and information science
professionals created and maintain the site’s reference collections—sets
of links to websites on U. S. presidents, author biographies, museums,
research and writing, literary criticism, and many more topics. The Ask
an ipl2 Librarian reference service, available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, provides individualized help finding authoritative, free
online sources for specific topics.
Checking
facts in Internet sources is one of the key ways to evaluate them, and
Refdesk.com, which stands for "reference desk," simplifies this
essential step. Since 1995, Refdesk.com has served as a one-click
springboard to many of the web's top dictionaries, encyclopedias,
calculators, atlases, news headlines, and search engines. The site also
includes a handy Homework Helper
section (under the Help and Advice column on the lower right of the
page) that provides help in all subjects to students in every grade.
For
younger students who are not quite ready to navigate Refdesk, Fact
Monster from Information Please is the tool to use. The Reference Desk
on this site features a layout that is designed for easy fact-finding
and includes timelines and an almanac, atlas, dictionary, and
encyclopedia, as well as a Homework Center. Students can also search by
visually identified topics or by typing in keywords. Check out fun
features such as Biographies of the Presidents, the Geography Hall of
Fame, and the Tallest Buildings Slideshow.
Consider
the Microsoft Download Center your ultimate file repository. It links
to tens of thousands of downloadable free or shareware programs. These
include updates, utilities, applications, and extras for Windows,
Macintosh, and other platforms; Internet tools; security essentials;
developer resources; mobile devices; and, of course, computer games. You
can search for what you need alphabetically, by product family, by
download category, or by typing in a keyword. The Microsoft Worldwide Downloads site enables you to download files in more than 80 different languages.
This
site is the cool place for the technology leaders of the future. It
offers student resources, helps students stay connected through its
newsletters and technology clubs, and provides a career portal and
Students-to-Business program. The links to scholarship competitions and
to TechStudent—a site for website builders, designers, and software
developers in training—encourage creativity and skill development. The
Student Experience site also links to DreamSpark, which enables students
not only to download professional software such as Microsoft Visual
Studio, SQL Server, Visual C++ Express Edition, and Robotics Developer
Studio for free but provides free training for using these tools as
well.
Sprechen
Sie Deutsch? Perfect for language studies, this handy website
automatically converts text from one language into another, such as
English to Simplified Chinese or French to English. You can type and
paste up to 10,000 characters (about 1,800 words) into the search window
and then select the desired language. Or cut and paste a web URL to
convert the entire site.
As
every parent and student knows, books that are required reading are not
always available, or if they are, students may misplace their copy
before they finish the assignment. Project Gutenberg to the rescue. This
site enables you to download more than 30,000 free electronic books to
read on your computer, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader, or other portable
device in a variety of file formats. You can search by title and author
or browse their collection of classic works, many of which are available
in audio editions as well.
This
site, sponsored by Fordham University and edited by Paul Halsall,
provides older students with access to a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted historical texts for educational use. It includes
collections of primary sources in ancient, medieval, and modern history,
as well as history of science, women's history, African history, and
others.
The
web's answer to those black- and yellow-striped Cliff Notes is
Novelguide.com, a reliable and free source for literary analysis of
classic and contemporary books such as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. The site offers character profiles, metaphor and theme analysis, and author biographies.
This
website can be filed in the "where was this when I was a kid?"
category. On this aptly named site, visitors can read every play or poem
from the world's most celebrated writer and, more importantly, make
some sense of his works with free analysis, Old English language
translations, and famous quotes.
This
site provides help in a number of mathematics-related subjects,
including basic grade-school math, calculus, algebra, geometry,
trigonometry, and statistics. Practice exercises are automatically
graded—and this free site also features a glossary, calculators,
homework tips, math games, and lesson plans for teachers.
Science
classes—including the ubiquitous science project—aren't as easy for
some to grasp as they are for others. At Science Made Simple, elementary
and middle school students can get detailed answers to many science
questions, read current news articles related to science, get ideas on
school projects, and take advantage of unit conversion tables. Users can
also find out if their school's textbooks pass the test.
Ever
wanted to know why earthquakes happen? How CD burners work? What the
sun is made of? These questions, and many others related to
computers/electronics, automobiles, science, entertainment, and people,
are all answered at this award-winning website. Simply type a query into
the search window or peruse the topics by category. Extras include free
newsletters, surveys, and printable versions of all.
"Frankly, this is my main concern, along with stumbling onto inappropriate material,"Just because someone publishes something on their home page, it doesn't make it gospel—many kids don't know this."
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