Invitational - Week #2

I spent a great deal of time exploring the Britannica editions today. I think I could have spent all day on the site! I had used Britannica with my students in the past but never got on the correct link, I guess. I had never used the middle school section and realize now just what I missed and what my students have missed! I love the home pages for each of the school editions. As I "played around" with various links to articles, I found myself searching more and more information. I would definitely take my students to the middle school home page and do a lesson on just that page with them, showing them the options and letting them search around as they try many of the links.

I began my search today by linking to the Britannica Elementary School edition, searching for information about the Maine coon cat. The search brought me to a page with links for several cats but not the Maine coon cat. However, there was a picture of a Maine coon cat on the right. When I clicked on the photo, it enlarged the picture but did not give any further information. Something I liked about the elementary edition was the fact that students could click on the speaker at the top of the article to have the article read to them - a great help for nonreaders. I would direct some of my low-level readers to this edition if they were struggling to understand information from other editions of the Britannica.

The Britannica Middle School edition brought me directly to an article and picture of the Maine coon cat when I searched. I was surprised it had an article when the elementary edition did not have any information about the Maine coon cat. If I was an elementary school teacher, I would make sure to check the middle school and high school editions if one of my students was having problems finding information on a particular topic while searching the elementary edition. One thing I have noticed on each of the editions used so far is the print size. I am pleased that the size is not tiny but a size that would not "turn off" students. Sometimes when print size is too small, middle school students will shy away from the article, thinking it will be too difficult for them to read.

I ventured to the Britannica High School edition and searched for information about Spain. Not only did I find a great deal of information in the main article (with a clear and easy to follow table of contents on the left) but I found helpful information in the right-hand side bar. I think the  information on that side bar most helpful to students would be the maps and photos in the multimedia section. As a teacher I was impressed with the "Learning Materials" section. Of course the citation information at the bottom of every article is all-important!

The "workspace" option could prove to be a very helpful tool for my students. I like the idea that they can immediately move information they want to save to a "page" as they move around the Britannica searching for more information for a particular project. I think it would be especially good for saving maps and pictures (with citations). Kids tend to print images they think they "might" use for their projects and end up with lots of images they don't need. By saving these images to a workspace, they could end up with a wide variety from which they may choose a few to use in a final project. Another important part of the workspace is the ability to "share" with others. I can see this as an important tool when working on group projects. Students can look at peers' workspaces to help them as project information is combined into a final product. It could also lead to discussion among students about varied facts that are learned. As a teacher I could have information in my shared workspace with the expectation that students go to my workspace as well. Students could use this workspace in a variety of ways. I worry about "copying and pasting" of entire articles but hopefully could control this by checking with students as they are working.

I am not done searching around on the Britannica editions. I have a project in mind for my students and have already done a brief search to see if the Britannica would be a good source for our research. I want to make sure my students will be able to access a wide variety of information as they search. The articles I found looked very promising. My search has just begun!