Lesson 1B - World Book Public Library

1. I used World Book Online for Kids to search for the dolphin. It was very easy to read and concise. It gave information on the different types of dolphins, what they looked like, and where they live. There were also 3 videos and 3 pictures of the dolphin. It also provided links to related information, citation information, and related websites. I liked the additional websites because if students did not find enough information at World Book the link would take you to "safe" sites to get more information.

2. I used Word Book InfoFinder and again searched for dolphins. This gave me more in depth information then World Book Online for Kids. The whole site looked more "grownup" then the kids one. There were 13 articles about dolphins in Kids and 66 that were in InfoFinder plus many more resources on the sidebar than the kids version. It gave a much more through description with an outline like sidebar on what information it would cover. In looking through the articles it did have some on the Miama Dolphins so you had to sort out the ones that didn't pertain. The InfoFinder also gave you suggestions of books to read and also an e-book having to do with dolphins. This is set up nicely for the older student and yet keeps them in a focused area. If they want to do more in depth research on the dolphin, they have many links to follow.

3. I searched for information on Georgia, the country not the state. I did get articles on the state so had to sort through to find the country. It gives a little summary so that before you go into the articles you know which one you will be looking at. On this first search screen to the left, it gives you many options such as encyclopedia articles, primary sources, maps, and much more. To the right, they expand on the primary sources and also give you ebooks. Once you go into an article, it give you brief facts on the country, shows their flag, and talks about about their government. It then goes into more detailed informtion about each section listed on the left hand side of the page. On the right hand side encyclopedia articles, back in time, websites, magazine articles, and maps. It also gives you links to related primary source information. I like that each section can be printed by it self. If the student only uses a paragraph from the article they will not have to cut and paste or print the whole article. Depending how deep they want to search for information this seems to cover it all. For the student that just wants the basic they can read what is written in the article and for the student who wants to dig deeper they can go the the primary source material. I also like the tool box on the top of the articles. This gives them a place to print, save their article or translate it if they need to. With foreign exchange students or ESL students this would be a great help.