Online Subscription Databases Bibliography Generators and Asking Good Questions

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Online Subscription DatabasesBibliography
Generatorsand Asking Good Questions
LJHS LMC

• Steve Grant, LMT
• Staff Development Worshop
• Tuesday, 19 February 2002

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The Web Is Not a Library

• How big is the Web?
• How big is a billion?
• Stack of paper1 billion sheets How tall?
• 63 miles!

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Are there a billion pages on the Web?
• 2.5 billion Web pages (visible Web)
• 550 billion including deep Web
• Year 2000 figures
• Visible Web doubles every year Lyman

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The Web Is Not a Library

• How do you find it?
• 3,655 search engines on the Web Somerson
• Knowing how and where to search becomes very
  important

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Can you believe it when you find it?
• Evaluating for authority becomes very important

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Anyone can publish anything on the Web
• Congress Passes Americans with No Abilities Act
  
• Californias Velcro Crop under Challenge
• GenoChoice
• Save the Mountain Walrus
• Feline Reactions to Bearded Men

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Anyone can publish anything

• www.martinlutherking.org
• Try this one from home (SDCS filter blocks on
  campus)
• On back of white handout
• One page there The Beast as Saint The Truth
  About Martin Luther King Jr. by Kevin Alfred
  Strom

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Strom, in another article posted at Free Speech
  site, linked to from National Alliance siteThe
  crime is racemixing. It is a worse crime than
  murder - far worse.
• National Alliance goals include
• White Living Space
• An Aryan Society

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The Web Is Not a Library

• Where do we go for only the good stuff?
• Authoritative, high-quality sources
• Focused, organized
• Optimized search tools, limited to just those
  sources
• Online subscription databases...

There is no such thing as a free lunch.
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Online Subscription Databases

• Only high-quality, authoritative sources
• No advertising, entertainment, etc.
• Designed for student use
• Organized for easy searching

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Subscription Databases

• Designed for student use

• Convenience features
• Printer-friendly button
• Email this article home button
• Bibliographic citation info. usually included
• Not a feature of Web at large pages

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LJHS LMCSubscription Databases

• Best accessed fromLJHS LMC Website
• URL for LMC Website home page on handout
• Click LMC Subscription Databases

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Four databases--11,000/year(!)
• Grolier Online
• Electric Library Plus
• Gale Student Resource Center
• Todays Science _at_ FACTS.com
• All annotated linked onLJHS LMC Subscription
  Databases page

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Remote access from home
• Electric Library, Gale SRC, Todays Science all
  use schoolwide generic login
• On handout
• Do not share logins with non-LJHS students or
  parents!
• Handouts avail. LMC give to all classes in for
  research

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Remote access

• Grolier Online different from other three
• Must use Register for Grolier login link from
  LMC Website
• You create your own individual login
• Instructions on Web page

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Grolier Online
• Core 2 major encyclopedias--Encyclopedia
  Americana Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
• EA In-depth, higher reading level, emphasis on
  text
• GME Less text, more graphic, lower reading level

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Grolier Online

• Plus...
• Editor-selected Web links
• Current events stories

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Electric Library Plus
• Emphasis periodical articles
• Magazines, newspapers, newswires (incl. Reuters)

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Electric Library Plus

• Plus
• Transcripts of broadcast TV radio news
  programs government transcripts
• Over 100,000 photos (including historical)
• Maps (countries, regions, US states)
• Full text of a few books (but 1 is World Book
  Encyc.!)

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Gale Student Resource Center
• Emphasis full text of many reference works
• Overview essays, critical reviews, biographies,
  timelines, primary source documents
• Scholarly higher reading level (though aimed at
  HS)
• Some photos (esp. portraits), audio, video

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Gale Student Resource Center

• Plus
• Periodical articles (emphasis on journals more
  scholarly)

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LJHS LMC Databases

• Todays Science _at_ FACTS.com
• Science news articles esp. written for HS
  college
• Writers get their info. from science journals,
  magazines, newspapers worldwide
• All articles since 1992
• Engaging, readable includes good photos
  graphics

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Bibliography Generators

• NoodleBib EasyBib
• Handle both print and electronic sources
• MLA style only
• Online forms prompt you for what to enter

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Bibliography Generators

• NoodleBib EasyBib

• Generate correctly-formatted citations
• Build complete bibliography online
• Alphabetized entries
• Hanging indent

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Bibliography Generators

• NoodleBib EasyBib

• NoodleBib more complex sources
• EasyBib easier to use
• Both on LMC Web pageLMC Research Bookmarks

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Asking Good Questions

• Copy-paste plagiarism now way easy
• even if you change the wording
• Write it worse so the teacher will think you
  wrote it yourself!

Those of us who work with technology-savvy
students are seeing plagiarism on the rise as
students complete topical assignments by cutting
and pasting together pieces of text from several
digital sources. Valenza
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Asking Good Questions

• Its largely our own fault(!)

If my teacher asked me to write a report about a
president or an animal or a state or a country, I
would balk. Whats the point? That work has
already been done and by better writers than our
students! Ask me those questions and I would be
tempted to hand back any one of the many
excellent printouts from Encarta or Britannica or
Grolier. Valenza
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Asking Good Questions

• When we ask What?, we get regurgitated facts
• Readily available, professionally-written
• Increasingly in digital, copy-paste format
• In a book? Wheres that photcopier?
• Explain not much better
• Explanations also readily available

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Asking Good Questions

• What knowledge, understanding, or skills does a
  report-of-facts research assignment teach?
• How/where to find facts
• How to copy, paste, rephrase (write it worse)
• How to rearrrange/reorganize information

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Asking Good Questions

• Aside from plagiarism, what difference does it
  make?

Without strong questioning skills, you are just
a passenger on someone elses tour bus. You may
be on the highway, but someone else is doing the
driving Schools without a strong commitment to
student questioning and research are wasting
their money if they install expensive networks
linking classrooms to rich electronic information
resources. McKenzie
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Asking Good Questions

• What assignment questions can we ask which
• We cant find published answers to per se
• Require original thinking and writing to answer?

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Asking Good Questions

• Which one?
• How?
• What if?
• Should?
• Why?

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Asking Good Questions

• Which one?

Which of the authors books do you think had the
most significant impact on its readers or society
in general? Support your recommendation with
evidence from your research. Document your
sources.
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Asking Good Questions

• How?

How could the government provide better
assistance for the poorest Americans? Focus on
one kind of assistancehealth care, food,
housing, employment, or another (have it approved
by the teacher.) Support your proposal with
evidence from your research. Document your
sources.
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Asking Good Questions

• What if?

What if Martin Luther King Jr. had not been
assassinated? Describe what events, laws, and/or
other social changes might have occurred.
Support your description with evidence from your
research. Document your sources.
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Asking Good Questions

• Should?

Should scientists be allowed to use human embryo
stem cells for research? Support your position
with evidence from your research. Document your
sources.
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Asking Good Questions

• Why?

Why was the fledgling United States able to win
the Revolutionary War with Britain? Support your
answers with evidence from your research.
Document your sources.
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Works Cited

• Lyman, Peter, and Hal R. Varian. How Much
  Information? 18 Oct. 2000. School of Information
  Management and Systems, University of California
  at Berkeley. 5 Feb. 2002 lthttp//www.sims.berkeley
  .edu/research/projects/how-much-info/internet.html
  gt. back

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Works Cited

• McKenzie, Jamie. Beyond Technology. Bellingham,
  WA FNO Press, 2000. back
• Somerson, Paul. "Search Me." Smart Business July
  2001 29. back

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Works Cited

• Valenza, Joyce Kasman. "For the best answers, ask
  tough questions." Philadelphia Inquirer 20 Apr.
  2000. 5 Feb. 2002 lthttp//www.joycevalenza.com/que
  stions.htmlgt. back 1st back 2nd

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Thank you
for coming!