SIRS Issues Researcher

I selected cellular telephones, with a total of 392 articles available there was a wide variety of information available. The overview presented a fair and balanced view of the topic. I like the way that opinionated articles were listed in a pro/con fashion. Most of the information returned was from well know newspapers and magazines. I like the way the critical thinking and analysis sections offers ideas for students to use.

I like the structure of the Curriculum Pathfinder, it follows a logical progression of information down through the various topics. This would be a good visual for people who have problems seeing the relationships among topics. It would also be a program to use when discussing broadening or narrowing a topic. When a topic is selected a good variety and amount of results are returned. Again the resources appear to come from well known sources.

Sirs Discoverer

1. I looked up articles on several different animals and I like the way the search results are presented. I like the amount of information given on the list screen including: The names of the publications, the reading levels, if the article includes pictures or other media. Another feature that I liked was the ability to send an article to your e-mail. When I opened the articles I found them very similar to reading from the magazine. I think that this would be an excellent site to help teach the use of periodicals.
2. The "country facts" are similar to the type of information one would find in an atlas. General facts like size, area, population, etc... are displayed as well as a very nice historical timeline for that area. I also liked the government and economy information, I think this would be a good site to check before traveling to a new country. I assume that SIRS does regular information updates so that this would be a more current source than the encyclopedia. I like the maps of the world section but personally I think that everyone working with on-line maps is trying to play catch-up with Google Earth. I think that for an application where a simple map is needed these do a good job. As far as interactive maps go though, Google has this won easily.
I liked the training and activity information available in the educator's resources section. It is a nice mix of educational information, educator training, and student lesson plans and activities. I think that it is a nice application of skills needed to use this database.

Learning Express

I thought that the practice tests were very nice, it is a user friendly program that looks similar to the formats used when actually taking the tests. It is nice to have the immediate feedback on how you have done and it is nice to be able to see what was done both correct and incorrect. There seems to be a wide variety of tests available and we seem to have access to most of the major standard tests currently being used. This looks like a format that is far more reputable than many of the "practice tests" offered for sale.
The "course" I explored was "Social Networking for Career Success", this was not what I expected, this seems to be more of an e-book than an actual course. I only saw content on this subject to read, no activities, no related works. While it appeared to be current and revelent information it is lacking in hands-on material, it would be nice if this were a combination of the ebook and some of the on-line testing and activities I have seen in the practice test area.
I like the availablability of this on-line content, much of this is information and activities that one would have to pay for if not for this service. I like the way the SD library is using e-books and other types of e-resources, it allows people to work and get information anytime, anyplace.

World Book Discover

The World Book Discover has several nice features to help users who may struggle with reading English. One nice feature is the "translate text into" option, this allows the user to change the language of the text from English into the language of the user's choice. I was impressed with the variety of languages offered. Another nice feature is the read text aloud toolbar, this feature allows the user to have the text from an article read to them in English. Some people understand English better verbally than if they read. The final feature I want to mention is the double-click dictionary. If at any time a user does not know a particular word they can double-click their mouse on that word and a dictionary will open that provides definition and pronunciation information about that word. All of these features combine to provide much assistance for those who struggle to read English.

World Book Advanced

The World Book Advanced does a nice job of providing a varitey of information types. A typical search will show results for encyclopedia articles, presidential papers, maps, tables, pictures, special reports, and websites. What people will use will depend on their current needs, are they planning a trip, writing a paper, presenting information themselves? For my students I imagine that gathering information for research and reports would be the top use. For that need I would assume that the connections to the encyclopedia articles would be very valuable. Also elementary students are going to be interested in seeing the pictures and videos.

world book kids vs world book student

The obvious difference between these two sites is content. The World Book Student has more information that is written at a higher reading level. World Book Kids content is shorter with a simpler vocabulary. Both however offer the option of text read aloud which would allow for younger users to get more information by going to the student site and hearing rather than reading the article. They also both offer multimedia content in the form of both pictures and videos. I think that the compare feature is also informative.