Reflection8

We chose to use the World Book Student database because it is one for which our districts have subscriptions. When considering to use World Book, we decided that the “kids” version may be too young for the middle school level, but that the Student version would work well. Once students master the use of the Student version, they will be able to apply the Advanced version to their searches.

Not only is World Book great for searching topics and finding results in a variety of types and formats, it also has many other nice features. World Book allows users to easily select the type of result they desire by grouping them into types along the left side of the results page. At the bottom of a result or article, three types of citations are automatically generated or given: MLA, APA, and Harvard. With this given citation, a user can simply copy and paste the citation directly into a document. If a user needs to create a citation for something that did not come directly from World Book, he/she can use the Citation Builder tool listed under the Research Tools. The Citation Builder prompts users for the necessary information and then puts it into the proper format selected. Linked to the World Book home page’s Research Tools is a helpful graphic titled “How to Do Research.” This graphic suggests steps for students to take in the research process.

World Book also has many features to browse on their homepage. A featured video is always posted and changes each time the page is refreshed. There is also a Biography section that can be searched by a variety of categories: author, painter, inventor, athletes, etc. The “Explore” section allows students to search geographically. These types of search areas are useful for students who may not have a specific topic in mind yet.

We chose to use PosterMyWall for our poster creation tool. Neither of us had used this tool previously and we liked the feature of being able to order a printed version of the poster after creation. This tool was very user friendly. We were able to capture screenshots and upload them as images onto the poster. From there it was easy to resize, drag and drop the image to where we desired. The software also has preloaded clipart images that can be customized to your liking. When finished with your creation, PosterMyWall makes it very easy to share your work. It assigns a link to the poster to make it public.