Thing 12: Search Engines

For some reason I always use Google as my search engine of choice. I'm not quite sure, maybe it's because Google is so clutter-free. Yahoo and ask have a lot more going on on their pages. Hmmmm....here's the test: Ask vs. Google.....

Interesting! Ask has this lovely page with images, news, encyclopedia entries and dictionary definitions right there for you! This is different than Google, where you have to add an extra "click" to get to these things. I think that it's time for me to use more ask.com!

Thing 11: GOOGLE

I love Google. I love Gmail, I love Blogger, I love Reader, I use the search, I appreciate the little artwork on special days, I think Google Earth is absolutely amazing, I have begun to use Google Scholar with my students, and I love Marilyn's photos on Picasa. Before MILP I had no idea of how useful, versatile, and PROFESSIONAL Google truly is. Blogger, Reader, and Scholar were all new to me. My students are also learning more about the usefulness of google (and that "google" is NOT a "source"!)

Thing 10: Copyright and Plagiarism

Oh wow, it sure is hard to keep on top of plagiarism with the students. I mean, it is pretty easy to spot, but it is hard to explain and to direct them towards responsible use. My students do a few research projects in my class and this is the ongoing struggle. It becomes especially difficult with students with learning disabilities or low reading levels and writing skills. I could spend weeks on lessons about how to write information "in your own words" and how to create work based off of information learned from several different sources.

I'm still plugging away, however! Any advice on this subject would be welcomed!

del.icio.us!!!

I am now a new del.icio.us user and it is fabulous! What a great tool. When I first heard about it I didn't see its value. However, as a social studies teacher, there are so many websites out there to use and del.icio.us is a tool to help me not only tag and remember these sites but to organize them as well. The only thing that I want to do now it install the tools onto my other computer, too. Yay for del.icio.us!