Learners are increasingly accessing free online and open resources, tools, and spaces where they can develop their language skills beyond the classroom, alone, or in collaboration with others, and often whilst engaging in purposeful and enjoyable activities. Teachers need to find ways to explore and connect these activities productively with the…

This practical teachers' guide will help you to unlock the enormous potential of new technology in order to enhance pupils' learning, particularly for young people with additional needs. Written by two of the UK's leading technology experts, this new resource will enable you to use ICT effectively to make lessons more accessible, motivating and…

Digital tools, such as blogs and wikis, now make it easy for educators to embrace continual learning. Thousands of accomplished educators are now writing blogs in which they reflect on instruction, challenge assumptions, question policies, offer advice, design solutions, and learn together. All this collective knowledge is readily available for…

Stories are a great way to acquaint young learners with geographic locations. A plethora of choices are available in the folktale genre, so librarians and teachers will have little difficulty locating a variety. Folktales provide an accessible and child friendly approach for engaging students. In addition, when connections are made between…

Drawing on experiences in his social studies classroom, Houman Harouni evaluates both the challenges and possibilities of helping high school students develop critical research skills. The author describes how he used Wikipedia to design classroom activities that address issues of authorship, neutrality, and reliability in information gathering.…

As online research has become an increasingly standard activity for middle school and high school students, Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) has simultaneously emerged as the bane of many teachers who include research-focused assignments in their courses. An online encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit its entries, Wikipedia has educators…

It's the first day of the "Animals" unit for Tami Brester's third-grade class and the first day her students are using Glossopedia, a free online multimedia science encyclopedia. But you wouldn't know that from observing the kids, who are excitedly researching animals on the internet. This is inquiry-based learning of a special kind, incorporating…

Describes a class activity designed to teach students in grades five and six the importance of using an encyclopedia index. (MES)

This article describes Brittanica's Web-based K-12 resource, "Britannica Online Student Edition." This reference contains three encyclopedia databases: "Britannica" for teachers and older students, the "Student Britannica," and the "Elementary Brittanica." These are supplemented with videos and other media, a spotlight feature, a world atlas, and…

Two resources to help students conduct research are the new CD-ROM versions of the Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000 (for strong readers, grades 5-8) and the Year 2000 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (for strong readers, grades 3 and up). By supplementing traditional text-based information with specialized features (e.g., virtual tours and video…

Designed to assist the librarian and/or teacher by serving as a checklist for a basic collection of reference materials, this annotated bibliography presents a list of reference sources that are appropriate for Alabama students in grades 7 through 12. The reference materials are intended to support the curriculum of a comprehensive public…

Designed for professional educators as well as students of the field, this definitive reference provides comprehensive coverage of educational theory and practice from the primary grades through higher education. The set integrates numerous theoretical frameworks with field-based applications from many years in educational research, and features…

This book focuses on designing instruction that integrates the use of computer assisted resources. There are 19 chapters in four parts. Part 1, "Strategies for Teaching with Standard Utility Software Programs," includes (1) "Paint Programs"; (2) "Graphic Organizers"; (3) "Graphing Programs"; (4)…

This column is a collaborative effort by library media specialists and K-16 educators who write about the motivational strategies that have worked for them in teaching IL skills. Motivational strategies include ways to gain and sustain attention, increase relevance for learning information literacy skills, build confidence in students' developing…

Includes book reviews of science trade books written in Spanish from the following categories: (1) Animals, (2) Encyclopedic Series, (3) Nature, and (4) Physical Science. (ZWH)