.........and more!
As part of his weekly e-newsletter, The Tourbus, Patrick Crispen put together this list of 21 Essential Websites for Educators. It is copied here with permission, and all opinions are his, not mine. At the end of his "21" there is a list of the best reference materials available on-line. I’ve tried to group all the sites according to their subject. You can use the bookmarks below to jump to what you need, but I recommend scrolling through the list the first time you see this so you know what’s there. Happy Surfing!!
General Search
Yahoo
One of the Net's most popular search engines, even though it really
isn't a search engine -- it is a directory (like a phone book). Yahoo
only archives the title and one-paragraph descriptions of Web pages.
Since Yahoo is a directory, it is a great resource to help you
*locate* something -- like Boeing's homepage, a time schedule for the
London Underground, or a collection of links to pages for people who
like platypuses -- but it is not so good for "encyclopedia" or
"research" questions like "who said 'I regret that I have but one wife
to give my country?'" [It was Bob Dole.]
Yahooligans
Yahoo for kids. GREAT for elementary school (K-6) students, as well
as for adults looking for 'simple' information (for example,
information about spider monkeys). Yahooligans is SPECTACULAR for
biographical searches (Rosa Parks, Garrett Augustus Morgan, and so on).
Alta Vista
A very powerful search engine with a HUGE database. You can also use
AltaVista to search for pictures -- just click on AltaVista's "Images"
tab.
COMMENT: to teach someone how to search the Net, I usually go to Yahoo
and do a vanity search for me: Patrick Crispen. Yahoo returns seven
hits. I then do the same search at AltaVista, which usually results
in excess of 750,000 hits. Even though that number is staggering, I
point out that the first page of hits -- the "top 10" -- usually
contains what you are looking for. Never underestimate the importance
of the top 10!
Why does AV display 750,000+ hits for me? Well, AV is looking for
every page with the word Patrick on it and/or every page with the word
Crispen on it, regardless of where those words are located on the
page. You could conceivably have a page that says "Patrick Henry said
'give me liberty or give me death,' and to make great chicken you have
to crispen it."
This is a good point to introduce search engine math -- using quotes
for phrases, using minus signs to exclude words ("Patrick Crispen"
-Roadmap), and using plus signs to require words ("Patrick Crispen"
-Roadmap +TOURBUS).
This, of course, leads us to ...
Search Engine Watch
The best place to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about search
engines. To learn how to search the Web, click on "Web Searching
Tips" and then choose either "Search Engine Math" or "Power Searching
for Anyone."
COMMENT: When you search Yahoo, that's all you are searching: Yahoo.
When you search AltaVista, that's all you are searching: AltaVista.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to search ALL of the search engines at
once? Well, you can ...
Dogpile
Your new favorite search engine. Dogpile sends your searches to over
a dozen search engines, showing you the first ten hits from each
(which, we already know, are the strongest hits).
COMMENT: Of course, this brings up a problem: most search engines will
link to ANYTHING, regardless of whether or not it is good. How can we
limit our searches to just the good stuff? Well, one way is to visit
...
Google
A "popularity" search engine. Google sorts your hits based on the how
popular they are -- in other words, how many other sites point to that
particular hit.
COMMENT: Of course, while using a mathematical algorithm to determine
which pages are the best is a nice way to weed out the garbage,
nothing beats a human editor. So, in steps ...
Britannica
(See below under "Reference materials")
Ditto
A family-friendly image search engine. The folks at ditto look at
each image before adding it to their database, and they do not link to
any offensive imagery.
Lesson Plans
Gateway to Educational Materials
A search engine for high quality lesson plans, curriculum units, and
other education resources on the Internet. Think of it as the Dogpile
of lesson plans -- it searches EVERYTHING. (Try doing a search for
11th grade lesson plans for The Crucible.)
Weather
Intellicast
The BEST Weather site on the Net. Intellicast's radar imagery is
fantastic, and their forecasts use both Fahrenheit and Celsius.
Computing/Technology Sites
WhatIs
WhatIs.com is a free, online encyclopedia of technology terms. The
site takes a little getting used to, but if you want to know the
difference between RDRAM and DDR DRAM (something that is certainly
keeping ME up at night), WhatIs.com will explain it.
CNET
CNET is the self-proclaimed center of the digital domain. If it has
to do with technology, CNET has it. For example, CNET offers in-depth
reviews of computer hardware (at computers.com), a free search engine
that will help you find the best prices on the Net for computer
hardware and software (at shopper.com), tens of thousands of programs
you can download and install on your PC or Mac (at download.com), the
latest technology news from around the world (at news.com), and much
more! I can honestly say that I would be lost without CNET.
ZDNet
I am going to get flamed within an inch of my life for saying this,
but here goes: ZDNet is CNET's twin brother. [There go my chances of
ever being hired by EITHER company!]
Seriously, though, some people prefer CNET and some people prefer
ZDNET. BOTH sites are absolutely WONDERFUL!
News/Current Events
Good Morning Silicon Valley
Published every morning by the San Jose (CA) Mercury, Good Morning
Silicon Valley offers one-paragraph snippets of the latest technology
news. This is a must-read for anyone interested in technology or who
has money in the tech-heavy stock market.
Today's Papers
Every morning, the President of the United States receives a security
briefing from the CIA. Today's Papers is a daily news briefing
compiled from the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles
Times, and the country's other major newspapers. If you want to keep
up with what is going on in the US (and the world), Today's Papers is
for you.
Yahoo Full Coverage
This one is a little hard to describe. Yahoo Full Coverage is
absolutely the best place to turn for information about current
events. For every major news event, Yahoo creates a page that gives
you links to related newspaper articles and Web sites about that
event. For example, Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the US Federal
Reserve, recently hinted that US interest rates may rise soon. Yahoo
Full Coverage has a section dedicated to Greenspan's statement,
offering you links to news stories on this topic from Reuters, the
BBC, the Associated Press, CNNfn, and many others.
*note from Greta - I also use Google News which offers even more
Internet Safety
Microsoft Safe Kids
The SafeKids site offers free Microsoft PowerPoint presentations that
teach your children how to protect themselves online. A teacher's
guide is also available. One word of warning, though: *ALL* of the
file sizes listed on this page are wrong. The un-narrated PowerPoint
file is over 1 MB in size; the narrated version is about 10 MB.
Get Net Wise
Get Net Wise is the center for online child safety. Get Net Wise
offers tips for parents and educators, reviews of filtering software,
and many other online child safety resources.
Bargains
SEEQ
SEEQ is a leading search engine that consists of over 60 niche portals. They provide their visitors with very specific search content and related resources, allowing them to utilize the Internet more effectively. SEEQ Network portals relate to popular industries and subjects like Travel, Business, Technology, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Fashion, etc. Their advanced technologies assists in providing viewers focused content while simultaneously attracting only the most highly targeted traffic to each merchant site.
Amazing Bargains
Most ecommerce merchants like Buy.com and CDNOW offer special
discounts ... but only if you have a special discount code. Amazing
Bargains has a collection of coupons and discount codes for most major
online ecommerce sites. Before you purchase ANYTHING online, visit
Amazing Bargains first.
The Internet TOURBUS
A free, semi-weekly Internet newsletter. To subscribe, go to the Web site
and click on "FREE TICKET."
Note from Greta: If you’re going to subscribe to anything on the web, THIS IS THE ONE! I consider this an invaluable tool.
Reference materials on-line
Britannica.com
At Britannica.com you can do one very powerful search with a single
click. Enter your keywords, press the Find button, and you'll get
references from:
- the ENTIRE contents of the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica
- articles from major magazines (Newsweek, Discover, and 70 more)
- the Books in Print database (over two million titles)
- the Britannica Internet Guide (reviews of the Web's best sites)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online
Need to look up a word in the dictionary or thesaurus? Having Webster
online is a good thing for me, since my girls are always hiding the
paper versions in odd corners of the house. You can find the Merriam-
Webster Online site at this unlikely address.
Acronym Finder
Ever wonder what SNAFU or TANSTAAFL means? How about ROTFL, ADSL, or
RTFM? AcronymFinder is a searchable database of over 100,000 acronyms,
abbreviations and their meanings. There is coverage of many subjects,
with a focus on computers, technology, telecommunications, and the
military.
Book Lists
The Booklist Center - a comprehensive list of books broken into categories for all ages
REFDESK
In a library, if you don't know where to look for a reference book,
you go to the Reference Librarian. On the Internet, if you don't know
where to look for answers, you go to Refdesk.com. At first glance,
the sheer amount of useful links on the Refdesk home page can be
overwhelming. But it's really quite well organized and useful. Bob
Drudge, creator of Refdesk, gives a few pointers on how to use the
site:
"Refdesk.com's database in on three levels: quick, studied and deep.
For thumbnail snapshots: FastFacts 1999, Quick Reference / Research,
and My Facts Page. For a more studied approach: My Virtual Newspaper,
My Search Engines, Internet Help, and Writing Web Documents. For an
in-depth exploration: My Virtual Encyclopedia with fifty volumes of
indexed subjects."
Travlang's Translating Dictionaries
This site provides multilingual on-line dictionaries including German, French, Spanish, English, Portuguese,
Dutch, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and more. Use this site to translate a single word from one language to another. ***SCROLL DOWN past the ads to get to the dictionary.
Babelfish
If you need to translate entire sentences, AltaVista's Babelfish is a
robotic translator that produces reasonable results in many cases, but
it doesn't support as many languages as Travlang. You can have a lot
of fun translating phrases from one language to another, and back
again!
Copyright ©2002-2004 Lynneinhim. All rights reserved. No portion of this website may be reproduced or removed without written permission from the owner.
