Week 2
This week we explore the resource Britannica Online, in MARVEL, Maine's virtual library. While I work in a public library, I am a kid at heart, and have two grandchildren, with whom I always try to share some knowledge each time we visit. With that being said, I took a detour to the Britannica school edition (K-12). The grandchildren are currently on a trip to Arizona, and will visit some National Parks. I typed that term in the search box to see what I would find. The results were similar to a book I had purchased for them prior to their departure. I located the link for Acadia National Park, and explored. The audio option was interesting, but a little disappointing. The pronunciation was off on some words, and the voice more mechanical than I had expected. My initial thought was that it might be helpful to less skilled readers. My verdict is still out.
Finished playing, now on to my assignment for this week.
I chose lesson 2b, the Britannica Public Library edition. I began by watching the suggested video on the Maine State Library page. What an impressive bit of information! I had no idea that "work spaces" were available, and that the information was stored online with Britannica for a year! If you change and 'save' any information in your project, it will be saved roughly a year form the date of the changes. I almost skipped the link encouraging exploration of the online guide, as I assumed that it would all be covered in the video. I was pleasantly pleased to learn even more about about the geography tools! Now that I have the initial guides under my belt, I am ready to proceed with the assignment.
Using the suggested search term 'Arab Spring', I began exploring the results. How nice to have not only the Spanish translator available, but also the option to choose alternate languages, via the Google translator at the bottom of the article. Interestingly, we have had a few inquiries about alternate languages in our library.
Wanting to get the most out of this experience, I saved an article, thus requiring me to set up a 'workspace' and 'project'. That process went smoothly, at least initially.
While I have not had the occasion to write a research paper requiring citations for over 40 years, it was nice to notice the four common styles of citation located at the bottom of the article, which will come in handy when assisting students needing to make use of citations.
I have included a link to share my article. <a href="http://library.eb.com.ursus-proxy-9.ursus.maine.edu/eb/article-9570981"> Arab Spring</a> When I clicked on 'test this link', it could not be accessed . . . not sure what is up with that. It appears I have more work to do on this feature.
It took me a minute to locate my 'Workspace' after I created it, but all is well, I found it on the right hand side of article under the "Workspace Projects" column.
The atlas was my next area of interest. The more I zoomed in on the map, the more information it showed about local areas, such as birth and death places of famous people. Digging a little deeper, I discovered the settlement patterns of the area. The Atlas is a fun feature to explore new places.
The timeline of medicine was very interesting. Reading about the early Hippocratic writings was a nice review. I had no idea that there were hospitals in Sri Lanka as early as 400 B.C.
I also checked out a video in the American History section, Native Americans and Frontiersmen Series; it is nice to know that we have access to that information.
This Day in History, is a fun way to learn a little daily trivia!
Clicking on the 'Primary Sources and eBooks' tab, lead me to Project Gutenberg's A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was a book I had owned and loved as a child. It was fun going down memory lane with some familiar verses. My parents would be so proud of me!
Country Comparison was also very interesting. My only regret with that was that the information for comparison did not always line up to be side by side, which sometimes made it difficult to compare.
I tried to save other articles in my 'Workspace', but was unable to do that. I think might have had a typo in my original set up of my 'workspace', thus when I went to log in again, it did not recognize me. I created a new workspace, and all seems well.
Like any exploration on the internet, exploring Encyclopedia Britannica Online can be a fascinating adventure which leads one from one topic to another! I really DO have to get some other work done today!
Awaiting week #3 . . .
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