Lesson 1

World Book Kids Edition

The “Maps & More” section is divided into three areas: Interactive Maps, World Book Atlas and Outline Maps and Flags. This website could be used by students who are studying to be teachers or student teaching and creating lesson plans. The interactive maps section has the capacity to zoom in and out, allowing the user to focus on a particular area: the United States, for example, to learn about the different states locations and see colored pictures of state maps OR by zooming out there is a view of the continents with a link to each for additional information, which also contains additional links for more information. Interestingly, users may choose to view the map utilizing a Map or Satellite view.

Briefly, the World Book Atlas part of the site provides population, climate, economic (for example, for Australia there is agriculture and fishing, mining and manufacturing, and terrain information) where students can see where in Australia there are crops, dairy farms, wheat and sheep farming and unproductive land. If students are working on a report for a particular area, this site would provide them with useful information. 

Lastly, the Outline Maps section provides a way for students to practice labeling maps—for example, when they are studying the United States they can print an outline map of the US without text and fill-in the state names for practice.

This site provides basic information for students and gives them the opportunity to explore linking to additional information without being sent into the internet galaxy. 

World Book Student

The Explore area of this site provides an overview of information for 5^th- 9^th grade students. Students can quickly compare two continents or countries. For example, with the upcoming Olympics in Sochi I compared Russia to the United States as a potential exercise to do with students to help them consider what it is like in another part of the world. The results are displayed in a middle column with a column on either side with links to a particular country’s information. At first glance students will be able to note Russia’s population 142,408,000 is significantly less than the United States 321,137,000. However, by looking in the middle column the students will see the land area of Russia is almost twice the size of the United States. A bit farther down the middle column is a fun fact for students on internet use: there are 21 internet users per 100 in Russia and 71 internet users per 100 in the United States. 

Once this brief overview is looked at, students can click a link to learn more in depth information about the country or countries. The additional information is substantially more detailed than that found in the World Book Kids. The information here contains: an overview, Government, People, Way of Life, Arts, History and More! If students have internet access in the classroom they could divide into small groups to look up information on a particular country, part of a country, etc. to share with the class.

World Book Advanced

Students directed to use this resource for e-books may need instruction, as it is not particularly user friendly and would probably be introducing new resources and developing new skills. While it is helpful to have the text to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn available in this manner, the links are not easily identified as useful. My job involves providing research assistance to college students and we provide instruction sessions on conducting database research for literary analysis. This resource does not provide a way to limit a search. One of the links under “Back in Time” that comes up for this story is “Classical music (1942)”; I’m not sure what the connection would be there and am fairly certain students would not read the article to discern it either. There is not a synopsis or abstract to help them select what articles would be helpful. 

Until I have a better understanding of how to utilize this, I will steer clear of pointing students toward this resource. However, its emailing, printing and saving articles features are very useful for students and they will be able to transfer the skills they develop them to other research databases.

World Book Discover

Since I did not a see a “special features” under the Reference Tools section, I looked at a couple of regular reference tools. To begin, I would not refer students to use the dictionary here because it is too limited. 

However, the Timeline may be helpful for learners. The linear design, with the dates, images and brief texts clearly mark key points within history and since it’s not a video the user may look at it at his/her own pace. (I wish there was a note on the page, though, instructing the user to “click & drag” to move forward & back on the timeline. Some people may not realize that is a possibility and it’s a handy feature.) I used the timeline to seek information about the beginnings of the United States and for Highlights of Science: 400’s B.C. to A.D. 800’s. There’s a toolbar at the top of the page which allows users to edit, create their own timeline(s), save to their research, print or switch to a tabular view (which could be helpful). The “Create Your Own Timeline” feature will be helpful for students working on projects—it’s a way to neatly create, edit and print a timeline.