Exploring the
Britannica Editions:
Elementary, Middle,
High School, Public and Academic
By: Carol Reed
2A
1. Using Britannica Elementary, search for information on
a mammal of your choice. Find a picture and information about its habitat.
I searched the wapiti, which is a relative to the elk. I
learned that the wapiti used to live all over North America, but now resides
mainly in northwestern U.S. and southwestern Canada. It chooses to live in
“open woodlands and mountain meadows.
2. Using Britannica Middle School, search for information
on the same mammal you searched in Britannica Elementary and compare the amount
of information.
The Middle School version does not focus on quick facts to
learn about the wapiti. It focused completely on which countries they come from
and what the wapiti is called in each country. This section said that in the
United States it is referred to as an American elk. It also reports that the
name, wapiti, came from the Shawnee, meaning “white deer”. While the elementary
version had a lot more facts about the animal, the middle school version seemed
to be more in depth about the animal’s beginnings. It was formatted in
paragraph form instead of blocked sections created for easy reading.
3. Using Britannica High School, search for a country.
Notice the types of information available on the right side bar of the results
screen. What types of information will be most valuable to your patrons?
The multimedia options are great for students with
disabilities and the learning materials are a great option for the teacher who
is teaching about the country. The actual encyclopedia piece was 125 pages, but
you can jump ahead to different sections within the article and it also offers
links to expand your research and even a primary source link. This is a great
tool for my elementary teachers because they can get some great teaching
resources here for free.
4. Using either the Middle or High School level, click on
Help (top right). In the index
which is on the left side, click on “Working with Articles” and then on
“Workspace”. How useful will this
feature be for your students and teachers?
This feature is great for both teachers and students. I
think both would find this feature very valuable. Students can save their
resources as they are searching as they find them and they can evaluate and
delete ones they will not use at a later time. Narrowing down resources will
help students be able to find valuable information instead of being overwhelmed
with info. Teachers can offer resources to their whole class without worrying
about the links getting deleted. The teacher can create a workspace for the
whole class to start from that has links ready to view and have them look at
info that the teacher has already narrowed down for them. Teachers could also
have their students research the topic and save to individual student
workspaces and then the teacher could review these resources with their
students. As a technology teacher I will use this for research integration with
my classes that are researching a certain topic. It makes everyone’s lives
easier.
2B
1. Using Britannica Public Library Edition, search for
information about a current event, such as the Arab Spring. Notice the 3 sections of the result
screen. Click on any of the
articles and read a little about the topic you chose. Notice the Google Translator at the bottom of the
article. Would this be helpful for
any of your patrons?
I think this would be very helpful in our schools for the
ESL students and for the language teachers. The language teachers would be able
to print out the articles in both languages to help show comparisons between
the two languages being studied. The ESL students may have an easier time doing
their reports if they could have them translated into their native language
while they are learning English.
2. Using Britannica Public Library Edition, click on any
one of the Research Tools on the left side of the homepage. To get back to the homepage, just click
on the Britannic Public Library Edition logo at the very top of the page.
The research tools are great here also. I love the
multimedia and videos. I would use those to integrate with my lower grades at
the ES to go along with what they are learning in the classroom.
3. Now, just explore the other features available on the
main page such as the Biography of the Day or This Day in History. What types of information will be most
valuable to your patrons?
Depending on the topic they are teaching, the biography of
the day or what happened on this date might work in nicely with what they are
teaching. Teachers could even use it as a morning activity as they get their
students ready for learning or morning meeting. Students interested in what
happened on their own birthdays would find this tool very useful.
2C
1. Using Britannica Academic Edition, search for
information about a current event.
Notice that the result screen is divided into 3 sections. The middle section contains the list of
articles that met your search criteria.
When you scroll over any of the titles, a short overview of the articles
appears on the right side of the screen.
Click on any of the articles and read a little about the topic you
chose. Notice the citation style
choices at the bottom of the screen.
I chose the US Presidential Election of 2012. It had a
featured article fully explaining the race and how the Republican choice was
elected. One really nice feature of this page is that you can make the font
size of the article bigger if needed. I love the citation style choice at the
bottom and wished I had this when I went to high school and college. I always
had a difficult time remembering which citation style was written in which
form. It is nice not to have to wonder when it spells it out for you.
2. Using Britannica Academic Edition, click on any one of
the Research Tools on the left side of the homepage. To get back to the homepage, just click on the Britannic
Academic Edition logo at the very top of the page.
I like the research tools, but I think the Public Edition
had more tools that might be useful for educators. I really like the ability to
compare countries under the World Data Analyst and find that to be a useful
tool for high school teachers.
3. Now, explore creating a workspace by clicking on the
logo and returning to the homepage.
Tell us briefly how you might use the workspace at your institution.
I created a workspace I could use with my younger grades. My
first grade class is going to be learning about spiders and I found a video to
add to the workspace. What I would like to do is add more content to it and
have them login to the workspace with my username. I like that they are able to
view the content I put on there, but they can’t change it at all. I could also
use it with my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders
because I could have them create their own workspace and have them research
their topics and store their search results there. Then the classroom teacher
and I could work individually with the students to help them narrow down the
info based on their own individual abilities. I could also see this as a huge benefit to middle and high
school students who are working on a report. This would allow them to store
their research info they found until they were ready to complete the report. As
a high school or college student I wished I had this ability to store my
resources without having to constantly change website pages. I think this is my
favorite tool I have found so far, but I am sure there will be more. Although I
also really liked the Britannica K-2 Learning Zone for quick center work or for
free lab time.
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