LearningExpress Library

The LearningExpress Library has a very different set up from last year.  I did have to create a new account with the updated version.  There was also the option to create an account without using an email which would be very handy for the elementary and middle school students without an email.  I do not remember to user guides from last year but thought there were many useful guides including how to search LearningExpress Library.

I was able to easily find the school center and select elementary, from there I then selected Reading Comprehension Skills Practice. There are reading practice for informational, narrative, persuasive, poetry and general reading.  Informational had the most reading practice section at 9.  The sections are set up to allow you to test by seeing the answers at the end or viewing the answers as you go through the practice as a study guide.  I only see reading practice for grade 4 at the elementary level.  I am curious as to why only 4^th grade was chosen for these practice areas.

Looking for Office Manger provided much more difficult.  I searched with the general search box and looked throughout the Career Center section.  I used various search terms including office manager, managerial, and office without success.  I did find under the Job Search and Workplace Skills, how to improve the job search and networking skills and building your workplace skills which would be useful to many serious in finding a job.   Through my searches I discovered a lot of help for the health care field.  I back tracked to the school center and looked under high school.  Possible sections that could help with the job training could include logic and reasoning, math, statistics, vocabulary and spelling and writing and grammar skills.  By not finding the specific office I manager search I did “stumble”  across a lot of other areas that could help a wide variety of possible careers.

I went straight to the Career Center for the student with the nurse and pharmacist report.  Nursing had an ebook that detailed the profession.  Looking at the table of contents each chapter listed a variety of information on nursing. This would be an excellent resource for a report with the option of emailing the PDF to your personal email. When I first selected Learn More about a Career, there was an eBook on Becoming a Healthcare Professional.  When looking through this resource there was mention of becoming a nursing assistant technology and no mention of pharmacy.  I know I had seen an exam for a pharmacist technician but when I went back the next day I could not find it again.  It happened to be under the Allied health section.  What I found was pharmacy exams but little information about the actual career.  I had hoped for more information.  Looking at the types of resources given under health care, I could only wonder if there was more focus on these particular professions because of a perceived shortage or need in these areas.

When at home, every time I selected Allied Health under prepare for an occupation exam, I got a pop up on finding a dentist by searching by my zip code.  This was a bit annoying.

Mango Languages

I recently showed this database to my 9 year old daughter who brought home a French language book and asked me to read the words which I could not do.  I have never taken French and would have slaughtered the pronunciations.  I had to set up an account with an email.  I find this a bit of a hindrance as a lot of middle school students do not have an email account yet.  I recall having to go to my email account to verify the set up.  For someone new to our country this may be a hurdle in getting to the database.  When I logging in at work I found a newer version of the dashboard but had the option to utilize the older dashboard.

I used the foreign courses for English speakers to begin with, but quickly realized that this would not help the Vietnamese student practice her English. I then moved to the translate tab.  Wrong place again as there was no recording for the pronunciation.    You can choose the language you are starting with and translate to the language you are learning.  I went back to the courses tab and found the English courses.  There were considerably less languages to pick from than the foreign languages for English speakers.  Though not labeled, when I hovered over each I was able to see what language it was.  This course work is similar in set up as the others for English users.  I love that it is set up conversationally.  At any time you can select a statement and have it read for repeated practice.  Later steps break down the conversation and allow additional listening and a record option.  The record option would be tremendously helpful I comparing their emerging English to the statement in practice.  The visual recording helps in determining which parts of the word(s) are vocalized strongly or softly.  The grammar component is also important to help make sure meaning in conversation is accurate.  Taking a placement test allows the user to begin where they need and not become bored or frustrated by starting from the beginning.  This course would allow a Vietnamese student a place to practice and would use her language as a starting place to learn our language.

ChiltonLibrary

A very handy database!  The process to find the right vehicle was very simple.  When on the right car, the left sidebar has an expandable outline which you can expand or minimize.  The Cherokee had information for repair only.  The outline for the repairs include; body, brakes, chassis electrical, driveline, engine cooling, engine electrical, engine mechanical, engine performance &emission controls, fuel systems, Heating, ventilation, & air conditioning, steering, suspension, transmissions and wiring diagrams.  Under removal and installation of the steering wheels there are animations and tech tips as well as videos.  I noticed the print icon on the right, allowing to guiding pictures to use at the vehicle site after viewing the videos.  I have students that get jobs early so they can purchase their own car which often they have to repair themselves. 

The A131L transaxle is a 3-speed automatic, developed specifically for transversely mounted engines. The wide gear ratios and efficient torque converter combine with the built-in locking clutches to operate quietly and efficiently. http://www.chiltonlibrary.com/ContentDelivery.aspx?ca=Repair   The provided identification for the transmission will allow for the correct part purchase in the repair the car.  Very handy!

World Book Foreign Language Edition

This WB was a little difficult for me as I did not take either French or Spanish.  For this area of the country, I think a German WB would be interesting.  I forged ahead with the French WB.  I found I could search using English search terms.  I searched animals, habitats and houses.  The results where about five to a page with the different source types listed on the left hand side.  What I really found interesting was at the bottom of each article was a link to the same article in WB Kids.  This allowed me to check if using an English search term was helpful in the French WB.  Though I did get some results in the French version, when I searched the same word in WB Kids I received many more results.  I searched for cat in the French version and got 6 results and in the Kids version and got 70 results. I really liked the option to see the English version of the article.  This would be very useful for those students working on their foreign language skills.   I then searched using the pictures on the homepage.  It took a while but was able to find an article specifically on cats which I did not find in the term search.  I think someone new to the language would be able to use the pictures to search more effectively then the terms.  As one learned more of the language, then term searching with French words would be more effective.

World Book Public Library Edition

I explored the Activities in WB Online Kids and found a lot of interesting activities.  Activities included poetry, sign language, math puzzles, animals, among other subject areas.  This would be a great resource for students and teachers in the elementary setting.  Activities are organized in alphabetical order and on the left the option to filter the activities in four different ways.  The reliable WB tools for printing, saving, email, text read aloud and translate exist at the top of each activity page.

                I looked through the Primary Documents under the Research Tools.  With CCSS there is a push to use primary documents in various content areas, this could be a very valuable tool for students and teachers.  I searched civil rights and had 18 results.  There is also a link to teaching with documents with many results.  Within the topic there is teaching activities such as; Discussion, vocabulary development, document review, and case study.  Each topic result has links to related information and related encyclopedia content.  Each topic has its own outline for teaching ideas.  Very helpful for teachers to develop or supplement currents lessons.

                The E-Book Centre on WB Online Reference Center looks to have a similar set up as the WB Advanced.  When I searched juvenile literature I received the same number of results.  When looking up Huckleberry Finn I noticed the outline of the story to the left and to the right the related information and the related encyclopedia content.  Another similarity where the tools at the top of the article, a nice standard for World Book.  What I had not seen before (but will go back to double check) is a section for content standards and the statement that this article aligns with SD content standards.  This article aligns with language arts in grades 8, 9, and 12.  You can also print out these standards.  On the standards page there is also links for professional links and lesson plans. Incredible resource for teachers!   Going back to WB Advanced I found that only some eBooks had the SD content standards link but titles in both were consistent.

World Book Databases

In World Book Kids, I explored “Compare Places” and was excited to find it was similar to the Compare Animals.  Students have the option of filtering by continents, countries, dependencies and providences.  The compare table included area, population, life expectancy, internet users, armed forces, capital, continent, government and others.  “Print this page” is a useful feature.  Each country that I compared had a link to the article of that country.  The tab to Explore the country, allowed you to view just that country’s facts and included related photos and also the option to listen to the national anthem.  At the very bottom was a link to the CIA World Factbook.  This will be very useful for teachers and students when they focus on Central and South America.

I looked at the Compare Places under World Book Students as I wanted to see the difference between the two World Books.  They were in all areas except for a much more detailed article on the country chosen.  Depending on the capability of the student, either WB Kids or Student could be used.  I have used the Biography Centre before and have had students search for a variety of important people.  I have previously used the timelines and citation builder with students so decide to look at How To Do Research under the Research Tools.  There is a clear structure provided for either students and teachers.  I am currently helping 6^th grade Social Studies teachers with a research project for students on a famous person.  This outline could be very helpful in guiding the project.  Under Plan Your Research, there are listed possible questions for biographies, countries, animals, historical events and literature(fiction and nonfiction).  This will be an excellent resource to use to guide the students through a research project.  There was even an great video that answered the question, “Why do I need World Book when Wikipedia is free?”  For teachers there is provided a structure as well for teaching research skills.  My favorite page was Teaching Research Skills which provide a variety of activities to help with teaching the process of research.  The Research Project Calculator is an interesting tool which provides an outline of the type of project you are doing and the amount of time each section should take to complete.

I explored E-Book Center in World Book Advanced and found I could search by author, title, genre and language.  The option for format (downloadable) was also available.  I searched Juvenile literature  and found 256 results.  I selected Grimm’s Fairy tales as I know a teacher who includes this in her Mythology class.  There were many Grimm’s tales which I had never heard of before.  I then searched Andersen’s Fairy Tales.  The left side bar provided an outline of the various fairy tales and selecting one would let you jump to that section.  The reliable tools that I would find from World book are available for the eBooks  such as print, translate, save section, save to My Research, email, and text read aloud.  To the left of the page are links for related information and related encyclopedia content.  My students are showing an increase interest in ebooks.  I also have students who are looking for more Classic literature and this would be an excellent resource for them.

I decided to explore World Book Explain Videos under Reference Tools in WB Discover.  Videos were organized in the left side bar: Animals, Arts, entertainment, and culture, Health and medicine, Life science, Physical science, U.S. government, U.S history and World history.  The most interesting item I found was at the bottom of the page, another way to search videos by WB partners.  Videos from organizations included Plimoth Plantation, Seaworld, Salem Witch Museum, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, National World War II Museum and several others.  I select Salem Witch Museum and received 10 video results.  I wondered from the beginning why there was a button labeled Ask a Question.  This seems to lead to student input for the video collection.   As I started to watch some of the videos, they often began with a student introducing themselves and asking a question.  This would be a great additional resource for teachers to include in various subjects.  6^th grade could use the World History section and explore Ancient civilizations.  There were only 6 video results but this could lead to students asking questions for additional videos in areas of Ancient Eygpt and Rome.  The videos seemed a reasonable length and seemed straight to the point of the question.

Discoveries during the Electronic Challenge

I found with any resource and database you must spend some time exploring the different functions and tools.  I think it is also useful to allow students time to fumble around with a database so they can discover as well as provide them with guided lessons connected to the resources.   Each database is unique and suits different needs.  This electronic challenge guided me through the databases that are helpful to the various students and teachers I work with on a daily basis. Many teachers I work with are very busy and have little time to “explore”.  I find that this is where a librarian comes in handy.  I can then collaborate with a variety of teachers on various subjects to provide informational literacy skills for the students.  As I went through this challenge I thought of certain teachers and “sold” this educational product to them.  Once they saw the useful information that tied in with their lessons they also became excited over the databases.  I continually ask the teachers what they are covering in class and try to connect them with the database that will match the subject.  I think it will be helpful for me to revisit the databases on a regular basis so the information will stay fresh and I can discover additional items.