Internet - 2: Researching online

Five ways to search a topic.
Search engines search differently. Google is the penultimate choice, that normally comes to mind, so much so that the term has become a verb “to google” in just ten years. But consider a given topic that one wants information on. Let’s take “cyberbullying.” A google search will reveal a grab bag of documents of different kinds. Next, consider a search of “google news” . It immediately becomes clear that the kind of information received here is different, Here we get information that is written ONLY by journalists, and ONLY from newspapers. A third search is google scholar. Now the search is limited to scholarly works.


Questia.com
The above section identified “five ways” to search a topic. The next two are “special” in that they are subscription databases. Questia advertises itself as the worlds largest online library. It is a “real” library that houses only what you find in a physical library. Books, Journals. Magazines. The cost is relatively miniscule: about the cost of a single textbook for a year… about $100.

Questia has several other useful features as well, including assistance for writing papers for students, and lists of significant works in major areas.

If Questia has a problem, it is that it is not quite large enough, and is not always as current as one would like. Still, these issues seem relatively minor.

Questia offers a useful “peek” for non subscribers. The system locks out outsiders only when they attempt to read complete texts.



Dissertation Abstracts
Dissertation abstracts has always been a foundational source for academia. It belongs to a set of subscription databases belonging to ProQuest. Dissertation Abstracts provides “free” abstracts of masters and doctoral dissertations. Complete pdf versions of dissertations can be ordered at less than $50 per title.



Two other useful sources for teachers.
SparkNotes.com
Every student knows about Cliffs Notes in the US, Monarch Notes, or in Canada Coles Notes. These detailed summaries for students have often been frowned upon by teachers who worry that students will buy the Coles Notes version of novels, and never read the novel itself. These outlines tend to kick in at the high school and college level or possibly upper middle years. Nevertheless, the online equivalent is Sparknotes, created by graduate students from Harvard University.

Lesson Plans: NewYorkTimes.com
Lesson plans can be found throughout the web. Here, we shall identify one source only, regrettably a US site, but excellent nevertheless. The New York Times provides a free service for teachers that prepares lessons based on current events. Not only does a teacher get ideas for teaching, but the news stories which serve the basis for the lessons are provided as well. If there is a weakness, it is that to transfer to Canada, we cannot expect any Canadian content.