Thing 14: reliable sites

I found the Librarians Index to the Internet very useful for a broad topic such as "buddhism" but as soon as I tried one of my student's history day topics I got nothin'. I tried to search for "minneapolis teacher strike of 1970." Apparently that was too specific for this index. I would have a hard time selling this to my kids for history day but maybe for another project I could tell them about this tool. I would probably compare it to a search engine like Google so that they could make the connection.

I liked how the Internet Public Library had the KidSpace and Subject Collections with Sub-headings. Again, it was not helpful with a specific search.

I did not like docuticker since I could not figure it out at all. I thought it was very unfriendly. I would never introduce this to my kids.

DMOZ and Complete planet were just "okay". I gotta be honest and say that I did not LOVE any of these sites very much. In a "google-world" it is hard to work with other ways of doing searches.

I also think it is important for kids to learn to evaluate sites for themselves. It is a good skill to have. Even though they get impatient and want immediate answers. They need to work on slowing down and looking at the reliability of sites.