This week we looked at search engines for educators. I find it really important to have different search engines to use in the education world because there is so much on the Internet that is inappropriate for students to see. Having a safe outlet for students to use is important.
The 12 search engines we had to look at were great. I like how academicinfo listed topics from A to Z and that directory includes printed work as well as electronic. Archival Research Catalog and Library of Congress is a great tool to use for social studies research. It also includes teacher resources! The scholarly search engines are very useful and I know I will be using them in my own education. Infotopia is my favorite search engine because you could pick a topic like Science or Math and narrow results even more.
The one thing this list was lacking was search engines appropriate for younger children. Being Childhood certified I was hoping to find a search engine where the information was given at a younger reading level. I think it is important that students start learning how to search for credible sources at a young age so being able to use the computer would help greatly with that. Having results at lower reading levels can help include all students that have different reading abilities.
