Thing 14 - Digital EBook Creation

Thing 9: Search Tools Ninja

I admit that sometimes it is easier to have students use Google to search (especially older grades) and I found it helpful to look at some of the articles about using that search tool. I found an article titled Six easy ways to tell if that viral story is a hoax. I especially liked a suggestion about reverse image searching. I happened to have a friend email me a NY Times interactive about the Woman's March. I didn't realize it at first because I just assumed the pictures were from this year but I was a little skeptical because they were so overwhelming. It turned out that they were in fact from 2017 (not this year) If I had looked further in to the information she provided I would have realized that. I decided to try the reverse image search and this confirmed my suspicion. I am now planning to use this with my students.

Back to other Web Search Tools.

I tried Choosito, Thinga, DuckDuckGo and I had already checked out Kid Rex search last year.

When I entered anything in Thinga it said bummer can't find anything but here is what we found in DuckGo (I tried some things as simple as cow, dog.) When I tried the same things on directly on DuckDuck Go I realized that the difference was presentation.

This is what it looks from Thinga:

This is what it looks like directly from DuckDuckGo:

The site that I really liked was Choosito.

The free search has pictures of the websites and a description. It also tells the reading level and subject level for each site.

It has the ability to limit the search by reading level, subject level and setting up classes with a subscription. I tried a free trial and it is very useful.

I used this search two ways – I found good websites to add to my lists for certain topics and I used it for students to search for websites on certain topics. Both worked very well

One of the sites that came up again – and again on Choosito was Duckster http://www.ducksters.com/  very good by subject great for history, geography, biography.

I compared it to Kidrex Search that I found last year and used at times but I like Choosito – better for several reasons mainly as described earlier presentation.