So, for Thing 10 I compared Kids InfoBits and BigChalk on the Michigan eLibrary. My students enjoy learning about different kinds of animals. We also spend a significant amount of time discussing life cycles and raise butterflies, chickens, plants, ladybugs and praying mantis. So I decided to pick an animal that we could research. I started with tiger but found a lot of confusion between the tiger the animal and groups of tigers, such as the Detroit Tigers. So I decided to pick chickens...they don't play baseball!
I found that, in my case, each site has their advantages. For example, I started looking for koala bears as my first animal. On BigChalk I found a plethora of information on koala bears but on Kids Infobits I had to refine my search considerably to find more than a picture. Using these two databases we could research and hypothesize on things like chick growth and development inside the egg, watch the growth through videos and then use the information generated to take the chick from birth to hen or rooster (we only keep them a few weeks).
Finally, I added these two sites and the "kids" site from the Michigan eLibrary onto my face of the classroom for my parents' access.
Finally, I added these two sites and the "kids" site from the Michigan eLibrary onto my face of the classroom for my parents' access.
For the final part of Thing 10 I used Joyce Valenza's BASIC to critique the following two articles. http://www.thedogisland.com/ and http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/.
The content for the dog island site is very limited. It does not give specific information that tell the reader things such as where the island is located, the size of the island, how this island was established and by whom, etc. The amount and quality of the information is limited and could not be used as a credible citation in a research project. For the tree octopus article the credibility of the content is questionable although it looks like there is "researched" based materials site. Both sites use wording and language to draw you into the information but the wording seems to be more "manipulative" and questionable,than factual.
In terms of author and credibility, truncating back finds the author of the tree octopus to also have articles on animals such as the Manhattan Beach Mottled Roach and the Mountain Walrus with outlandish types of information. Further research shoes that he does have articles that start with the basics on the animal, such as a National Geographic citation on octopus, but now where in the article do they place an octopus in a tree. The dog island site does not give information regarding the author or the research behind the article. It appears to be more of a commercial or a sales pitch than research based.
Both of these articles seem to be bias and based on the need to persuade or sell their product. The dog island is trying to sell you their product, "the island is free" but it is very expensive to stay there and return with your dog. BUT, every dog needs to experience this to see what they are missing! The tree octopus article tries to persuade you by quoting research and what look like true facts. Neither of these articles would be useful or appropriate in a bibliography unless you were writing about bogus sites you can find on the internet.
For usability and design the tree octopus article is very flash compared to the simple stile of the dog island. The font and style of writing is very simplistic for dog island where the tree octopus is overwhelming with wording and choice of font and color are used almost to the point of looking "cartoonish" to a certain extent. The dog island article is flanked by commercials and ads, the tree octopus article used "research" facts. Both have buttons to link you to subsets of the article. Overall, both articles lack credibility and should not be used for a bibliography.
The content for the dog island site is very limited. It does not give specific information that tell the reader things such as where the island is located, the size of the island, how this island was established and by whom, etc. The amount and quality of the information is limited and could not be used as a credible citation in a research project. For the tree octopus article the credibility of the content is questionable although it looks like there is "researched" based materials site. Both sites use wording and language to draw you into the information but the wording seems to be more "manipulative" and questionable,than factual.
In terms of author and credibility, truncating back finds the author of the tree octopus to also have articles on animals such as the Manhattan Beach Mottled Roach and the Mountain Walrus with outlandish types of information. Further research shoes that he does have articles that start with the basics on the animal, such as a National Geographic citation on octopus, but now where in the article do they place an octopus in a tree. The dog island site does not give information regarding the author or the research behind the article. It appears to be more of a commercial or a sales pitch than research based.
Both of these articles seem to be bias and based on the need to persuade or sell their product. The dog island is trying to sell you their product, "the island is free" but it is very expensive to stay there and return with your dog. BUT, every dog needs to experience this to see what they are missing! The tree octopus article tries to persuade you by quoting research and what look like true facts. Neither of these articles would be useful or appropriate in a bibliography unless you were writing about bogus sites you can find on the internet.
For usability and design the tree octopus article is very flash compared to the simple stile of the dog island. The font and style of writing is very simplistic for dog island where the tree octopus is overwhelming with wording and choice of font and color are used almost to the point of looking "cartoonish" to a certain extent. The dog island article is flanked by commercials and ads, the tree octopus article used "research" facts. Both have buttons to link you to subsets of the article. Overall, both articles lack credibility and should not be used for a bibliography.
And for the citation maker activity I used an internet article on rhysus monkeys I googled. The citation was done through the Citation Machine.
Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v276/n5687/abs/276526a0.html>.