More research tools

12th March 2007

posted in edtech |

This evening my third grader asked to use a paper-based dictionary to look up words that start with the “tri-” prefix. I felt confident we could find an online resource that would at least match and likely exceed the utility of a paper-based dictionary (which is still in an unpacked box in our garage somewhere and not easily accessible)– and sure enough, we discovered Wiktionary:

…a collaborative project to produce a free, multilingual dictionary with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations. Wiktionary is the lexical companion to the open-content encyclopedia Wikipedia. In this English edition, started on December 12, 2002, we currently have 342,231 entries in 389 languages.

We found a great list of words starting with the prefix “tri” on the site, with linked definitions, of course!

I also learned about Zotero today (a citation-assistant for the free Firefox web browser on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms, installable as a free extension) after IMing a bit with Derek Baird and reading his blog post from today about it. Derek also linked to a nice “Comparison of Free Bibliographic Managers” by S M Mahbub Murshed worth checking out. The review includes 14 different FREE tools for managing research citations! The commercial citation tool I’ve used the most is still EndNote, which I wish I’d known about and purchased at the START of my graduate studies.

I’ve added these three links to my wiki workshop curriculum “Effective Search and Research Strategies.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 6:51 pm and is filed under edtech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On March 12th, 2007, Mrs. Durff said:

Don’t forget http://www.quia.com/jg/65963list.html
but most of all, don’t overwhelm him. He’s only in third grade, there’s time enough for college…

2 On March 16th, 2007, S M Mahbub Murshed said:

Please note that the comparison of bibliographic manager is created by me “S M Mahbub Murshed”, not Derek. He simply mentioned it in his blog. Derek’s name also appears in http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/search.

Thanks.

3 On March 16th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

Hey, thanks for the correction! I changed the attribution both on the original blog post here and on my pbwiki page. Sorry for the mistake, I appreciate you letting me know!