More research tools

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.”

Technorati Tags: education, research

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