Spending Time on World Book Timelines

I can’t resist another opportunity to share the resources that Lisa Read from Focused Ed shared with us a few weeks ago. ​World Book Timelines is a powerful tool that can help your students visualize historical events. With this tool, students can create and explore interactive timelines that feature a wide range of events, topics and periods, including art, music, politics, world history, science and more.

Here are a few ideas for using World Book Timelines:

  1. Assign a timeline project: Ask your students to create their own timelines on a particular topic. For example, they could create a timeline of important inventions​ or they could create a timeline of a events that occurred in a novel. Encourage them to include multimedia elements, such as images and videos to make their timelines more engaging.
  2. Use timelines to learn about historic events like the Prime Ministers of Canada.
  3. Create collaborative timelines: Divide your students into small groups and ask them to create collaborative timelines on a particular topic. This can be a great way to promote teamwork and encourage your students to learn from one another.​
How to get to World Book Timelines:
1. Go to Learn71.ca and click on Library Commons and then​ Research Databases or just click on Research Databases ​(the third button down on the right).
2.  Click on Encyclopedias and find World Book Timelines:
​3. You shouldn’t have to log in when you are at school but you can also use them at home. Log in using your school password (these can be found by logging in to the Destiny library search and then clicking on Passwords)..
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Topic Search for Narrowing Down Topics and Finding Information

Lisa Read from Focused​ Ed was up last week and she showed us the Gale Topic Search. I had forgotten how awesome it is! Do you have students in your class who have a difficult time coming up with research topics for Inquiry projects?  Perhaps you have students who say “I’m going to my project on Hockey”?  Gale Power Search is a wonderful product that you can use to narrow down searches and come up with topics. It also instantly provides you with some articles to read about your newly narrowed down topic.​
 
To find Gale Topic Search:
1. Go to Learn71.ca and click on Library Commons and then​ Research Database or just click on Research Databases.
2.  Click on Database then choose one of the Gale databases (pick the one that is related the closest to the topic you are looking for).
3.  You shouldn’t have to log in when you are at school but you can also use them at home. Log in using your school password (these can be found by logging in to the Destiny library search and then clicking on Passwords).
​4.  Click on ​Advanced Search
5.  Click on Topic Finder
6.  ​​Now comes the cool part!  Type in your topic in the Search spot at the top right and click to search.
Now you will see a wheel with other topics branching out of the original.  Move your mouse around the circle to explore the other topic and click on ideas to see articles on the right.
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Links to Specific Spots in Articles and iPhone/iPad Photo Fun

​I can’t believe tomorrow is the beginning of March!  The Minecraft Challenge is coming to a close and I am really looking forward to the “Old Timey Newspapers” session with Lisa Read on Thursday (scroll down to learn more). Today I discovered two really cool little tricks that I am excited to share with you.  The first one enables you to create a link that takes you to a specific section of an article or website in Google Chrome and the other super cool trick is for iPhone/iPad users (Hint: when you are looking at photos did you ever notice a little sparkle by the i underneath?).

​Creating a Link to Specific Text on a Page:

​You can create a link to a specific spot in an online page and share it so the receiver does not have to read an entire article to get to the spot you intend them to see.

Here’s how:

1.  Use Google Chrome

2.  Locate the text that you would like to share

2. Highlight the part of the article that you would like to direct the reader to.

3.  Right click and click on Copy link to Highlight

4. Now you can share that link and the receiver will be able to open it directly to the selection you highlighted (and yes, it is still highlighted)

*This also works on ipads/iPhones and Android devices

Visual Look​ Up on iPhones and iPads: sparkle i.png​

This one is so awesome! I noticed a little sparkle by the i under a  photo of a flower arrangement that I took.  After looking it up I discovered that if you click on the i it will bring up more information about the object of the photo. ​ This works for ​popular landmarks, statues, art, plants, pets, and more!

How it works:

1. Open a photo that is of something that may be identifiable (plant, animal, landmark…)

2. Click on the sparkle i.png​if one appears (not all objects will get this-only ones that can be looked up)

3. Now click on the image that appears on your photo and you will see the information underneath.

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