Reccomendation of 15 Critical Websites: a Comprehensive Study - Annotated Bibliography Example

RECOMMENDATION OF 15 CRITICAL WEBSITES: a comprehensive study BY:____________________ Instructions: Create a list of 15 websites that you would personally recommend to other teachers, librarians, or practioners in the education field. The list will briefly describe the site and its value, and cite the the resource in APA format. This should be done on the first five pages. On the six page, pick six from the annotated list and provide the strengths and weaknesses of each. Three that model the best traits, and three that while adequate resources, fall short of being regarded as an exemplary educational website. 1.Proquest.com Subject. (n.d.). ProQuest - Central To Research Around The World. ProQuest - Central To Research Around The World. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://proquest.com/en-US/ Proquest is one of the most prominent websites that has wide range of topics. Proquest uses a powerful database system which enables it to product strong search queries. In addition, it comes with automatic citation which facilitates students, instructors, and professionals. 2.Bibme.com BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free. (n.d.). BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://bibme.com Bibme.com is a gift for any librarian who wants to assist a student through citation. Bibme.com offers many wonderful aspects of citations and is very easy to use. 3. BBC.com BBC - Homepage. (n.d.). BBC - Homepage. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://bbc.com This is a great website for any professional or student who wants to gain a better knowledge of not only domestic but also international affairs. Coverage is almost real time and extremely dynamic. 4.Pubmed.gov Home - PubMed - NCBI. (n.d.).National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ PubMed is a gift for any medical student or any individual who wishes to gain a better understanding of medical terminology or issues that are currently trending. 5.Picsearch Pictures. (n.d.). Pictures. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.picsearch.com/ A powerful search engine that possesses that contains more than 20 million pictures in its database. Individuals can search for pictures for basically any criteria they desire. 6. Google Alerts Google Alerts - Monitor the Web for interesting new content. (n.d.).Google. Retrieved November 8, 2011, from http://www.google.com/alerts Google Alerts is great for any individual that has a hectic schedule and needs constant reminders for their daily tasks. Alerts can also be personalized which enhances the user settings. 7. The Clever Sheep: The Clever Sheep. (n.d.). The Clever Sheep. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/ Clever sheep has innovative ideas for tutors and students in order to engage them in a very healthy learning process. It is fun and easy to use. 8. ClassMarker Online Testing Free Quiz Maker Create the Best web-based quizzes ClassMarker. (n.d.). Online Testing Free Quiz Maker Create the Best web-based quizzes ClassMarker. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.classmarker.com/ Class Marker is a great website for any individual who wants interactive testing online. In addition, it secures data for private online testing. Furthermore, teachers can easily grade the tests that are online. Moreover, no exam software installation is required. It saves teachers a lot of time. 9.Fazzle Fazzle.com - Search with Sizzle. (n.d.). Fazzle.com - Search with Sizzle. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://fazzle.com/ It combines all search engines such as yahoo, msn, Google. It has very quick processing speed and very user friendly. 10. iZito iZito. (n.d.). iZito. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.izito.com/ iZito is a great website for busy librarians who are constantly finding new reference sites and search engines. This website is fantastic because of its ability to save a user’s history in an easy drop menu. 11.Shareware Shareware.com - Search for shareware programs and free software downloads.. (n.d.). Shareware.com - Search for shareware programs and free software downloads.. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.shareware.com/ Shareware is a great website for any professional or individual who is looking to install new software programs on the library computers. It is much safer than other websites such as download.com as it reviewed on a regular day aspect. Shareware provides comprehensive assurance to its users. 12. Google scholar/books Google Scholar. (n.d.). Google Scholar. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws Google scholar is one of the top prominent search engines for any individual who is interested in acquiring more knowledge of any subject matter from a liable source. 13.Scirus Scirus - for scientific information. (n.d.). Scirus - for scientific information. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.scirus.com/ Similar to Pubmed, Scirus is the most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web. With over 440 million scientific items indexed at last count, it allows researchers to search for not only journal content but also scientists homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents and institutional repository and website information. 14.PECentral.org PECentral is a premier website for healthy fitness individuals, teachers, parents and students. Their main goal is to provide the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children. For motivation, they offer fun kids fitness programs such as Log It and the PEC Challenge Kinetics, H. (n.d.). The Health and Physical Education Web site for Teachers/PE Central. The Health and Physical Education Web site for Teachers/PE Central. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.pecentral.org/ 15. Intute Intute - Home. (n.d.). Intute - Home. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.intute.ac.uk/ Intute is a free Web service aimed at students, teachers, and researchers in UK further education and higher education. Intute provides access to online. It helps an individual to find the best websites for study and research. Why recommend websites? 1. Google Scholar/Book: Google scholar is one of the top prominent search engines for any individual who is interested in acquiring more knowledge of any subject matter from a liable source. Second, it offers free database search queries in any subject matters. Third, it can save a user’s history in their Gmail account, which facilitates the researching process. One of the prime weaknesses for this engine is the fact that often times it takes an individual to a database where ‘login’ is required. In addition, Google Books at times does not have full editions of books, but rather bits and pieces of abstract information. 2. Proquest Proquest is a gift for any student who is heavily invested in research with liable information. The database is also fantastic as it offers every citing method that is needed such as: MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, etc. Proquest is very user friendly and has a very fast processing speed. A setback with Proquest is the fact that it does not always yield full PDFs. In addition, it tends to give articles that are very old. 3. Shareware Shareware is a great peer-to-peer networking that allows individuals to share their resources in an effective manner. It is user friendly and does not give any technical problems. A major setback with shareware is the copyright issues that may come with it. In addition, the security threats that loom in this network may pose serious risks to its user. Furthermore, with the advent of peer-to-peer networking, the parameters that define a user’s history may be easily traceable. 4. Bibme.com Bibme.com enables any individual to quickly generate a citation for a book, journal, interview, and film within seconds. Second, bibme.com allows users to choose whatever citation they possess. Third, bibme.com lists all the citations on the right side of the webpage and allows users to start new bibliography whenever they desire. A huge weakness of Bibme.com is the fact that it is bombarded with advertisements, which can get annoying and distracting. In addition, Bibme.com at times lack the powerful database search capabilities as it is slow to load some citations. Furthermore, more features can be added to this website. Another flaw of this website is the fact that it fails to pare the URL of a PDF which is embedded in a website. For instance, if a URL of a website is known http://www.ncaap.org/civilrightspdf, it will be unable to generate a citation for this. Lastly, the area in which journal citations are generated must be enhanced. At times, Bibme.com fails to find an article even if it is prominent in all databases. 5. PubMed This website is a dream come true for not only students but also for medical professionals that want to seek knowledge regarding medical information. PubMed is published from scholars and medical professionals who possess expertise and work experience from their respective fields. PubMed also serves as a home for government regulations and works closely with the FDA and the DEA to provide comprehensive knowledge to the users. Moreover, it provides citations for its articles, which undoubtedly facilitates the task for each individual. PubMed is also one of the few websites that has “mobile” version and accommodates a smart phone user. It has popular topics that are vast, but are attainable for study. The major drawback of Pubmed is the fact that the articles are pretty difficult to comprehend for any individual who does not possess the adequate medical terminology. 6. Class Marker is a great website for any individual who wants interactive testing online. In addition, it secures data for private online testing. Furthermore, one can instantly graded, exportable online test results. Moreover, no exam maker software installations required. It saves students countless hours spent grading tests. Since 2006, ClassMarker has been creating, facilitating and grading online testing for a broad array of clients from large corporations to private tutors. ClassMarkers web-based testing service is used by top professionals for: The major flaw of this website is clearly the fact that it requires training for individuals. Since people use different methods of evaluations, assessment results might be skewed. Teachers who are using this software might not be fully aware of its capabilities and function ability. Moreover, it is not that popular, which questions the usability of this website. Read More