Search and you may just find...

Search engines! This week I looked for search engines for research for myself as well as students. I was definitely interested in finding great search engines to use as this is my first semester in graduate school and I did want to have some tools that I can refer to for future classes. 

I looked at quite a few sites but I didn't write about each one. My suggestion for educators who are looking for alternate search engines is to start with Iseek since it is designed specifically for students and teachers. This is a great resource for teachers to use when looking for lesson plans and activities without being directed to inaccessible links for Pinterest and/or Teachers Pay Teachers. The page was no frills and had an AOL look to it, but the search results were organized in folders for no guesswork access. 

I liked Refseek the most as a resource to use for research as a graduate student. I found an abundance of scholarly articles from credible websites that were relevant to the search term. Refseek did not have the refined tab/folder search results but this is a feature that you don't know to miss unless you have used it before.

I also looked at some of the Kids Search engines for my own child and students. I was impressed with the International Children’s Digital Library because it had several books from different countries. I think this site would be a great resource if a teacher is doing a multicultural unit. I also liked the wonder and whimsy of Wonderopolis. My feeling about this site is that it is more for curiosity and not research. I love that Wonderlopolis it set up as a site that encourages curiosity along with knowledge.  I have recently started using Get Epic and I like it for the audiobook options and kid-friendly videos. I think this is a good research option if you work with students who aren’t able to read that well. I pay for BrainPop Jr. right now and I have never used it as a research tool but I can see how it would be useful for students who are not able to read. Overall I am pleased that I was able to look at some of my current favorite online resources in a different manner.