I was really excited by the idea of the QuickLink-Pen Elite. Advertised as the “ultimate mobile note taker – Used just like a Yellow Highlighter” I was ready to be converted. Having just finished graduate school I still have fresh in my mind the countless hours that get wasted photocopying books that are in the reserved section of the library or retyping notes that I had taken in class. The materials that accompanied the pen assured me that the device can “scan, store and transfer printed text, anytime, anywhere!!” The QuickLink pen also has lots of other great features – a dictionary, translators and image capture just to name a few.




When the pen arrived I realized it was designed for a right-handed person and being a lefty I got nervous that I wouldn’t be able to use it. But they have that covered – on the quick start guide they send left-handed folks to a special section in the owner’s manual so that the pen can be reconfigured. But then I hit an even bigger roadblock. The pen transfers data to pc, pda or smartphone. I work on an iBook. Tech support at Wizcom (the makers of the QuickLink pen) confirmed my worst fear via email – “We do not currently have a Mac compatible pen. Some of our customers do use Virtual PC with Windows installed on the Mac with some success.”




Hopefully, this device will be usable on a Mac with more than “some success” some day because I still love the concept and think it could be an incredibly helpful device for students.




-Jennifer Glickman-

National Archives http://www.archives.gov/research/tools/


The National Archives contain the 1%-3% of documents from the federal government that are deemed important enough for legal or historical reasons to be kept forever. This is a great site for a student studying social studies and American History.




Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rr/tools.html


The searchable database has information on almost every topic you could need to research from American history, geography and the arts. They even have a section dedicated to kids and families wanting to log on and research together. “The Library’s mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.”




The Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref00.00.00


The IPL is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment based out of the University of Michigan School of Information. They aim to help teach researchers and students through a learn-by-doing approach to work in an increasingly digital environment. They have an incredibly in depth subject collection, ready reference section, reading room and spaces designed specially for kids and teens.




Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into one of the largest reference websites on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute but it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, un-encyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed. (See Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike paper reference source Wikipedia is completely up-to-date, with articles on topical events being created or updated within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.

http://www.noodletools.com/


This is bibliography software on the internet. One product is Noodlebib which helps students learn how to properly site sources. Basically it is the “Strunk & White” for the student coming of age in the technology era.
A second tool is NoodleQuest which actually helps a researcher define a search strategy. It’s great for researching paper topics on the web.




http://www.education-world.com/research/


This site is geared more toward the educator and/or parent and is filled with articles and subject resources. It’s great for the parent who wants to learn how to help their child research and a have a better understanding of what is going on in the professional education world. For students, it has a great “reference tools” section that pulls up many of the online dictionaries, encyclopedias, translators, quotation references, almanacs, calendars, etc…




http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo.shtml


ProQuest provides subscription based educational resources for the student and teachers of grades k-12. They also run eLibrary off this site. eLibrary delivers full-text and multimedia reference materials. The easy-to-use interface makes research easy.




Students can find the answers they need from more than 2,000 full-text magazines, newspapers, books, and transcripts–plus thousands of maps, pictures, educator-approved websites from Homework Central©, and audio/video files.