I have used World Book Online before with my rural school classes. Lee Crary had told about the animal comparison available on the School edition of World Book Kids and I used it for a lesson in encyclopedias last year. The kids had fun with it. Before that, in classes kids had found the sound button to hear the sounds animals make and then had to search for all of the sound effects they could find. Again, they had fun. Did we get much actual learning done? Probably not!! Left to their own devices, they went into the games portion of World Book Kids and had to try out as many of them as time allowed. Playing games is always more attractive than having to do research! And my philosophy is if they are having fun, they are going to think about it again and might even learn a little bit when they aren't expecting it!
Looking at these sites from the Public library viewpoint, I think World Book is a great reference tool. When kids come in to the library to use computers for their research, they always go straight to Google. Now I can try to lead them in a different direction and help them get onto World Book Online. They don't seem to like to go to the book version of World Book and we only have so many non-fiction books on the shelves for students to check out and take home. This will be another way they can research their topic.
I didn't see any difference between the School and Public Library editions. I looked up the same animal for both editions and got the same photos and articles. I like the separation of length of information between Kids and Student or Info Finder. It's definitely geared to the age ranges of the students. Love the feature that allows them to click on a word to get the definition or having the article read to them. What I liked better about the School Edition is the content standards being available. Great for teachers but not needed for public use.
Not being a person who has studied or used a foreign language, I could appreciate World Book Discover having the function of translating the article into another language. I haven't come across any need for it yet in the public library, but am glad to know it's there if I do need it. Maybe sometimes I could use the Spanish language encyclopedia to help me when I come across some of the Spanish words in picture books that I read aloud.
Overall, this is a great reference tool. I just need to use it more myself and help other patrons and students use it more.
Hi, Kathy! Thanks for your comments. We think World Book has something for everything at all ages. Please note that the games in World Book Kids are educational games, so kids can have fun & learn at the same time. All the World Book modules have the translation feature and the read aloud. The main difference between the school & public editions is that they have some different special features. I hope you will enjoy using World Book online with your patrons of all ages!
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