Posted by rdw on Jun 04, 2014; 1:37am
URL: https://nabble.aealearningonline.org/POST-3-Share-a-resource-tp360p534.html

As I teach dual enrollment college composition, I know that one of the main sources I will use with students in writing papers is EBSCOhost. Students will need to learn to navigate this source both in high school and college. In fact, if students go on to graduate school, they will still be using EBSCOhost!
One of the big things that students will need to learn is how to operate this search engine using the terms of and, not etc to expand or limit their searches. I'm afraid that sometimes students are thrown on to EBSCOhost without understanding the parameters of the searches they conduct. I plan to go through carefully the different implications of searches when using different limiters. I want students to know that if they put in the search words "marijuana" and "legalization" for topics they will get 1000's of hits. If they limit it by using "marijuana" and not "legalization," they will receive fewer hits. I also want them to understand some of the advance tools. One of these is the date in which the material was published. Through examples, I want students to see that they can limit their search to the last five years or a five year historical period. Additionally, I want to show them the advantages of looking for articles that are found in complete format online vs. ordering it from a college. Learning how to do advanced searches in EBSCOhost will help students in practical ways as they go on to college.
Using EBSCOhost will also give me an opportunity to discuss what are credible and not credible sources. I will do this in conjunction with having students conduct a google search on the same topic. Hopefully, students will grasp the difference between the sources google presents and the more credible ones found on EBSCOhost. My hope is that students will reach for EBSCOhost before google search when writing academic papers. I'll also point out that Wikipedia does not show up on an EBSCOhost search!!!