You might be thinking, "A citation site? Really?" I know, but EasyBib is great for those of us teaching older students to properly identify sources in papers and projects. I made an interesting discovery this year, most middle school kids don't have a clue about what a citation is and why they need one. I don't mean to say this is a new discovery for me. I've taught long enough to have more than one student copy something and present it as his or her own work. The reason I say it is an interesting discovery is that I had never asked the KIDS what they thought was right and wrong when using outside sources.
In the "old days," when we talked about plagiarism and documenting sources, we emphasize how copying something from a book or encyclopedia was wrong and why we needed to give credit to the authors. I still talk about those things, but now I'm talking about it in relation to web pages, online images, and video. The Internet age has changed the dynamics of how information is shared and used and also how people think about that sharing. In a graduate course I took this fall, we discussed digital citizenship and how we talk to students about intellectual property rights. So, I asked my kids, "How many of you download images from Google and use them in personal projects and school work? Do you ever think about who owns that image?" Most kids, of course, said they did it all the time and never thought about it. I asked if they were familiar with terms like "Creative Commons" or "copyright licenses." Again, big blank stares and the sound of crickets chirping in the background. So, teaching good digital citizenship skills became one of my goals this year and EasyBib was a great tool for helping kids keep track of their resources.
In the "old days," when we talked about plagiarism and documenting sources, we emphasize how copying something from a book or encyclopedia was wrong and why we needed to give credit to the authors. I still talk about those things, but now I'm talking about it in relation to web pages, online images, and video. The Internet age has changed the dynamics of how information is shared and used and also how people think about that sharing. In a graduate course I took this fall, we discussed digital citizenship and how we talk to students about intellectual property rights. So, I asked my kids, "How many of you download images from Google and use them in personal projects and school work? Do you ever think about who owns that image?" Most kids, of course, said they did it all the time and never thought about it. I asked if they were familiar with terms like "Creative Commons" or "copyright licenses." Again, big blank stares and the sound of crickets chirping in the background. So, teaching good digital citizenship skills became one of my goals this year and EasyBib was a great tool for helping kids keep track of their resources.
Students can use EasyBib without creating an account, but a benefit to signing up for a free account is that the site will keep a list of all the bibliographies you have created for access and editing later. An easy tabbed interface allows students to choose from citing a web site, book, newspaper, journal, database, or choose from 58 other options, including digital images, blogs, emails, and online video.
Once students type (or more easily, copy and paste) the information into the text box, they click "Cite this." A page pops up that allow them to add or edit the information listed. When they are satisfied, they can click "Create Citation" on the bottom of the page. Easy so far! What I like best, is that students are taken back to the first page to add other citations to the list or they can download and save their document as a Word Doc, Google Doc, or save on EasyBib.
My fifth and sixth graders were able to use this website very effectively for several projects this year. For papers, they downloaded the Word Doc and added this page to the end of their essays. For digital projects, they copied and pasted the citation list to the desired spot.
As a tool, EasyBib is very straight-forward and simple to use. Creating citations can be a rather tedious task, but if the website is introduced at the beginning of the project, students can create their citations on the fly, keeping track of sources as they go, and have nothing more to do at the end but download and use as needed. Very easy!
As a tool, EasyBib is very straight-forward and simple to use. Creating citations can be a rather tedious task, but if the website is introduced at the beginning of the project, students can create their citations on the fly, keeping track of sources as they go, and have nothing more to do at the end but download and use as needed. Very easy!