TrackStar Final and Reflection - Are Calculators Good or Bad?

TrackStar Link

• What are the strengths of your TrackStar in terms of promoting content learning and information literacy?
• I include sites of different domains - .com and .org.
• I include opposing views - an article that includes example of college that does not approve calculators and a site that believes in the "time and a place" view.  
• I show students how to analyze sites - consider domain, purpose, links, ads.
• This shows students that opposing views do exist on the internet and just because something is on a website does not make it fact.

• How does your TrackStar differ from typical classroom research projects and how it better prepare students for research in the workplace.
• This makes students be much more analytical.  Traditional research projects would involve students researching this any way they wanted.  This leads students through the "how" of researching.  It gives students a clear direction.  It makes them consider the validity of sites.  If it wasn't for TrackStar, the student might end up copy and pasting something they find off of the first site they encounter.  The Internet can be overwhelming; it is vast.  This allows student to conduct the research, but analyze and consider where their information is coming from.