Lesson 1a

This is my first time to do any sort of blogging, so it's been a learning experience.  We'll see how it goes!

I love the Kid's Page and could easily spend too much time playing there!  For the first lesson, I looked up the platypus.  Although this critter does lay eggs, it is a mammal because the young are fed milk from the mother.  I liked the links on the Kid's page that take you to associated articles.  I also like the video clips available on some articles and the simple sentences and paragraphs in larger fonts.  It was very easy to switch between different editions using the links at the bottom.  The Student edition gives much more detail and has a better picture of the platypus (as opposed to a drawing on the Kid's page).  For the search for a country, I chose Myanmar.  I didn't realize that the US and UK still refer to this country as Burma in opposition to the regime which instituted the name switch. (Englehart, Neil A. "Myanmar." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2012. Web.  12 Jan. 2012.)   I thought there was a nice variety of links on the left that would be very helpful for students doing reports and papers.  The "Read Aloud" feature would be very helpful for students with visual disabilities as well as just learning how to pronounce words.  However, the voice does seem a bit "canned."  On the Discover page, the ability to translate to other languages would be very helpful for non-English speakers.  A nice feature is that the translation opens in a separate window, so it can easily be compared to the English (a helpful tool for those who are learning another language).