Noodletools
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Contents |
Overview
Noodletools is a collection of bibliographic, research, and collaboration tools for students and teachers created by Damon and Debbie Abilock, a son-and-mother team. Debbie is editor of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians, and has over 25 years experience in the fields of library and education.
NoodleTools Components
NoodleBib (available by subscription)
NoodleBib is a web-based software product created by NoodleTools that integrates notetaking and bibliographic tools in a way which supports collaboration and the research process. With NoodleBib, students can:
- create resource lists
- generate MLA or APA citations from their resource lists
- share resource lists with other students and teachers
- create tags for their citations to organize and group them
- store digital content (quotes, pictures, graphs) along with the citation on virtual "notecards", which discourages plagiarism by helping students link quotes to sources
- group and arrange virtual notecards visually by dragging, ordering, and creating clusters
Users can learn about NoodleBib by means of:
- a virtual tour, which consists of a series of screenshots with accompanying written description, giving an overview of the product
- User Guide (pdf)
NoodleBib Express (free)
NoodleBib Express is a stand-alone citation maker for MLA and APA formats. User must copy and paste individual citations.
MLA Starter (free)
UserBib MLA Starter has limited citation support, and is designed for 1st - 5th grade students. It is also suggested as a starting tool for ESL students.
Knowledge Base (free)
The NoodleTools Knowledge Base is a free resource which answers MLA and APA citation questions, as well as helpful information about other NoodleTools resources.
Search Guidelines (free)
Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need is a creatively organized list of different ways to search, with suggestions based on current search need. This is a very useful reference for anyone (student or not) who is starting to research a topic. It is also available from NoodleTools in an interactive version.
Teacher Resources (free)
Uses in School
- any research project, grade 6 and up, could benefit from NoodleBib (or NoodleBib Express, although NoodleBib is better), to not only teach citation format, but basic research skills, note-taking, and organizing documentation.
- "Choose the Best Search..." is an excellent scaffolding tool (or NoodleQuest) for any searching need. Technology teachers, classroom teachers, library teachers, and subject matter teachers all could direct students to this excellent tool at the start of a search.
- subject matter and library teachers can benefit from the excellent "literacies" resources that are compiled and available at the NoodleTools website
- teachers can use NoodleBib to look at student resources as they collect them, and students can collaborate using NoodleBib by sharing lists of resources
- tags can be used to group resources by project/assignment/class, which could also be a collaborative tool
- teachers (including librarians) can share bibiliographic information using tags and resource lists
Links
Sample NoodleTools Users & Uses
Springfield Township HS Virtual Library - NoodleTools in center Teacher-Librarian Teaching Tool
