eThemes: Creating Internet resources for teaching and sharing

Ever wish you could find a trained “scout” to help you find the best Internet resources among the millions of sites available? How about someone to make sure that the sites are child-safe and related to educational standards? eThemes is an Internet resource service developed by the eMINTS National Center (www.emints.org) to help educators bring the best and safest Internet resources into their classrooms. An extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate Web resources organized around specific themes, eThemes allows users to browse through a listing of more than 1,000 eThemes resources alphabetically, by grade level or keyword.

Any educator can access eThemes resources at www.emints.org/ethemes. Official eMINTS teachers (www.emints.org/about/policies/teacher.shtml) and library media specialists in their schools may request new eThemes topics using a convenient online form. Next, eThemes Resource scouts, who are University of Missouri-Columbia graduate students trained in navigating the Internet, search for child-safe, age-appropriate Web sites about the topic. Scouts write a short description about sites matching the requested criteria. The eThemes coordinator double checks the sites and assigns related educational standards to the new resource. The new eThemes resource is then entered into the online database for all users to access. Currently, there are more than 1,000 eThemes on topics ranging from Africa to Yellowstone National Park. The links within eThemes Resources have been checked for their grade and age appropriateness. Because links on the Web change frequently, teachers are advised to review all links before introducing them to students.

New eThemes are added to the Web site weekly. Find them by clicking on the “Newest eThemes” link (www.emints.org/ethemes/newthemes.shtml). Check out the eThemes monthly calendar (www.emints.org/ethemes/calendar.shtml) highlighting a few of the more than 10,000 links available in the eThemes database. The “Links” page (www.emints.org/ethemes/links.shtml) contains child-friendly search engines used by eThemes scouts. Teachers will find these search engines useful.

To search the eThemes database, click on the Resource Index link to browse eThemes alphabetically or by grade level. Or try a Resource Search to find all available resources matching specific search criteria (grade level and/or key words) entered by the user.

by Laura Diggs, Ph.D.
University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education