What it is: Gosh, some days I really wish for a time machine where I could go back to school armed with the tools that students have access to now. I totally would have ruled the school! Zotero is one of the tools I would bring back with me. Zotero is a Firefox (Internet web browser) extension that helps students collect, cite, and manage their Internet research right from the web browser itself. No hopping back and forth between websites. Zotero automatically captures all citing information from the website, stores pdfs, images, and whole webpages, has flexible note taking options, has an easy to search library, saves and records in multiple languages, has integration with Microsoft Word and Open Office, and best of all…free! Man our students are lucky!
How to integrate Zotero into the classroom: Download the Zotero extension for every computer in your school (at the very least make sure this is on the library and classroom computers.) Teach your students how to use Zotero as they are researching and teach them how to download Zotero to their home computers. Don’t bend on your citation requirements…they have no more excuses! 🙂
Tips: If you don’t currently use Firefox as a web browser, I highly recommend its download. I have been more than happy with Firefox, it meets all of my needs and requirements for a good browser and once again…free!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Zotero in your classroom.
