Great way to streamline the research process!
Community Review for Citelighter
My Take
I think that for any teacher, not just ELA content, this tool is an essential for a research paper writing unit or project. It allows the teacher to log in an entire class and then monitor through the teacher's account time on task and progress without going to look at each individual's computer. I think it is important to remember, however, that students still need knowledge and reasoning of the citation process due to copyright infringements and legalities that are part of the world in which they live: students should probably be taught manual citation in my opinion prior to this site's usage. Overall, great tool for streamlining the often complicated and layered process of research writing.
How I Use It
Understanding the purpose of research can be difficult to convey to middle school students. Many have the misconception that one jumps right in and just starts writing a paper without much regard to if the information gathered is relevant, truly answering an essential question to the research process, etc. This tool is excellent for integration of all the steps of the research process in a one-stop place. As students begin the research process, Citelighter actually follows along, allowing the student to log useful cites instead of toggling back and forth. It automatically creates a working bibliography for students, which I would recommend this being used once students understand the criteria for manually citing sources. Excellent tool for ongoing thinking, extending the research process beyond notecards and actually organizing efficiently as you go. Awesome!