Thing #17 Rollyo

After watching Mr. Goodner’s how-to video on Rollyo, I was so excited about using it with my 6th grade students. My first Rollyo was a big flop, though. It was very easy to create a customized search engine, but the topic I selected was not a good one to do a Rollyo with. I created a Rollyo on Mid Eastern Countries with only six websites, but when I tried it out with the keyword “Iran” I received over 100,000 hits AND the main website that I really wanted them to access –CIA World Factbook—did not even show up until page 246! Ugh! I edited the websites to only three with not much luck, either. Seems like the websites I chose had a timeline with the word “Iran” in it a thousand times. I abandoned that research topic and created a new Rollyo on Ancient Egypt. BINGO! Students can type in their topic and go directly to an approved website. This past October I created an Ancient Egypt data base on my wiki for my students; however, it seems like the Rollyo would be easier to create. Would you do me a favor? Compare my wiki data base to my Rollyo search engine and tell me which one you like better. Which one do you think would be easier for 6th graders to use? Thanks for your help!

Wiki Egypt Research page:
Georamsey wikispaces

Mid East Countries Rollyo:
Egypt Research Rollyo

P.S. Here is the UMapper Middle East Countries game I created for my students to study by. Try it out and see if you are smarter than a 6th grader. Middle East Countries Game (Easy Version).