When one logs on to the World Geography site, the home page seems like that of a major newspaper with US news, other world events, and a feature story. This helps tie current events into the geography curriculum. The site covers more than 200 countries, offering country profiles and overviews; history; statistics about population, climate, economics, and culture; biographies; influential organizations; primary source documents; maps; flags; and photos. The distinctive features include a geography trivia question at the bottom of the page and a Reference block at the top left where users can select a country and search for a term. The button bar at the top of the page gives the site its real power.
Before unleashing World Geography’s power, teachers must set up accounts for the class and create announcements, the syllabus, calendar, discussion questions, handouts, and tests. The teacher also identifies the textbook (Glencoe World Geography, Prentice‐Hall World Geography, or World Geography Today) and selects the desired academic standard and section of the standard as well as the topic, subtopic, and chapter for study. This automatically correlates the entire Web site’s content to the textbook and syllabus.
The Search feature lets students select a country and search for particular information about it. Students can view a picture of the flag and a political or topographical map of the country. The Reference button shows a map of the world from which the student can pick a country to explore. An advanced search feature, the Cybrarian, lets students enter search terms and filter them by country or category (bibliographies, events, flag, government, map, overview, video, documents, facts and figures, glossary, history, organizations, and photo). They can also sort results by title, country, or category and display between ten and 50 items per page. Articles come from a variety of sources, all identified at the bottom of the entry.
A Tools button links to the Merriam‐Webster Dictionary and the class calendar. This calendar identifies assignments in blue and notes in orange. However, one cannot jump from the calendar to an assignment. Another very useful tool is Clioview, which allows students to select several countries and to compare or sort them on up to three categories, such as population density, GDP, etc.
ABC‐CLIO intends to add a skills feature that will allow teachers to identify particular skills they expect students to master. Students will be able to explore those skills while surfing the Web site or choosing topics. World Geography is particularly appropriate for middle and junior high school students and may be of some use in high school. While teachers must do quite a bit of work to set up the accounts, prepare the syllabus, assignments, tests, etc., this is all work that they need to do anyway. World Geography does all the work of correlating the Web site with the textbooks and academic standards, relieving the teacher of that burden. Entries are authoritative and well‐linked. World Geography will be a boon to busy teachers who want to use the Internet in the instruction of geography.
