~ Popular Current Events Resource Provides Moderated Discussion Forum for Students ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — December 11, 2012 — EBSCO Publishing’s (EBSCO) Points of View Debate Blog has proven itself as a valuable classroom resource once again. During the recent election season the blog, a popular forum for students to voice their opinions on current events, experienced unprecedented traffic with discussions fueled by a variety of topical themes and questions surrounding the politically-charged campaigns.

The blog is available as a free service from Points of View Reference Center™, EBSCO’s dynamic database containing a balance of materials from all viewpoints. Points of View Reference Center includes more than 1,300 essays, full-text articles from leading political magazines, newspapers, radio and TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books. Created to increase students’ level of engagement in the world around them, the Points of View Debate Blog offers the ability to read about and research topics, use the provided field to comment on and debate the issues with peers, share with Twitter and Facebook links and learn from each other through civil discourse.

As a teaching tool at the high school, junior college and college level, instructors can encourage students to submit their own topics for discussion. Experienced EBSCO editors select a new topic monthly and publish related entries throughout the month. Every thread is monitored and moderated to insure a safe, instructive environment. Through the blog, students learn to formulate intelligent opinions, exchange views with other students, keep pace with current events, and hone their persuasive writing skills.

Recent topics include:

• 2012 Presidential Election
• Arab Spring
• Debt Crisis
• Education
• Gun Control
• Gun Violence
• Israel
• Military Tribunals
• Occupy Wall Street
• Presidential Elections
• School Discipline
• School Violence

For more information about the Points of View Debate Blog and Points of View Reference Center, visit http://www.ebscohost.com/pov-blog.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and e-books. The company provides more than 350 databases and more than 350,000 e-books. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of journals and magazines than any other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

###
For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Director
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com