Alternatives to Google, part 156

Flamenco Search is a scholarly site about faceted search, which promises better organisation of search results through offering categories, or facets, in result sets. Flamenco is designed to allow users "to move through large information spaces in a flexible manner without feeling lost." Includes publications, tutorials, downloadable software, and live, interactive demos. From the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information.

It's a library thing

Librarything.com allows you to catalogue your personal library with user-defined "tags" such as "beach read", "magical realism" or "stolen from Reid Kerr College". You may keep your catalogue private or let others see it, and you can search other's catalogs. Includes lists of top books and authors, and a blog. Free for up to 200 titles; there is a fee for unlimited use.
Just a thought.

Worldmapper

The world as you've never seen it before...
This site features cartograms, maps showing global regions "re-sized according to the subject of interest." Some of the many map subjects include births, total population, children, elderly, refugees, immigrants, tourism, transportation, and imports and exports. Maps are available in a printable poster format, and are accompanied by explanatory text and data files. A collaboration among the University of Sheffield, University of Michigan, and other groups.
Try http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/

Macaroni & Cheese

Let's face it. You're probably more interested in the contents of this site. And its tins, packets & boxes. Obsession is a strange beast.
http://www.curlypasta.co.uk/

Eat it outside your tent @ Belladrum. Line-up announced today.
http://www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk/2006/

Sorry. Forgot. Start of term. Life's tough...

Finding Academic Articles Online

Microsoft has launched Windows Live Academic, a potential competitor to Google Scholar.
The Microsoft version, though still in beta, covers peer reviewed articles on computer science, physics, electrical engineering and related subjects and boasts more than 6 million records from approximately 4300 journals and 2000 conferences. Though the initial version is limited to the subjects above, content from other subject areas is promised.
Windows Live Academic is at http://academic.live.com/.

Emerging Technologies for Learning Report

This new – short – report from BECTA (the British Educational and Communication Technology Agency) looks closely at some of the emerging technologies which are likely to have a major impact on the world of education. Its five major sections cover:
o Mobile technologies: transforming the future of learning, by Geoff Stead
o The ambient web, by Bill Sharpe
o The future of human-computer interaction, by Paul Anderson
o Social networks, by Leon Cych
o The broadband home, by Michael Philpott

Download the report by clicking on Emerging Technologies for Learning

First UK Educational Blogging Conference

And now a chance to talk about the phenomenon and its implications for education face-to-face at the UK’s first educational blogging conference. This is scheduled for London on the 2nd of June and will bring together practitioner and research-based expertise to explore cutting edge issues surrounding the educational use of weblogs and weblogging software. Keynote contributions from Stephen Downes and Barbara Ganley form part of the programme which can be viewed at the conference blog at: http://www.incsub.org/edublog/

Who let the Blogs out?

NewsFeed has monitored the growth of blogging (the creation of online diaries - weblogs - and related discussion areas) in recent times and new figures indicate that growth in the use of blogging is still exponential:
· The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
· It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
· On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
· 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created

Get the full picture by going to: http://www.technorati.com/

JISC infoNet Time Management Toolkit

You can't add any more hours to your day so learning to manage your time more effectively will help you plan your work more efficiently and ensure deadlines are met. Managing time effectively is a particularly crucial ingredient in successful projects. This latest addition to the JISC stable of management toolkits explores all aspects of time management and how you can use simple techniques to save this most precious of commodities. Download the Toolkit from:
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/time-management

DIY

Those of you who think this is a good idea, might try it yourself. Instructions online at Blogger (www.blogger.com). Or, why not try a book like this one by Elizabeth Castro. Available from your friendly local library.

This accessible guide to creating a web log with Blogger first acquaints the reader with the interface and standard options, then walks them through the blog setup, creating their profile, posting email, adding pictures and audio, explains how you can use BlogThis and more.

Librarians' Internet Index

Following on from the previous post, the Librarians' Internet Index (http://www.lii.org/) provides an extremely comprehensive, albeit US-centric, directory of useful educational websites. Well, we were here first...

The Deep Web

What? Google's good enough for me...
Probably, but for those wanting to find real information, read on...
The so-called "deep" or "invisible" Web consists of content stored in searchable databases mounted on the Web. These databases usually cover a targeted topic or aspect of a topic. Search engine spiders cannot or will not index this information. There is a huge number of searchable databases on the Web, many available as specialised searches on general search engines. The following is a site devoted to searches of multiple databases on the Web.
CompletePlanet (http://www.completeplanet.com/) offers searchable access to thousands of databases on the "deep Web" for results that include summaries from the retrieved site.
Certainly worth a look if you're serious about information.
Wanna holiday in Corfu? Try Google...

Hairdressing Training training

Hairdressing Training (http://hairdressing.mimas.ac.uk) has just announced the release of a new overview video. The video is designed to support users of the service gain a better understanding of the features available.
The video is available freely online and best viewed over a broadband (or better) connection. For more information and to view the video please visit http://hairdressing.mimas.ac.uk/video/.

Create your own website

Google Page Creator (http://pages.google.com) is a Web application - there’s no need to install any software - which lets you create and publish simple webpages. The service requires Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher) or Firefox 1.0 (or higher). To use this service, you should first log in using your Gmail address and the accompanying password. You’ll be provided with 100 MB of free space for your webpages and files. Your site is accessible via an address such as yourgmailname.googlepages.com.
One proviso - you'll have to be patient. Google Page Creator only occasionally accepts new users in order to prevent problems during the testing stage. So even if you already have a Gmail account, it may take a while before you can get started. Leave your e-mail address on the site: you will be notified as soon as they take more users.

Graph paper galore

Free Online Graph Paper (http://www.incompetech.com/beta/plainGraphPaper/) offers graph paper, lined paper, ledger paper, music notation staves and chord diagrams, calligraphy guideline paper, even Chinese Character Guide Paper, and much more. All these templates are free and can be downloaded in PDF versions. Interestingly, the paper can be customised using an online module: you can, for instance, set the paper size (A4, A3, etc.), the margins, the colour of the printed lines, the number and weight of the gridlines, etc. Then click on the Get PDF button, and the sheets are printed!
As the site itself admits: ugly website, brilliant content.

Return to civilisation...

Returning to civilisation for a few days. Postings will resume shortly.

I'll be back...

Innovate

The new edition of Innovate, the journal of online education, is available at http://www.innovateonline.info/. This issue focuses on changing the ways we think about technology and its role in educational settings.