50 Search Engines You Probably Don’t Use Yet

A cross post from http://edudemic.com

Students, teachers and the public turn to their librarians for help researching everything from technology to genealogy to homework help and lesson plans. Even if your library is equipped with subscriptions and memberships to top of the line databases and online journals, you’ve probably had to get creative during a patron’s requested search for something unfamiliar.

Next time, though, you can turn to one of these 50 search engines, designed to pull from the Web only the information you really need.

Meta Search and Multi Search Engines

These meta search and multi search engines can search numerous engines and sites at once, maximizing the number of results you get each time you conduct a search.

1. Ms. Freckles: Adorable Ms. Freckles can search online for different file types, definitions, translations, film, finance sites, and a lot more all at once.
2. Kart00: This cartoon-inspired search engine lets you hover over results to get a preview of the site before you open it. Results are also organized by topic so that you can narrow down your search and organize hits.
3. Fazzle: Search the web’s best, the entire web, downloads, images, videos, audio or headline news. You can also select an advanced search to find incredibly specific results.
4. Trexy: This site saves your search memory so that you don’t have search multiple times on different engines.
5. Mamma: Here at “the mother of all search engines,” librarians search the web or video. Next to your results is an option to refine your search by choosing a suggested category.
6. 1-Page Multi Search: Type your search into one or several of the following search engines at once: Alta Vista, AOL, EntireWeb, Gigablast, Hot Bot, Lycos, Scrub, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube, Dogpile, Ask Jeeves, and a lot more.
7. iZito: Busy librarians who are constantly finding new reference sites and search engines will like iZito because of its ability to save your history in an easy drop down tab.

Multimedia and Interactive

For help finding pictures, podcasts, music and shareware, use these search engines.

8. Metacafe: Find videos on this site if you want a change from YouTube.
9. Songza: Patrons looking for music can use this search engine, which “lets you listen to any song or band.” You can also search the featured list or top played list.
10. Picsearch: This large photo search engine has more than 2 billion images in its directory.
11. Get a Podcast: Search for podcasts all around the web in this directory.
12. Shareware: If you need to install new software programs on your library computers, turn to Shareware first, which pulls up tons of free programs and downloads.
13. Public Radio Fan: Find information for thousands of public radio stations on this site. You can find the times of different broadcasts, station names, podcasts and more.

Google Search Engines

A Google search doesn’t just mean typing in a keyword on the homepage and seeing what pops up. Try out these niche search engines sponsored by Google to find books, images and more information that librarians will find useful.

14. Google Image Search: Ask Google to bring up the most popular images on the web with this engine.
15. Google Scholar: Get connected to scholarly journals and publications here.
16. Google Books: Search online copies of books on this search engine, which features categories like literature and science fiction to biology and linguistics to highly cited to categories organized by subject and keyword.
17. Alerts: Set up Google Alerts for any subject so that you’ll get results sent to your inbox every time there’s a new site, blog or keyword mention on the web.

Great Niche Sites for Librarians

From family friendly and kid-safe searches to science and medical search engines, these niche sites can help you with very specific research projects.

18. Scirus: Pull up science-related results on this research-oriented search engine. You can find “not only journal content but also scientists’ homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents and institutional repository and website information.”
19. Librarians’ Internet Index: Here you’ll be connected to quality, authoritative sites. Search by keyword or narrow down your search by browsing categories like business, government, media, health, computers, or the arts and humanities.
20. Family Friendly Search: Librarians at elementary and middle schools, as well as public librarians, may be interested in directing patrons to this site, which is safe for kids.
21. Intute: This British search engine lets you pick search options in the following categories for a specialized search: science and technology, arts and humanities, social sciences, and the health and life sciences.
22. PubMed: PubMed is one of the premier search engines for medical students and researchers. You can find journal articles, citations, clinical information and more.
23. Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research: On the GSU College of Law site, librarians and patrons can take advantage of this meta-index which brings up judicial opinions, legislation and more.
24. Internship Programs: College librarians may want to direct students to this search engine, which connects searchers to internship opportunities.
25. Congoo: For current events and news searches, use Congoo to connect you to the latest in technology, industry, business, world news, finance, politics, Internet trends and more.
26. CataLaw: CataLaw is another law search engine that organizes “all indexes of law and government into a uniform, universal and unique metaindex.”
27. USGenWeb Archives: Help your patrons with genealogy searches with this engine.

Custom Searches

Tailor your search to your daily needs with these search engines, which can be modified by remembering search history, customizing templates and more.

29. mozbot: Pick a language and customize your search with this engine. Mozbot can also add results to your favorites, send results by e-mail, display thumbnails of different sites, and provide suggestions for similar sites.
30. Curriculum Search: Help teachers find reference materials, lesson plans and tools by searching this Google custom search engine.
31. Computer Science Research: Use this search engine or adapt it to make your own to find computer science materials and references.
32. Rollyo: Choose to search categories like health, travel, tech, reference and others using Rollyo, a system that “create[s] search engines using the sources you trust.”
33. Ujiko: This sleekly designed search engine lets you choose how you want your results displayed and organized.

Reference Searches

The following list of search engines prove useful to all kinds of librarians in search of dictionaries and other reference materials.

34. JustCite: JustCite is a legal search engine and can help you find citations.
35. Online Journals Search Engine: Search scientific databases and journals here.
36. Powerset: For a basic Q&A session, use Powerset to quickly search Wikipedia entries.
37. Infoplease: Get information on any subject, from history and government to arts and entertainment to world news to biographical information to homework help.
38. Guide Star: This search tool is great for public librarians or librarians who work with teachers wanting information on grants and nonprofits. Type in the name of an organization or keyword to find nonprofit group information.
39. JoeAnt: You can get answers to research queries on any subject at JoeAnt, from computers to science to politics to the humanities to business law.
40. Find Tutorials: Find tutorials for practically everything on this search site, from education to culture to spirituality, to finance to the Internet.
41. RefDesk: RefDesk is known as the “fact checker for the Internet.” You can search MSN, Google, Yahoo! or Wikipedia, as well as various dictionaries and periodicals.
42. OneLook Dictionary Search: Get detailed definitions, translations and more on this search engine, which pulls from over 1,000 different dictionaries.
43. The Dictionary of Free Online Books and Shopping: Look up and access books online for free using this search engine, which includes educational books, history books, children’s books, biographies, political books and a lot more.
44. Thinkers: Wisdom: This site features a literary search engine called Wisdom that can search the web, images, audio, video, a dictionary and more.
45. Information.com: Use the web search or search encyclopedias, blogs, articles and online groups to get creative with your reference search.

Library Search Engines

Check out these search engines that are designed to emulate or are sponsored by libraries and librarians.

46. Internet Public Library: Find references, search the collections by subject, check out the reading room or KidSpace when you visit this online public library.
47. The Open Library: Here, librarians discover “one web page for every book.” This open source project also features an advanced search, connecting you to the exact book and full-text publication you’re looking for.
48. Awesome Library: Find full-text books, journals, kid-safe sites, business information and more on this online library search engine.
49. LibDex: Search the indexes and other information for 18,000 different libraries here.
50. WorldCat: WorldCat helps patrons and librarians “find items in libraries near you.” Search for books, DVDs, CDs and articles.

The 30 Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers (2012 Edition)

 A cross-post from edudemic.com

Looking for the best cloud computing software for your school? What about a way to remotely store homework and other assignments? It’s time to figure out which web 2.0 tool is right for you!
The following presentation contains dozens of the most popular tools being used in classrooms right now. In fact, I’ve personally used more than 90% of these tools in higher education. They’re useful, most are free (some are freemium), and true time-savers. You’ve probably heard of some but I can almost guarantee there’s something new here for you.
See Also: The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You
Each slide in the below presentation by Rafael Scapin contains the name, description, link, and screenshot of what each tool looks like and does. What else could you need? Enjoy!

Edudemic’s Recommendations

If you’re looking to try out some of these tools, here are the top 5 tools we recommend you try out (if you haven’t already).
Slideshare - Get the credit and audience you deserve for your presentations! They may be embedded in a website just like this one or even on a fancier site like the NYTimes, etc.
Scoop.it - A stellar social bookmarking service that is being used by a ton of teachers right now. We try our best to keep the Edudemic Scoop.it feed updated!
PlanBoard - It’s an online lesson planner made for teachers. Create, share, and manage lesson plans with simple and easy to use lesson plan templates.
Evernote - Featured in Edudemic Magazine numerous times, we love all things Evernote. It’s insanely popular in education and useful for teachers, students, parents, and just about anyone who wants to remember what they’ve done.
Dropbox - I use Dropbox every day. I had to up to the 100GB size and feel like I’ll never fill it up. Great for backing up everything, accessing files remotely (even from your smartphone and tablet) and sharing things. I’ve seen it used for handing in homework on a regular basis. Also, you can get an extra 3GB free if you have a .edu address!

The Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers

1. Google Drive
2. Dropbox
3. CloudMagic
4. Jumpshare
5. Weebly
6. Issuu
7. ePubBud
8. Infogr.am
9. Text2MindMap
10. EdCanvas
11. KeepVid
12. TubeChop
13. GoAnimate
14. TodaysMeet
15. Slideshare
16. Voki
17. Prezi
18. Record MP3
19. Delicious
20. Jing
21. Pixlr
22. Loopster
23. Evernote
24. Scoop.it
25. Paper.li
26. LiveBinders
27. Join.me
28. Zamzar
29. Poll Everywhere
30. VoiceThread
31. PlanBoard
32. TeachersPayTeachers (TPT)
33. Gnowledge

10 Free Web Tools For Teachers Being Used Right Now

A cross-post from http://edudemic.com

The internet is agog with useful resources for teaching one way or another. Tutors, teachers and of course students are already benefiting from the use of such tools. And, a great thing about them is that a lot of these resources are actually available for use absolutely free of any charge.
Now if you are trying to figure out which tools these are here is a list of 10 top-notch free online resources that teachers, tutors and others are already making use of in no particular order:

1. Blogger

Blogger, which many are already familiar with, is the first on this list. And, even though a lot of people might not be aware of this it can be used as a wonderful resource for teaching. For one class blogs can be created making use of this website with links as well as resources placed on them with students subscribing to these blogs. Also, these sites can be updated with assignments, helpful links, etc.

2. Wikispaces

Students as well as their teachers can make use of Wikispaces to publish, post, share text, images, videos, et al. via this virtual space platform. Now making use of privacy settings it is possible for one to either allow everyone access to see your pages or for this to be granted to just a number of students.

3. Google Drive

This is another great free resource from Google. It allows students as well as teachers to make original documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, etc. and then share these with one another as they deem fit. Also, your work is automatically saved as you create them with Google Drive (formerly Google Docs).

4. 4teachers

4teachers as the name suggests is a website that is replete with educational tools for teachers to use. Now this site helps them in locating as well as in creating ready-to-use web lessons, rubrics, quizzes, etc. Also, there are tools available for students to make use of here.

5. Dropbox

This service allows one to have files kept in sync across many computers with the Dropbox system itself serving as backup. And, these files can be accessed from anywhere. Meaning that automatic backups of these files are available and can be accessed 24/7. Although this service has a free plan, others include for pay plans.

6. Evernote

Evernote is a good free resource that can be used to effortlessly capture information with whatever operating system or device that you use. After which, such information is then made accessible plus search-able from just anywhere. Notes, task lists, white boards, web pages and pictures can be captured to Evernote. Making it a great resource for both teachers and students to organize their information or work and also collaborate among their peers.

7. Animoto

Educational videos can be created using Animoto. This tool offers both teachers plus tutors the opportunity of creating presentations that feature texts, videos, music clips, and images. With completed videos easily shared via email, a website or blog, YouTube, or just downloaded to be used in the classroom.

8. Voki

Voki can be used for free. This service allows you to create speaking avatars that can be used in teaching your students. As an effective learning tool it can help in motivating your students to take part in school work, and help introduce technology to them in a lively and funny way.

9. Tag Galaxy

If you consider learning through pictures or images to be fun and a great way for your students to learn a thing or two on virtually any subject-matter, then Tag Galaxy is it. Type in any subject or topic and watch this tool pull in images to construct or create a virtual planet of photos. You can spin these images around as well as enlarge them.

10. Go! Animate

This service is similar to Voki above. You can easily and quickly make your own videos with Go! Animate. Some of the things that it can be used for include: creating topic summaries and topic introductions for your students.
Author Bio:
This post is written by Jason Phillips. He is an experienced freelancer blogger who covers career and higher education, as well as he is a professor at Texas University.

The Teacher’s Guide To Wikipedia

A cross post from edudemic.com

There’s a vast array of resources available online. From using the Googles to hunting around Wikipedia, students and teachers alike turn to a select few channels when doing research online.
Katie and I are working on a guide to Google for teachers but I wanted to share a very useful resource about Wikipedia. It was assembled by the Wikipedia folks and is designed to be a simple guide to the basic terminology, usage, and details of Wikipedia. It’s organized in a simple question-and-answer format so feel free to scroll through the questions you already know.
However, take the answers with a big grain of salt as they’re written by Wikipedia. Regardless, this is a useful resource since basically all students begin research with the big W. That’s Wikipedia among the cool kids.

What does wiki mean?

The term “wiki” is derived from the word wikiwiki, which is the Hawaiian word for “quick”. A wiki is a web site which allows people to contribute content; see our article on wikis for more information about this.

Is Wikipedia accurate and reliable?

Wikipedia’s objective is to become a compendium of published knowledge about notable subjects. The reliability of Wikipedia articles is limited by the external sources on which they are supposed to rely, as well as by the ability of Wikipedia’s editors to understand those sources correctly and their willingness to use them properly. Therefore, articles may or may not be reliable, and readers should always use their own judgment. Students should never use information in Wikipedia (or any other online encyclopedia) for formal purposes (such as school essays) until they have verified and evaluated the information based on external sources. For this reason, Wikipedia, like any encyclopedia, is a great starting place for research but not always a great ending place.
Wikipedia is rapidly developing, and its editors strive, over time, to increase its reliability as a source of information. Readers are encouraged to compare articles to what they already know from reliable sources and improve the articles’ accuracy and detail. Articles about many of the major sciences were developed from other free or public domain encyclopedias. This provides a reliable basis upon which Wikipedia’s editors could expand. Because of its growing utility, Wikipedia is cited almost daily in the press.
It is possible for a given Wikipedia article to be biased, outdated, or factually incorrect. This is true of any resource. One should always double-check the accuracy of important facts, regardless of the source. In general, popular Wikipedia articles are more accurate than ones that receive little traffic, because they are read more often and therefore any errors are corrected in a more timely fashion. Wikipedia articles may also suffer from issues such as Western bias, but hopefully this will also improve with time. For more information, see Wikipedia:Criticisms.

What prevents someone from contributing false or misleading information?

Wikipedia’s content control mechanisms are reactive rather than preventive: anyone can go to almost any page and change the information to make it false or misleading. Although the majority of edits attempt to improve the encyclopedia, vandalism is frequent.
Fortunately, such deliberate errors tend not to linger. Hundreds of dedicated Wikipedia contributors monitor real-time edit feeds (particularly for important or controversial articles) and quickly revert most inappropriate edits. Many articles are on one or more editors’ personal watchlists (and major articles are watched by hundreds of editors), and this provides a second layer of content control. Third, Wikipedia’s huge user base is constantly analyzing and improving every article, undoing vandalism as it is found. If an anonymous or relatively new user changes a statistic or date by even a little bit, without justifying their edit, they are particularly likely to raise a red flag. If an individual continues to vandalize after being warned, then they may even be blocked from further editing.
The key to this reactive system is that Wikipedia, unlike mainstream print sources, keeps a full history of every change to every article. Nothing is ever lost, and no abuse is permanent. See Wikipedia:Edit history for more information.
All that being said, Wikipedia is not perfect. A reader may have the bad luck of arriving at a page just after it has been vandalized and before it has been repaired. There have been incidents in the past where vandalism has been discovered still in place months after the fact. At any given time, there is some inaccurate information somewhere in Wikipedia. It is for this reason that readers must be particularly diligent in verifying Wikipedia against its external sources, as discussed above. It is also a good idea, if you feel uncomfortable about an article, to check its history for recent “bad-faith” edits. If you find a piece of uncorrected vandalism, you might even decide to help future users by correcting it yourself. That’s a great feature of Wikipedia.

Can students cite Wikipedia in assignments?

It depends on what teachers accept. Just in case, you shouldn’t copy an article word for word. The best policy for all writing is to have more than one source. Wikipedia can be an excellent starting place for further research. Teachers might ask students what they did to validate the information they learned from Wikipedia. Using a comprehensive search engine such as Google or Yahoo!, students can easily compare Wikipedia content with information from other reputable websites. Most Wikipedia articles also contain an “External links” section at the bottom, which often leads to other relevant sites. Students can compare information in Wikipedia with information in other encyclopedias or books in the library. As a general rule, contributors to Wikipedia are encouraged to cite their sources, but, of course, not all do. For the sake of verifiability, it is advisable to cite an article that has listed its sources. Most of our better articles have sections such as “References,” “Sources,” “Notes,” “Further reading,” or “External links,” which generally contain such information.
For purposes of establishing authorship and finding more sources, students may also find the articles’ “View history” tabs useful, as these detail every contribution, the contributor and often a summary of what was contributed. All of our contributors have talk pages for leaving them messages. If you are logged in, a toolbox link (“E-mail this user”) is also visible beside the user pages of many registered contributors. Other means of contacting Wikipedians are listed at Wikipedia:Contact us.

Is it a safe environment for young people?

Wikipedia has similar safety issues as other equally open environments. Participation in Wikipedia requires children to know basic Internet safety practices. Children will be communicating and interacting with anonymous adults, and parent or teacher supervision is important, depending upon the age of the child, just as in any other online environment. No child should ever assume that if somebody has an account on Wikipedia, then they’re safe to meet in person, and the usual internet safety rules apply: do not give out personal information, do not arrange to meet someone you meet on Wikipedia, and report to a responsible adult at once if anyone is making you feel uncomfortable. In any case, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia project, not a social environment for making offline friends, and chat is generally discouraged.
Wikipedia has the advantage that most communication is done in an open, public, reviewable manner (even personal talk page messages are readable by anybody). Note, however, that in contrast to some sites directed towards youth, Wikipedia does not have staff to patrol discussion pages or remove inappropriate comments; it only has volunteer administrators, who will exclude people breaching civility rules, but who will not censor conversations if they deal with adult topics. Wikpedia has a policy on child protection and will remove editors who are found/suspected of being dangerous towards children either online or in the real/offline world. However, children and their parents must understand that Wikipedia does not collect information about its editors (in the way that sites such as Facebook do), hence most editors are anonymous even if they have a user account.
Wikipedia is not bowdlerized or censored. It contains articles on subjects such as racial slurs, controversial political and religious issues and movements, and sexual acts, including images of nudity. However, the information about sexual topics will probably be more neutral and factually accurate than what young teens hear from their peers, and no more erotic than the material of North American or European sex education classes; that is, articles on these topics are kept to facts and are not meant to incite or titillate the reader. Articles, including those on human reproduction, may contain anatomical, graphic photographs of sexual organs, which certain cultures may find inappropriate for small chidren. However, Wikipedia can be configured to hide these images if desired. Note also that although it discusses the methodology of terrorism and violence, Wikipedia is not a how-to guide.
Pages which are normally appropriate for children to use are occasionally vandalized with rude words or content which may be offensive. Vandalism is normally noticed and removed within a few minutes—if not seconds—but it is still possible that a person may access a page before this is dealt with.
The 2008/9 Wikipedia Selection for Schools is a selection of 5,500 articles deemed suitable for school children and has been checked and edited for this audience and protected against editing or vandalism. It contains about the equivalent content to a 20 volume encyclopaedia organized around school curriculum subjects, and is available online and as a free download for use by schools. If you find something wrong there, you should go to the corresponding Wikipedia page to make the correction. The next edition of the Schools selection will then include your correction.

What is open-source media?

Open-source media is a kind of information produced by open groups of developers in which anybody who wants to can use the information. Open-source production emerged among software engineers with the production of Linux, a free software computer operating system. MediaWiki is an open source software package that supports an open source encyclopedia.
Open-source production relies on qualified users to maintain a constantly improving collection, whether it is an open collection of computer code or of encyclopedic information. Open source collections typically maintain back-up resources, so if a developer accidentally damages the code or the content, it can easily be reverted to an earlier, stable version. The same backup system provides protection against malicious damage to an open-source project.

Why do people contribute to open-source projects?

Few surveys have developed reliable answers to why people contribute to open source works like Wikipedia. Some sort of public interest or community spirit is often part of the motive. Open-source projects offer an opportunity to contribute to something that has lasting value and that will continue to grow. Open-source publishing allows writers and software developers to apply their skills outside of a strictly business environment. Casual writers and editors sometimes participate as a hobby or as a learning experience. Classrooms may evaluate and post information as a learning activity. Volunteering is also one of the few ways writers and Web designers can gain experience and exposure without already having any.

Beyond information from the encyclopedia, what can students learn from Wikipedia?

Most young people will likely at some point become involved in interactive online activities. For educators, young people’s involvement with Wikipedia provides an opportunity to survey their understanding of online safety, and to teach appropriate practices. Educators can use Wikipedia as a way of teaching students to develop hierarchies of credibility that are essential for navigating and conducting research on the Internet.
Wikipedia provides an opportunity for teachers to discuss the concept of the open content. Wikipedia is an opportunity to participate in an open community that relies primarily on mutual respect and cooperation, but which is not related to familiar authority figures some youths might tend to oppose.
Editing in Wikipedia is an opportunity to learn to participate in collective editorial processes. Wikipedia presents a ready opportunity for youths to research, compile and publish articles for peer review. For youths who contribute images, selection and production of an image provides opportunities to learn what a market wants from an artist. Youths who master skills for accurate writing and drawing about encyclopedic subjects are better equipped to develop their own style in more creative genres.
Because all articles in Wikipedia must conform to neutral point-of-view, students participating in collaborative editing activities on Wikipedia are building experience in detecting and eliminating bias in writing.

Can a school group set up its own wiki?

Yes. The MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia is an open source software package, which means anyone who knows how to use it and who has access to a server computer may set up his or her own wiki project.
Access to a wiki database can be password protected, to allow groups to develop an open document within their membership. Passwords can allow a wiki to be developed by a school club, a teachers group, a regional group of schools, or any group within an educational community. Wikis might be used for school histories, to develop yearbook material or as class projects. A group can operate a wiki project online or within a closed local area network.
Even without access to a server computer, anyone with a personal computer may download the MediaWiki software and run it as a personal wiki. See: mw:Manual:Wiki on a stick.
For more information, see: How to start a wiki and mw:Manual:Installation guide.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Schools”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics

People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics? What would you make it of? It’s actually easier than you think… even if you have zero design skills whatsoever.
Below are my two favorite infographic-making web 2.0 tools that I highly recommend. They both have pros and cons but in general are great for any beginner or novice designer. If Photoshop is a 4-letter word to you, then these sites are your friend. If you’re a tech-savvy designer and illustrator, it can’t hurt to check out some of the work on these two sites for inspiration.
Click the name of each tool to learn more!

Visual.ly

One of the more popular ways to discover infographics, Visual.ly actually just launched a design overhaul of their website. It’s much more social and easier to share infographics. But since most of us don’t make infographics (yet), let’s focus on the killer tool that Visual.ly does offer: infographic creation.

Dipity

Want to get a beautifully simply visualization of data over time? It’s easy to use Dipity to create certain types of web content in a highly visual format. Consider using Dipity as a tool to map out the history of just about anything by creating multimedia timelines.

Easel.ly

I absolutely love Easel.ly. It was one of the first tools I found that helped me create a few infographics for the Edudemic Magazine. It’s also grown quite substantially over the past few months, yet is still in beta. Therefore, be on the lookout for some more improvements to the web-based software. For now though, easel.ly lets you easily (get it?) create various charts by just clicking and moving the mouse. No data skills required.

Venngage

Venngage (likely named for Venn diagrams) is a double threat. It lets you easily create infographics and other data visualizations but, more importantly, it lets you track the analytics of who is viewing your infographic. Could be great for a classroom of students who want to see who can make the most popular infographic!

Infogr.am

One of the most simple tools, Infogr.am lets you actually import data right into the site and then translate it all into useful visualizations. What could be better than that? I could see this being useful for making large posters showing off attendance, performance on certain metrics, and other classroom-based data streams.

Tableau Public

Made for Windows, Tableau Public lets you (like Infogr.am) bring your actual data into the world of visualzation. I like their maps feature but can see the value of using the tool on a regular basis thanks to the ‘live dashboard’ that lets you monitor all aspects of your design. Great for teachers without a lot of time or for a project-based learning environment that wants to track metrics. Best of all, you can make the infographics into interactive web-based visualizations with ease.

Photo Stats

This one’s an iPhone app that’s worth trying out. It simply analyzes the photos on your iPhone and then turns them into nifty infographics. Pretty simple and could be fun for trying out every once in awhile. Costs $0.99 but would be fun to use for a 1:1 or PBL classroom that takes photos on a regular basis. Good for tracking usage of the iPhone’s camera etc.

What About Me?

Want to show off your social media skills? Intel whipped up a nifty tool that I haven’t seen mentioned in many education blogs so I figured it’d be helpful to share. The tool is called What About Me? and it lets you create an infographic based on your social media accounts. Visual.ly also does this but this tool ties in a few more social networks. YouTube, for example. Great for a classroom of avid social media users!

Gliffy

Want to spice up your next faculty or staff meeting? Gliffy (love the name, btw) lets you whip up flowcharts, floor plans, and pretty technical renderings with ease. It reminds me of Prezi but generates static images. Useful for presentations by both teachers and students.

Piktochart

Saving the best (imho) for last! A favorite of the Edudemic audience, Piktochart is a great way to visualize just about anything. You can drag and drop your way to visual success by using Piktochart’s themes and other ready-made tools. Piktochart lets anyone (even those without design skills) become a graphic designer in no time!

Keep Kids Safe Online

Keep your information secure online

http://www.childnet.com/sorted/


As well as following the rest of the advice on the site, here's 10 easy steps you can take to keep your information private and your computer secure.

	Make sure your computer has a firewall enabled at all times Click here for more info...
	Install anti-virus software and keep it regularly updated Click here for more info...
	Check out the various anti-spyware tools and run them often Click here for more info...
	Make sure your home wireless network is encrypted Click here for more info...
	Take care when using P2P file sharing applications Click here for more info...
	Disguise your e-mail address if you post it publicly online Click here for more info...
	Never reply to spam, not even in trying to unsubscribe Click here for more info...
	Think before you blog - anyone can read what you post Click here for more info...
	Don't open attachments from unknown sources
	Use different passwords and e-mail addresses for different activities online Click here for more info...

Dongle's guide to be smart

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/web/besmart.shtml

Netiquette

Netiquette quiz
Learn the Net