LaCresha Williams' EDT 547 Blog

The Top 100

2008-01-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

Only using MSN, Google, Ask.com or Yahoo? These are the four most used search engines, 99.9% of the time. This blog discusses alternatives to the norm. These search engines give students an opportunity to use other resources and have a change of pace when teachers ask them to do a Google search. When there is a project to complete and students aren't familiar with something they need, and need a recommendation, they can use whattorent.com. This is a great source for students learning the web and looking for alternatives. I must admit, my students probably know what these are already, but I learned about them just today. So below, you will find a variety of the engines. Some allow you to ask questions, some make recommendations for you, such as: what to rent, some are metasearches, and there are alternative search engines.

Some alternative search engines: http://www.msdewey.com/

http://www.chacha.com/

http://www.whattorent.com/

http://www.thefind.com/

http://www.dogpile.com/

How to Find the Weirdest Stuff on the Internet

2008-01-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_weirdest_stuff_on_the_internet.php

I like this blog because it shows you the URL that leads the students to the weirdest things on the net. The URL has topics that can be used for science, current events on government. For example, it talks about how to bake a vegan herb bread, and Senator Dodd's fight to save the Constitution. Well, OK the topics I saw weren't that weird. I would personally use this website as an attention-getter for my students, this is the most effective way this website would be used in my classes.

Website http://feeds.feedburner.com/WeirdBlogsBestOf

Bombshell: Google and Facebook Join Dataportability.org

2008-01-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/goog-fb-data.php

Google and Facebook are joining the ranks of the Dataportability Workgroup. The workgroup is where users can take their data from the websites they use to use elsewhere and where vendors can leverage safe cross-site data exchange. Google and Facebook hold more user data and use it more than any other consumer service on the market.

Author Uses Blog Comments to Peer Review

2008-01-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blog_peer_review.php

Someone once said, "There are as many truths as there are observers." This blog is making this statement true. A book called "Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computeer Games, and Software Studies" is being published by MIT Press and peer reviewed by bloggers (a community of intelligent bloggers) and for integrity purposes, a traditional peer review is being done as well. This article is interesting because it is validating the voices of nontraditional intellectuals and exemplifies the possibilty of my students' voices really being heard and respected by other members of the community. This validates students' opinions and makes them want to participate.

The "Work From Home"Generation

2008-01-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_work_from_home_generation.php#comment-45732

This post interested me and my students because it explicitly discussed the future of employment. Working from home is another avenue employers and employees have the opportunity to utilize due to commute and traffic concerns, flexibility, saving money (for the employee and the employer) and contributions to the environment, and finally productivity is increased due to the increased opportunity to stay focused on the job. The article also discussed the possible reduction of stress related to office politics as well. The downside to working at home that were expressed are the lack of brainstorming possibilities for the creative types, the fact that you never leave work and this can cut into family time, and the office dynamics will be missed so entropy will set in eventually. This article really struck me because colleges and high schools are already becoming "Cyber-based", so they are preparing students for their future. For example here are some school sites and work from home sites. In economics I can use this site to have the students measure the differences in what it costs to travel to work compared to the benefits of staying home.

Work from home sites: http://www.alpineaccess.com/external/index.html

http://www.liveops.com/

Tips for working @ home with websites of opportunities: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TakeControlOfYourLife/story?id=2621388&page=1

Online high schools: http://www.pinnacleeducation.com/

http://www.cyberhigh.org/