Visual Search Engines

If you are prefer information presented as images rather than text you may find one of these new types of search engine useful.

Searchme presents the web pages as search results rather than just some text from the webpage. When you enter your search term, categories appear that relate to your search term. You can select a category to narrow down your search. Then you review the web pages by flicking through them as they appear on the Internet rather than just textual information taken from the pages.

Search-cube is a different visual search engine that shows the web search results as web pages each presented as small squares in a larger 3 dimensional cube shape. Although reviewing the search results on this search engine might seem less intuitive ( you have to flip the cube to see the images on different sides) it does make searching feel more like a game of exploration.

Mind Maps

Bubbl.us is an easy to use, free web application that lets you brainstorm online. You can use it to create your own mind map or to share it with others online.

There is a helpful video showing how to use this created by Tech Bites.

Crossword and Hangman Puzzles - Online

The Linguaspectrum website enables you to create crossword and hangman puzzles which can be completed online. It is easy to use. To do this you need to register and then enter your answers and clues for the puzzle. Once you have completed this you need to submit it for publishing and wait for a confirmation email with link (it took less than 24 hours for mine to be published online. You can have a look at ones I created yesterday: You can find my puzzle here and my hangman game here.

Creating Puzzles

Today, a change from subject focused websites.

Puzzlemaker from Discovery Education enables you to create and print a range of word games.

When you access the site, you will see the option to purchase a CD OR to create the free puzzles.

To create the free puzzles, be sure to select the type of puzzle you want to create on the left then follow instructions.

To print the puzzles you will need to copy the puzzle and paste it to a word or similar document which you can then print off and use for your teaching.

Anatomy

ThinkAnatomy website was the idea of Vanessa Ruiz and developed from her studies for her Master’s in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Having found lots of useful resources, she decided to make these available to others through this website.

Rather than wasting time searching for good anatomy resources online, Vanessa has shared her collection of links to some of the best anatomy resources on the Internet.

The site contains: dissection manuals and videos, games, illustrations, lectures, podcasts, quizes, study guides and much more.

Livemocha - learning languages

Livemocha is another language learning website, offering interactive lessons and exercises and the opportunity to participate in an online community of other language learners, native speakers and tutors.

You will need to register to access all the facilities but once you have, you can learn at your own pace on a range of different activities to learn or develop your English, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Hindi, Italian, Russian, or Japanese.

Virtual Careers

Have you ever wanted to know more about some careers? Virtual Work Experience is a website that provides careers information and allows you to go into 6 different virtual worlds and try out different jobs online.

Customer contact centre - Explore the range of careers within the Customer contact centre environment.
Food and drink production - Explore the range of careers within the Food and drink production environment.
Hair, beauty and nails - Explore the range of careers within the Hair, beauty and nails salon environment.
NHS - Explore the range of careers within the NHS environment.
Passenger transport - Explore the range of careers within the Passenger transport environment.
Retail - Explore the range of careers within the Retail environment.

A fun website to explore or recommend to students unsure of possible career options.