Newsmap

Newsmap:  This site displays a visual search of the world's news.  It displays the news of the day and will colour code results by topic such as 'science', 'technology', business etc.  It will also colour code those individual topics based on how long ago the story was posted.  The darkest of each colour (topic) was posted more than an hour ago, while the lightest, displays postings of less than 10 minutes ago.  You can toggle on or off individual countries to find certain news reports or current events.  It also allows you to search by topic (top right of row).  A simple mouse over of each box will give a brief description and then you could choose to click/select it to follow that news item.

This example has Canada selected (top row) and presents all topics (bottom row).

PortableApps.com - Allows freedom and portability

At times, staff within LPSD encounter problems using installed software that requires updates and will not perform properly as technology constantly changes. As we await the deploy of our new image there is a temporary solution by using free apps that can be downloaded to be installed and used on various portable storage devices or even to your desktop. There are also a large number of apps that are not installed on LPSD computers that teachers may want to use.

Portable Apps Home

Common free programs that have been converted to portable format include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Skype, Blender, GIMP, Celestia, Stellarium, Marble, Audacity, & VLC Media Player. All you have to do is download (enable the download warning and choose run) and give it a location to install the folder on your flash drive or desktop. Housed inside the installed folder is the .exe launch icon which will start the program.


Categorized List of Portable Apps

Oolone: Visual Search Engine

Oolone

Do you have students who have a difficult time reading through the lists of search results?  You could introduce them to a more visual search engine called Oolone.  This could be great alternative for EAL students.

To make this work better for you, try more specific search terms.  For example, if you are researching dolphins, try "dolphin behaviour" or "dolphin biology" instead of just the term "dolphin". That way the search results will not include the Miami Dolphins and websites on dolphin stuffed animals!


You can see visual copies of websites in Google as well, but you have to mouse over each site.  Oolone displays a number at a time.