Gale/Cengage announces new GVRL interface. I’m a big fan of GVRL because I can cross search a variety of reference titles. We’ve had hundreds of titles at my institution for over 5 years. I’m really excited that they have upgraded their interface based on extensive usability studies with students. The new interface is available now, but you’ll have to change the settings in your admin account first.
Otherwise, next July everyone will switch over. But why wait? Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced a totally redesigned user interface for Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL), its online ebook platform. “Our newly designed Gale Virtual Reference Library enables reference content to literally jump off the shelves - it’s easy-to-use, and even easier for researchers to find exactly what they are looking for,” said Cynthia Sanner, general reference publisher, Gale.
Open Journal Systems. DOAJ -- Directory of Open Access Journals. Evernote for Android (Now, with Sharing) Free video lectures,Free Animations, Free Lecture Notes, Free Online Tests, Free Lecture Presentations. StumbleUpon Releases New Widget for Publishers.
Content aggregation and ranking engine StumbleUpon is releasing a new widget for publishers today that can be placed on a website or blog to help users find meaningful content relevant to them. The StumbleUpon Widget can be used by publishers to surface content on the site with the best shelf life. The widget will come in three sizes and requires a line of script to be embedded on to a webpage. The widget will surface stories and videos suited to the users' interest based on what has been rated highly by the StumbleUpon community of 15 million users.
When a user is on a page with a StumbleUpon widget installed they will see links that are tailored to their interests. The company touts the widget as a way to fill unsold ad space on and spark interest in exploring the site, thus increasing page views and time spent consuming content. StumbleUpon claims to be the largest non-Facebook referrer of social media traffic. There are a few drawbacks for publishers. Google Beefs Up Online Storage for Apps for Education. Collaboration | News Google Beefs Up Online Storage for Apps for Education Google is increasing the amount of storage it provides to institutions that use its free Apps for Education platform. Google Apps for Education is the widely deployed, free, hosted application suite that includes communications tools like as Gmail, voice and voice chat, Google Calendar, and instant messaging; collaboration apps, such as Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Groups; and various administration features and APIs for integration with existing systems.
According to a Google spokesperson, there are "12 million students, faculty and staff actively using Google Apps for Education" at present. According to a blog post today, e-mail storage space for Apps for Education users is being increased from 7 GB to 25 GB for each mailbox. Mailboxes for current users will be expanded automatically "over the course of the next few weeks. " New K-12 school districts using Google Apps include:
GradeGuru. Apps › Education. +1m eBooks via SwetsWise | Swets news. Lisse, The Netherlands June 7, 2011 More than 1 million eBooks now available via SwetsWise! Swets is pleased to announce that SwetsWise, its leading information resource management and procurement platform, has recently expanded its eBook catalog to more than one million publications. Swets has signed agreements with a number of the world’s leading eBooks publishers and aggregators, bringing together an impressive wealth of compelling content and creating an extensive collection of eBooks unparalleled within the information industry. SwetsWise provides an intuitive interface for librarians and information managers to select and acquire eBook content. “Expanding SwetsWise to support the acquisition and management of eBook content has enabled us to offer customers a single, user-friendly interface to acquire and manage both eBooks and journals, which is unique to the information industry,” said Maxim van Gisbergen, Business Development Manager at Swets.
About Bentham Science Publishers. Khan Academy. Bret Victor, beast of burden. Kill Math. Bret Victor / April 11, 2011 The power to understand and predict the quantities of the world should not be restricted to those with a freakish knack for manipulating abstract symbols. When most people speak of Math, what they have in mind is more its mechanism than its essence.
This "Math" consists of assigning meaning to a set of symbols, blindly shuffling around these symbols according to arcane rules, and then interpreting a meaning from the shuffled result. The process is not unlike casting lots. This mechanism of math evolved for a reason: it was the most efficient means of modeling quantitative systems given the constraints of pencil and paper. We are no longer constrained by pencil and paper. Project Kill Math is my umbrella project for techniques that enable people to model and solve meaningful problems of quantity using concrete representations and intuition-guided exploration. Someday there will be an introductory essay on this page, and it will move you to tears. Kitchen Math. STUDYBLUE | Make online flashcards & notes. Study anywhere, anytime.
Knotebooks - Anyone can contribute. Everyone can learn. Education - YouTube EDU Where YouTube EDU Went Wrong (and how it might recover) By Higher Ed Live YouTube‘s educational portal, YouTube EDU, entered its third year of operation this past week. In spite of some very optimistic publicity for its initial launch, its development as a teaching-and-learning tool has thus far proven rather lackluster. YouTube has shown little effort in expanding and supporting the site, and few institutions in higher education have made significant academic contributions to it.
YouTube.com/edu w as originally intended as an opportunity for colleges and universities around the world to post educational content online for anyone’s free access. Schools of higher education seem partly to blame for their lack of effort to provide high-quality academic content. Where are the contributions from our colleges and universities? Contrast that with schools that lead the way in providing online academic content: 13,442 viewers had checked out videos put up by MIT; 13,671 had clicked on Harvard’s. But Mallory Wood, assistant director of marketing at St. The National Academies to Release Its Books Free as PDFs - eBookNewser. New to Wolfram|Alpha? Take the Tour: What Is Wolfram|Alpha?
Free for All: National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge - Wired Campus. Today the National Academies Press announced it would offer its entire PDF catalog of books for free, as files that can be downloaded by anyone. The press is the publishing arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, and publishes books and reports that scientists, educators, and policy makers rely on. Barbara Kline Pope, executive director for the press, said it had previously offered 65 percent of its titles—ones that were narrow in scope—for free. “The 35 percent that we are adding today will reach a wider audience, and we are doing it because it’s central to our mission to get this information to everyone,” she said.
Ms. Pope, who had been up all night testing that the downloads worked properly—the Web site was remarkably slow today—said the first new title taken was Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments, which sells in hardcover for $24.95. Return to Top. About Key: The Geometer's Sketchpad® Named an EdNET's Best "Shining Stars" for 2011 - Key Curriculum Press. The Geometer’s Sketchpad® is the world’s leading software for teaching mathematics. Sketchpad® gives students at all levels—from third grade through college—a tangible, visual way to learn mathematics that increases their engagement, understanding, and achievement. Make math more meaningful and memorable using Sketchpad. Elementary students can manipulate dynamic models of fractions, number lines, and geometric patterns. Middle school students can build their readiness for algebra by exploring ratio and proportion, rate of change, and functional relationships through numeric, tabular, and graphical representations.
And high school students can use Sketchpad to construct and transform geometric shapes and functions—from linear to trigonometric—promoting deep understanding. Sketchpad is the optimal tool for interactive whiteboards. Teachers can use it daily to illustrate and illuminate mathematical ideas. The McGraw-Hill Companies is no longer distributing Tinkerplots and Fathom.
Free for All: National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge - Wired Campus. BenchPrep. Sophia Does The Math, Buys Guaranteach To Boost Its Social Education Platform. Sophia, which operates a free online social teaching and learning platform, this morning announced that it has acquired Guaranteach, a Web-based service that provides tens of thousands of short-form tutorials along with assessment tools to students, teachers, colleges and schools. Guaranteach offers nearly 23,000 short-form videos on math topics ranging from counting to calculus, developed by nearly 200 teachers and math experts. Guaranteach also offers more than 60,000 quiz questions, as well as assessment tools that match tutorials to the learning style of the learner and provide student progress reports. Sophia will soon start offering the Guaranteach portfolio of math tutorials – previously available on a pay-per-use basis to schools – to individual learners around the world at no cost.
Notably, Sophia also plans to use the Guaranteach model to develop and offer a range of English and science tutorials in addition to math. NewSchools Venture Fund was also an investor.