I was informed by Mr. Michael Douma, Executive Director of Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA), about his recent study on Finding Information: Factors that Improve Online Experiences yesterday. Mr. Douma was kind to invite me to read the executive summary of the report and provide me a link to download a PDF version of the findings.
This is an interesting study. IDEA conducted this study to determine how people find information online and how the experience of Web site visitors can be improved. The intent of the IDEA’s study is trying to improve the ways people interact with technology.
The study covered three groups: non-profit organizations and cities; web designers and firms; and the general public and attempted to answer the following questions:
What makes a Web site effective?
What factors contribute to visitors’ enjoyment of a Web site? Does this vary by segments within each population?
From a visitors’ perspective, what factors determine a quality Web site?
Are there differences between visitors’ needs as perceived by organizations and designers, and those reported by visitors themselves?
The study received 563 clean responses from nonprofit organizations and cities, 250 from web designers and firms, and 1,675 from the general public. Major findings are:
Designers underestimate the thresholds for an effective site. Visitors have higher expectations for effectiveness than do designers.
Easy access to complete information is key to visitor enjoyment.
Good visual design and up-to-date information are critical.
Visitors want information fast.
Visitors want a broad range of topics.
Designers are overly optimistic about visitors’ ability to maintain orientation.
Visitors still need handholding.
Visitors point to the lack of breadth and depth of site content as causing an “Information Gap.”
As an online educator, I think the results of this study provide many useful information and ideas on designing educational Web sites or online courses that allow learners to easily find information and orient themselves on the Web site. For more details about the study as well as its findings, you can download the 17 page report in PDF at: http://www.idea.org/find-information.pdf
A new search engine, Cuil, was launched last Monday to aim for delivering better results than other major search engines by searching across more Web pages and studying them more accurately. Cuil, created by former Google engineers, tries to take on the search engine giant, Google. Cuil claims to be the he world’s biggest search engine that covers 120 billion Web mages (about three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft). Besides relying on superficial popularity of a Web page, Cuil analyzes and ranks pages based on their content and relevance and the groups similar results under different menus.
After you perform a search, Cuil will show you “Tabs” that suggest ways to clarify your search. In addition, you may see a “Explore By Category” panel on the right-hand side that provides you a list of subjects related to your search.. If you click on one, Cuil will direct you to this additional information. By looking at these suggestions, you may discover search data, concepts, or related areas of interest that you hadn’t expected.
Cuil provides you couple options on the Preferences. You can enable typing suggestions and perform a safe search that filters pornography or other objectionable material from your search results. Although the safe search cannot guarantee that all objectionable material are filtered out, it is helpful for teachers and students in K-12 settings.
So far, I like my search experience with Cuil. The interface is intuitive and the search process is fast with a return of good results and suggestions. The major weakness I experienced so far is the images on the search results seem completely random which often have nothing to do with the result entries. However, I will continue to try it out as my default search engine for the next few weeks.
While many of us are excited about the recent Web 2.0 development and find ways to integrate some of these Web 2.0 tools in teaching and learning, many Web entrepreneurs and developers already designed and created the next generation of Web applications that some people have dubbed Web 3.0.
So, what is Web 3.0? Web 3.0 is generally agreed to be the semantic Web. According to Nova Spivack, the CEO of Radar Networks who launched its first Web 3.0 product called Twine, Web 3.0 is a Web 2.0 with a brain. He further indicates that Web 3.0 will not replace the ideas from Web 2.0. It’s just building on the techniques and making them smarter. Web 3.0 is about data and making them smarter. Web 3.0 is statistics, linguistics, open data, computer intelligence, the wisdom of crowds and user-generated content all coming together. So, Web 3.0 is not a specific technology. It is convergence of Web technologies that will take place in the next decade.
To get a feel of a Web 3.0 application, you may want to check out the Twine. Twine is a first Web 3.0 tool that intelligently collects, organizes, and shares information such as documents or Web pages for professionals.
If are interested in Web 3.0 or the trends of Web technology, you may want to view the following two presentations from Slideshare. Meanwhile, get yourself ready. Web 3.0 is already here and more Web 3.0 applications will emerge soon.
The Evolution of Web 3.0
Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond, May 2008 Update
I was just informed byFiona King of College@Home about a newly published article, “100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner, ” on their College@Home blog today. Christina Laun, the author of the article, did a great job of identifying 100 helpful learning tools and grouping them into three groups of learners with different learning styles. Many of the recommended learning tools are popular Web 2.0 tools. In fact, I have written many of these tools in my blog. I think this is an interesting attempt for identifying helpful Web tools that teachers and students can use to cater to their individual learning style. Christina’s 100 helpful Web tools are grouped into the following categories:
I came across a simple online private journal called Penzu. It is fast, intuitive, and easy to use. There is no need to log in the site in order to use Penzu. You can go to the Penzu site, quickly drop down your thoughts, and log in later to save to your account if needed.
You can use Penzu for keeping a daily diary, expressive journal, travel journal, or the story of your life. Also, I think teachers and students can use Penzu to take notes in classes and meetings. You can hop back and forth between notes easily. Penzu puts the most-recently created documents on top and allows image insertion. You can share your entries with others via email option or you can keep your identity a secret. The best part of Penzu is that your work is saved as you type, so you never have to worry about saving. Furthermore, printing with Penzu is quite easy. The documents come out just like they look like on the page.
I am Dr. Steve Yuen, a professor of Instructional Technology at The University of Southern Mississippi. This is my personal blog on the use of emerging technologies in teaching and learning.
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