It’s so nice that you could drop by to find out what life is all about. Actually, I don’t know the answer to that question (unless it’s 42) but I do, as regular readers are already aware, know the answer to lots of other questions. Whilst this blog was primarily started to meet at least some of the needs of careers guidance practitioners we, Dawn and I (Hazel), find that many other people find our ramblings useful.
So, having been to three different e-Business Club events in the last week, and having interest shown by a number of people, I welcome Leanne, Carolyn, James, John, Phil, and ...
having just gone to my handbag to sort through the cards I put in my wallet at this morning’s event I have found --- no wallet!
No money, no bank card, no --- train ticket to get home from London tomorrow, no senior rail card, no anything! What a mess.
Panic set in. Fortunately I’m at my daughter’s house and she’s organised about these things!
Will write more on Friday!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
User manual search engine Diplodocs
via Phil Bradley's weblog by philipbradley
Phil’s suggestions are always useful (perhaps particularly those which obliquely tell you not to touch said resource with the proverbial barge pole) but this is just brilliant. I used it to find the instructions for setting the alarm on a clock I picked up a charity shop.
I was recently tasked with finding a user manual for my wife's sewing machine. Normally the first place that I'd go for something like this is to the website of the company that produced it, but curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to see if there was a search engine that provides access to user manuals. It turns out that there is, and it's called Diplodocs It's quite impressive and covers lots of manufacturers, lots of types of manuals, with an easy to use search interface.Hazel’s comment:
Phil’s suggestions are always useful (perhaps particularly those which obliquely tell you not to touch said resource with the proverbial barge pole) but this is just brilliant. I used it to find the instructions for setting the alarm on a clock I picked up a charity shop.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Search engine user behaviour: How can users be guided to quality content?
an article by Dirk Lewandowski (Department of Information, Faculty of Design, Media and Information, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) in Information Services and Use Volume 28 Number 3-4 (2008)
Abstract
The typical behaviour of the Web search engine user is widely known: a user only types in one or a few keywords and expects the search engine to produce relevant results in an instant. Search engines not only adapt to this behaviour; on the contrary, they are often faced with criticism that they themselves created this kind of behaviour. As search engines are trendsetters for the whole information world, it is important to know how they cope with their users’ behaviour. Recent developments show that search engines try to integrate results from different collections into their results lists and to guide their users to the right results. These results should not only be relevant in general, but also be pertinent in the sense of being relevant to the user in his current situation and in accordance to his background.
The article focuses on the problems of guiding the user from his initial query to these results. It shows how the general users are searching and how the intents behind their queries can be used to deliver the right results. It will be shown that search engines try to give some good results for everyone instead of focusing on complete result sets for a specific user type. If the user wishes, he can follow the paths laid out by the engines to narrow the results to a result set suitable to him.
Abstract
The typical behaviour of the Web search engine user is widely known: a user only types in one or a few keywords and expects the search engine to produce relevant results in an instant. Search engines not only adapt to this behaviour; on the contrary, they are often faced with criticism that they themselves created this kind of behaviour. As search engines are trendsetters for the whole information world, it is important to know how they cope with their users’ behaviour. Recent developments show that search engines try to integrate results from different collections into their results lists and to guide their users to the right results. These results should not only be relevant in general, but also be pertinent in the sense of being relevant to the user in his current situation and in accordance to his background.
The article focuses on the problems of guiding the user from his initial query to these results. It shows how the general users are searching and how the intents behind their queries can be used to deliver the right results. It will be shown that search engines try to give some good results for everyone instead of focusing on complete result sets for a specific user type. If the user wishes, he can follow the paths laid out by the engines to narrow the results to a result set suitable to him.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Teaching intangibles with technology
via ICT Results Features
Teach students some facts, and they learn for one exam at a time. Teach students to think and they learn how to learn for the rest of their lives. Ambitious work from European and Israeli researchers is making it easier to help students learn to think for themselves. This is exciting stuff for teachers.
IT qualification
EUCIP is a pan-European qualification scheme for people entering the IT profession and for IT professionals wishing to continue their professional development. EUCIP has been developed as an independent, European-recognised scheme for IT professionals.The qualification enables IT professionals to document and confirm their knowledge and skills for employers and enhance their standing in the market place.
Read more about EUCIP
Read more about EUCIP
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