Online Tools for Conducting Research

Background Research: Get the background before diving in.

www.wikipedia.com Wikipedia is a quick easy way to get background information on any topic.

www.laspositascollege.edu/library/ Academic Search Premier is a database of academic periodicals. This is a great place to start research; someone in academia has probably already written a paper about your topic.

www.technorati.com Technorati is a user-filtering website to rank the popularity of topics in the “blogoshere.”

digg.com Digg is a user generated ranking system for websites. Find the most popular website for your research topic.

www.pewinternet.org The Pew Internet and American Life Project has compiled tons of research on how the internet is being used in the U.S.

Content specific aggregators: In addition, there are hundreds of websites that collect content specific to what you are looking for. It takes some time to find them; but once you do, they often provide invaluable information.

Scanning Websites: Don't waste time by mindlessly clicking through google sites; figure out what is important first.

www.searchme.com Searchme is a new search engine that allows the user to immediately view entire web pages instead of text links. It is better than google because it let's you "scan" and save the webpage. Searches can be narrowed by specifically searching blogs and other topics. Websites can also be saved and “stacked” so that you don’t have to bookmark them later. Finally, searchme stacks can be embedded directly into the class blog.

www.dipity.com The latest version of dipity provides a timeline of events for various websites. This is particularly useful in finding the historical background of a topic. Dipity also allows you to create a timeline. Dipity has “mashups” with the following websites:

www.dipity.com/mashups/archaeologist Digg is a user-filtering website that ranks the popularity of topics and websites. Dipity's interpretation is called "archaeologist"

www.dipity.com/mashups/newslineDaylife is a news aggregator, which presents news in a variety formats. Daylife also allows users to “rank” their news. Dipity allows users to view their news on a timeline.

www.dipity.com/mashups/timetube Although YouTube is well known, Dipity allows users to view search results on a timeline.

RSS Feed: Why search? Let the research come to you.

www.google.com/reader Why search for information when information can find you? Google reader allows you to be constantly updated from websites where people are already doing research.

Annotate, Collaborate, Organize, and Save: Save time; work efficiently.

delicious.com Delicious is a social bookmarking website that allows users to save and search bookmarks.

www.diigo.com Diigo is program that allows the user to “highlight," annotate, and save webpages. It is tremendously useful when conducting collaborative online research. Users can see annotations from other users.

www.zotero.org Zotero is very similar to Diigo; it is a free program that allows users to "highlight," annotate, and save webpages. Zotero also has a bibliography maker built in, which makes it easier to compose research papers. Zotero has a plug-in for Microsoft Word, which allows easy transfer of bibliography information. Zotero has a more organized structure and is good for individual users. Diigo is much better for collaborative work.

www.pbwiki.com Create your own wiki so that you can collaborate online and get help from your friends.

docs.google.com This is the perfect tool for the student on the go; you can now save your documents online. Don't go through the hassle of emailing your homework to yourself or saving it on a flash drive. Imagine, you can access your work from any computer at any time. Now you don't have to bring your laptop to school. Heck, you don't even need to go home to your desktop to do all of your work (we all know that working at home is difficult with all those distractions). All your work can be done from any computer. As an added bonus, you can invite your peers to proofread your work online!

Review and Edit:

http://www.laspositascollege.edu/ILC/writingcenter.php Of course, the best way to get help with the organization of your paper is to get a college professor to review your paper. The Writing Center at Integrated Learning Center in Building 1200 provides free help. Check out the website for open hours and just drop in!

Miscellaneous:

www.bibme.org Bibme is a free online bibliography maker.

www.evernote.com Evernote is an "external brain" that allows users to save and search pictures, websites, and text. Use your phone to take pictures of your professor's white board notes and find them online.

www.jott.com Jott transcribes spoken words into text. Call in with your cell phone; Jott automatically transcribes your message into text! Imagine doing your homework while driving to school by just talking on your cell phone; is this the future of Jott?

www.fair.org Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is a national media watch group. It can be a useful tool to find both sides to a story.

twitter.com Twitter is social networking and microblogging service.

digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com Digital Research Tools has compiled virtually every single online application that can be useful for conducting research.

http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies has compiled a list of current "learning tools."