Context Menu Search - Right-Click to Search in Chrome

Context Menu Search is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to highlight words on a webpage then right-click to search for those words on more than three dozen popular search engines and reference sites. When you have Context Menu Search installed, just highlight, right-click, then select the search engine that you want to use. To see Context Menu Search in action, watch the short Tekzilla video below.



Applications for Education
Context Menu Search could be a handy tool for students to use when they're reading online. When they come to a word or phrase with which they are not familiar, they can quickly search for the meaning by using Context Menu Search. Ambiently is a similar tool that I've reviewed before that works on multiple browsers.

Using Google Scholar for Education

Google Scholar is a great search tool that too often is overlooked by teachers and students. In the 45 minute video below, Google Search Engineer Daniel Russell walks viewers through using Google Scholar to get the best results.

Applications for Education
This video is part of Google's larger Search Education program through which you can find other webinar recordings, lessons for teaching search, and other reference materials that are useful for teaching and learning about best search techniques.

Try the New Wiki Summarizer Features

Last year I discovered Wiki Summarizer and almost immediately started sharing it in many of my presentations. Wiki Summarizer is a site that allows you to search Wikipedia, have articles summarized by key points, and provides lists of articles that are related to your original search. Recently, Wiki Summarizer got a few nice upgrades that should prove to be useful.

In an effort to make Wiki Summarizer more visually appealing and easier to navigate, Wiki Summarizer offers expandable webs of related articles. For example, I searched for "German Shepherd" and a web of related terms was created. Clicking on the "+" symbol next to each term opens a new element of the web. All parts of the web link to Wikipedia articles.

If your students are in the habit of printing articles that they find online, an upgrade to Wiki Summarizer that you should note is the option to export articles to a text document. The articles are exported in a clean, linear outline that is very easy to read.

Wiki Summarizer now offers hyperlinked word clouds for every Wikipedia article. You can click on any word in the word clouds to jump to the corresponding Wikipedia article.

Click to view full size image.

Applications for Education
Wiki Summarizer could be a good tool to for students who are just starting a research assignment and are not quite sure what terms to use or what topics to explore. By using the Wiki Summarizer web view or word cloud view students will be able to find some terms and topics that could help them alter and or direct their searches. In other words, Wiki Summarizer could help students who have a very broad research topic narrow down their searches.

To learn more about how Wikipedia functions and strives to maintain reliability watch Common Craft's explanation of Wikipedia in the video below.

(If you're reading this in RSS you will have to click through to watch the video).

Search for Images by Drawing an Image

For a while now we have been able to perform Google Image searches by uploading images from our computers. This morning, through Mashable, I learned about a neat image search tool that allows you to draw an image and search for images that are similar to it.

The Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing tool provides you with a drawing space and some simple drawing tools to create a sketch. When your sketch is complete just click "search by drawing" and you'll be sent to the Google Image search results that best match your drawing.

The Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing tool can also be used to upload and draw on an image that you have stored on your computer. If you want to search for pictures of yourself or pictures of people that look like you, you can use your webcam to take a picture of yourself and search through the Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing tool.

Embedded below is Mashable's video overview of the Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing tool.


Applications for Education
This approach to image search could be useful for students who have an idea for an image, but can't quite find it by using search terms in Google Image search.