Can You Digg It? Alternate Search Engines & Media Repositories Webinar

I was very excited to start the Can You Digg It? Using Web Applications to Facilitate Research and Writing: Webinar Series this spring at LearnCentral. The first webinar about Alternate Search Engines & Media Repositories was great! We started off with my current favorite poll (done in PollEverywhere) asking participants to "fess up" and admit whether or not they too use Google and read Wikipedia. This poll will definitely be recycled throughout the various Can You Digg It events this spring.

I think everyone enjoyed thinking about using other search engines and repositories beyond Google. And sometimes everyone just needs to be reminded that it is as easy as saying "I will search with something else" or "I will assign specific search engines/databases for my students to use." I added sample text of how I ask my students to do that on the Alternate Search Engines page.

Although we did not get to talk about the media repositories portion as much as I would have liked (60 minutes goes by fast), we did end the discussion on legal issues, especially copyright, fair use, and creative commons. I also realized I had forgotten to metion at the beginning of the webinar that the "heart and soul" of the Can You Digg It? material is the matrix that Susan and I revised from an earlier, much smaller, version.

I have to thank Devon Adams for agreeing to being the Chat Space Facilitator for a bunch of the webinars in the series. He was especially helpful this time because there were a lot of questions, comments, and suggestions flying in the chat area.

I also have to do a big shout out, THANK YOU, to all the participants. I combed through the chat record and found lots of resources that participants shared. Most of them got added to the Can You Digg It? resource website. The archive for the entire webinar, include the chat, can be found here (it is using Elluminate).

February 26 2010 | Posted in Workshops