Finding information just got easier – thanks to Trove, a revolutionary new free search engine created by the National Library of Australia.

With just one click at trove.nla.gov.au users, like never before, can access a wealth of resources - across more than 90 million items in one go - about Australia and Australians.

Trove’s content, much of which is digital, comes from more than 1000 libraries around Australia as well as other cultural and educational institutions and international collections with relevance to Australia.

Trove takes users straight to the source – not just to a list of websites – and allows them to search across pictures, unpublished manuscripts, books, oral histories, music, videos, research papers, diaries, letters, maps, archived websites and Australian newspapers from 1803 to 1954.

The Director-General of the National Library of Australia, Jan Fullerton, said she was proud to announce the launch of Trove, the culmination of more than three years of work by dedicated National Library staff. “Trove has been designed for all Australians. It’s the perfect option for researchers, writers, family historians, academics, students, and more – in fact for anyone with a question about Australia and Australians,” Ms Fullerton said.

“Now, with the ease of one search via Trove, you can have access to the greatest Australian collections in the world.”

Ms Fullerton said the National Library recognised that today’s users wanted more than just a passive information service - they wanted to be part of a growing online community that can contribute and participate. “Trove gives them that opportunity through tagging, commenting, organising and improving data as well as sharing information and ideas,” she said.

Media Contact:
Sally Hopman, Media Liaison Manager, National Library of Australia
02 6262 1704 or 0401 226 697
shopman@nla.gov.au

Today I created an account with Dropbox and installed both it's desktop and Iphone applications. Dropbox gives you storage space on it's servers to create folders and allows you syncranise between your applications and the Dropbox server.

You can also set folders to share and invite others to share them. So if you have files that are to large to email you can drop them into your dropbox folders and allow others to download them. This is one of many examples of what is now being described as Cloud Computing.

To take a look for yourself I have included a link to their site.
http://www.dropbox.com/

If your interested in creating your own custom theme for your Moodle site then take a look at this series of videos from moodleman.



"Well, this has been a gamble. I don’t even know if I’ll call it successful, but here it is for you all to see

Many ask me how I go about building Moodle themes. They assume it is difficult, time consuming and a realm for experts. Well I am here to say “Poppycock!” to that and give you a brief glimpse into how quick and easy it is with just a little knowledge of CSS and HTML.

Below I have recorded myself developing a theme for a client..the whole shebang, while trying to provide some useful commentary. I don’t know how many will survive the entire duration. but it does show how simple the process can be. It is not necessarily best practice and I have tried to simplify as much as possible, but it should be enough to get even the most layman of people going."

http://www.moodleman.net/archives/40

An interesting video on technology in education worth taking a look at.

Do not go quietly into your classroom!

"It started with a presentation to Simon Fraser University student teachers. I created a Powerpoint presentation by the same name and put it on on Slideshare so that I could embed the show into a wik for the presentation. A number of people suggested I create a video of it. Today I did that and put it on YouTube and on the Internet Archive. One is of poor quality and the other is great, but only in streaming mode, so here I am now on BlipTV.

Visit me on Pair-a-Dimes for your Thoughts and let me know what you think. Thanks,"

Dave.

A team has got together to create an Iphone app for Moodle. If you have an Iphone are considering getting an Iphone or are just interested you can find out more information from

http://iphone.moodle.com.au/

Update
Another Moodle app MoodleTouch should be in the App store in the first week of April for further information I have listed their site below.

http://www.pragmasql.com/133/section.aspx/81