Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Two Tools for Managing and Exploring Information

Over the weekend I found two online applications that seemed as though they could be very useful in an education context, TextFlow and eyePlorer.

TextFlow from Sweden's NordicRiver allows concurrent collaborative document editing supporting the modern way of working, where success depends on good collaboration in virtual teams that spread across physical and geographical boundaries.

TextFlow is easily accessible in most browsers and there is a downloadable desktop version as well which requires Adobe AIR. There are both free and paid versions. TextFlow features the ability to import Word and RTF files, export to Word and HMTL, directly publish on the web, manage seven concurrent versions, and a document portal for storage and access.
EyePlorer from vionto GmbH in Germany is an interactive, visual method of working with knowledge and information. Studies suggest that human thought has a strong visual component and that the brain can process images faster than textual information.



You enter a search term and eyePlorer quickly culls Wikipedia and generates a visual map of related terms. Mouse over one of these terms and a popup tells how that term is related to your original term. Furthermore, you can drag these popup facts into the notebook to collect and save information connected to your topic for later use.

EyePlorer is in beta and is free to use.

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