Futurelab's Education Eye brings you a wide range of exciting, relevant and useful innovations which are selected from the best of the web and updated daily.
The Eye provides a way to discover, explore and share new ideas. It maps hundreds of the top educational websites, blogs, forums and practitioner case studies. With additional features like saving your own favourite innovations, Futurelab's favourites, customisable email digests, and a widget version, it is invaluable.
Visit the links below to find out more about Education Eye:
Many thanks to Becta and Futurelab's design and development team for supporting and working hard on the Eye.
The Education Eye key features include
A searchable, browsable space which leads you to discover new and exciting innovations tailored to the education industry and brought together in one easy-to-use location.
Try the 'More like this' suggestions to discover similar innovations that you will likely find interesting.
View Futurelab's favourites to see what we like, or see what other people are interested in using the 'most shared' search feature.
Host the Education Eyelet mini-widget on your own site or blog.
Register your details to make the Eye customised to your interests. Registering will support you to:
Set your ideal search criteria so each time you visit the Eye it shows you what you are interested in
Choose to receive email digests of your favourite search terms, or an RSS feed customised to your interests
Collect your favourite innovations in your own Favourites folder
Easily share innovations with friends and colleagues
Suggest your favourite site or blog to be included in the Eye to help get all your innovations in one location.
Enjoy the widest range and best quality educational innovations available while the Eye works hard in the background doing all the legwork you used to do.
We hope you enjoy using Education Eye and welcome your feedback or comments. Please get in touch at info@educationeye.org.uk.
Innovations mapped in Education Eye
We are always on the lookout for good sources of innovations to add to the Eye. If you'd like to suggest one to our editorial team, please send an email to info@educationeye.org.uk.
How you can get an article published
Education Eye takes feeds from a wide range of sites that share innovative practice. If you would like to share some work you are doing through the Eye, the first option is to recommend a link where your content already exists (for example your blog or website). If you haven't already shared your work and need to publish something new, a great place to share it is through Whole Education as we already link to their web content. The Whole Education website www.wholeeducation.org is a space where a whole range of practices are being shared across the country and you can simply sign up to share your practices and innovations.
To share your practice on the Whole Education website (and then automatically through Education Eye), send your stories of practice to info@wholeeducation.org. The best format has a useful set of key words (tags) and an overview introduction of no more than 300 words.
If you want to share your stories of practice but don't think them suitable for Whole Education, get in touch with us at info@educationeye.org.uk and we'll look for the best approach to make your work more easily shareable. Or put your content in an RSS feed which you can then suggest is included in the Eye. Info on how to set up an RSS feed is available here. http://www.rss-specifications.com/create-rss-feed.htm
How you can get an article or source removed
If you are a content publisher and don't want us to include your innovations or want to discuss how it is presented, then please get in touch. Please contact info@educationeye.org.uk. If you want a particular article removed, please use the 'Flag' feature available with each article to have it suspended and then moderated. Include your reason if it isn't obvious and we'll review the editorial decision to include it.
As an internet and social network mapper, the Eye collects and indexes content from hundreds of websites, blogs, news sites and others. It gives you fast search results to find content relevant to education. We've trained it to filter masses of content to find the stuff that is relevant (so you don't have to). We then index it really cleverly. We contextualise the results and map links between articles to help you discover innovations that you also might be interested in. We check social networks like Delicious and Twitter to see what people are saying about these items to help reinforce how they are indexed, and we even cross-reference every article against each other to help provide context and make sure you find the best quality and relevance. It's complicated, it's really robust and it's doing a lot in the background, but the end result is simple and hopefully really useful.
I'd like a customised Eye or Eyelet for my organisation
If you would like your own Eye, branded and customised for your industry or organisation then talk to us. The Eye is underpinned by a robust and complex structure that can sort and make sense of a huge amount of content and present it in an exciting, compelling and engaging way. Its kind of like Google but more selective with curated sources and also listening to social networks and providing context mapping and linking. By using hand selected sources (tens, hundreds or even thousands can be mapped) it provides easy ways to bring the great stuff to the top based on your interests and settings. Please get in touch with Futurelab at info@educationeye.org.uk to talk more.
How to be a more innovative education practitioner
There are many resources that offer evidence, insights, ideas and recommendations that can be built upon to support and nurture a culture of transformative innovation. Increasingly it is recognised that there is a need to innovate to enable greater creativity, flexibility, learner input and so forth, and to deliver a more personalised educational system and foster new skills amongst learners. Evidence also suggests that innovation is not only necessary but can be exciting and rewarding and result in a whole range of benefits.
Numerous resistances or barriers to innovation have been highlighted, but many of these are perceptual, and with effective strategies, support and the right culture in place, many others can be overcome. There is significant room for manoeuvre within existing frameworks and policies to find space for innovation. By supporting teaching staff to act as innovators, a range of skills and abilities are modelled to learners. Driving innovation also requires more imaginative use of resources, including the skills and abilities of learners, wider networks and innovators in other fields. A range of tools and techniques also exist that can help foster creative thinking, problem solving and innovative practices. Emerging digital technologies present new opportunities and social practices that can lead to more diverse and dynamic learning experiences by harnessing the potential of a networked society. A broader culture of innovation must be established, so that practice and skills can be shared and suited to local contexts and needs, and so that the networks and hubs of innovation can emerge to help disseminate and diffuse practice.
A more open approach to the development, sharing and refinement of materials and resources also needs to develop, as this is more likely to encourage a set of localised solutions to educational challenges suited to particular contexts. Innovation can be challenging and hard work, yet the rewards are plentiful. To innovate requires willingness to try new approaches, and this can lead to 'failures', but if innovation is seen as an iterative and ongoing process rather than a one-off activity, much can be learnt and shared from these setbacks. Read more about being innovative in our 2009 literature review (http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/literature-reviews/Literature-Review1398)
We hope you enjoy using Education Eye.
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Access to and use of this site is provided by Futurelab Education (Futurelab) subject to the following terms:
Using Education Eye means you are bound by these terms of use. Please don't use the website or its contents if you don't agree to this.
Futurelab may change these terms at any time by posting changes online. Please check back regularly for updates.
The content and images (logos etc) provided on this site/linked to on/from this site are often not the property of Futurelab and are subject to their own licensing arrangements. Please read all licenses and respect and adhere to their policies.
Disclaimers and limitation of liability
The content on this website, including the information, names, images, pictures, sound files, logos, icons, links to third party sites is provided ìAS ISî and on an ìIS AVAILABLEî basis without any representations or any kind of warranty made (whether express or implied by law) to the extent permitted by law, including the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.
Under no circumstances will Futurelab Education be liable for any of the following losses or damage (whether such losses where foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise): (a) loss of data; (b) loss of revenue or anticipated profits; (c) loss of business; (d) loss of opportunity; (e) loss of goodwill or injury to reputation; (f) losses suffered by third parties; or (g) any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of Education Eye resources regardless of the form of action.
Futurelab Education provides no warranty that functions and features contained in this website content or links or suggested material provided on the website will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the web servers that make it available are free of viruses or bugs.
Privacy policy
Futurelab is committed to maintaining your personal information in a manner which meets the requirements of the Data Protection Act (1998), and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data is kept secure against unauthorised access, loss, disclosure or destruction. We may keep data on the usage of Education Eye and Education Eyelet to understand how it is being used in order to help improve the product and services that Futurelab provides. We may also contact you to enquire about usage and to gain feedback. If you would rather not be contact, please get in touch at info@educationeye.org.uk. In order to respect your privacy, we manage personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act's eight 'Data Protection Principles', namely:
Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully.
Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.
Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.
Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data
The data will not be disclosed to external organisations other than those acting as agents for Futurelab in accordance with our normal activities.
We may notify you of other services offered by Futurelab. If you prefer not to receive such details, or if you do not wish your Personal Data to be processed in the manner outlined above, please make this clear by sending an appropriately worded message to Futurelab at webmaster@futurelab.org.uk.
Credits
We are very grateful to the wide range of content providers who have made their innovations available for re-use on the Education Eye. Most of the content used on this website is from third party content providers and is all used with permission and is clearly credited and linked through to the original source. If you think your content has been used on this site and is not credited, or are not happy about your content being used, please contact us at info@educationeye.org.uk.
Accessibility statement
We have made every effort to ensure that the design of this website conforms to web standards for both usability and accessibility. Our aim is to provide equivalent access to the information on this website for all users.
However, we welcome any comments, suggestions or feedback you have for us, please feel free to contact us at: info@educationeye.org.uk
The following tips should help you make the most of the Education Eye whatever assistive technology you use.
Keyboard access tips
We have endeavoured to make Education Eye navigable using the keyboard. This can be done using the tab, shift+tab, and keys
The tab, shift+tab or arrow keys can be used to jump between elements or items on the page.
Space or Enter are used to activate or open an item or element.
Screen reader tips
The site has been tested primarily with Jaws for Windows, so we’re afraid we can’t guarantee the site will work as well with other screen readers.
We recommend you enable the invisible cursor in Jaws. The invisible cursor has to be reactivated whenever you go back into the Education eye site.
You will find these Jaws commands useful when navigating the site:
Jaws Quick Key of G jumps you from graphic to graphic. On this site each search result is classified as a graphic so you can quickly navigate through them using this method.
Jaws Quick Key of E jumps you to the search box, or another edit box if you are not on the main search page.
Link List (Insert + F7) – this will bring up a list of all items on the page (for example all search results)
Jaws command Start Skim reading (CTRL+INSERT+DOWN ARROW) will help give an overview of a page (for instance what search results are being displayed)
Screen magnifier tips
Users of screen magnifiers should be aware that results of a search on Education eye are not displayed in a linear manner. Instead, the most relevant items are shown larger and nearer the centre of the screen, with less relevant items appearing further away and around these (and therefore smaller).
Text resizing
This can be done using the plus '+' and minus '-' buttons on your keyboard. Coming soon will be a clickable icon on screen to resize text.
Access keys
Coming soon.
Thanks! We hope you enjoy the Eye.
The Education Eye development team.