Phil Bradley trawls the net for answers to readers’ queries.
Q I read somewhere that there’s a site that allows students to comment on their school teachers, but I was unable to find it. Does such a site exist?
A I’m guessing that the site that you’re referring to is the ‘Rate my teachers’ site (http://uk.ratemyteachers.com/). It lists more than 1.5m teachers and more than 10m ratings. Marks out of 5 are available in a number of different categories such as helpfulness and clarity. Ratings are reviewed to ensure that they’re not offensive, and teachers (and indeed parents) can become involved.
According to the site, about 60 per cent of the ratings are positive, so cynics who think it’s just an opportunity for children to ‘get even’ with their teachers aren’t quite right.
Q I was given a webcam recently. Rather than just leave it in the box I was wondering what exactly I could use it for. Any ideas?
A Webcams are becoming smaller and sharper these days; if your experience of them dates back a few years, you might want to dip your toe in the water again. I did some digging and found a useful article – ‘Do more with your webcam’ from the Lifehacker website (http://tinyurl.com/4sy9dy). They suggest a large number of things such as turning the webcam into a photo-booth, documenting parties, setting up a bird-feeder webcam and so on.
Q Any good new search engines that I need to know about?
A Oh, there are always new search engines! I spend most of my time trying to keep up with them. Here are a couple of quick suggestions. Try Addictomatic which, according to the site, ‘searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It’s the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what’s up, what’s now or what other people are searching’. Alternatively, try Stumpedia (www.stumpedia.com/), which uses human searchers to get you responses, free of charge. I tried it out a few times myself and have considerable doubts about its value, based on the accuracy of the responses I got.
Site of the Month
I was at a conference recently and someone suggested a site for my Site of the Month (if you have your own candidates, do please let me have them – I don’t promise that I’ll use them but I’ll certainly look at them). It is called A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit down (www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/) and it’s a fun, chatty and silly site that is vaguely about eating biscuits and drinking tea.
Phil Bradley is an internet consultant, trainer, web designer and author. Visit www.philb.com for free information on internet introductions, search engine articles, web design tips and a host of other free information. Phil’s How to use Web 2.0 in your library (Facet) provides ideas and suggestions on providing new services for users. Email any questions about the internet to philb@philb.com (subject line: ‘column query’).
Updated: 07 July 2008