Web Sighting: Discover joy in learning
Instagrok.com is a research website that can help expand your knowledge base at any age. Credit: Handout
The creators of instagrok.com say their mission is to help everyone discover the joy of learning and empower them to be lifelong knowledge sponges. To that end, they use innovative, interactive technology to let users research anything.
Simply type a topic into the site's search window. This produces a graph of your original term, plus words directly related to it. Clicking on related concepts redefines the graph and updates all of the other results, which include key facts, educational websites, videos, images and quiz questions related to the topic. A difficulty slide control at the top of the page allows you to customize the complexity of the results, from easier to more advanced levels.
Next to key facts, websites, videos or pictures are pushpin icons. Click on them to "pin" items to the graph, or click on the garbage can icons to remove items from your results. You can also add your own notes to the graph. Pinned items and annotations are added to your journal, which (once you register for free) is automatically saved. Your search history is also saved, so you can return to past searches and the graph or journal that corresponds to them.
If you get stuck, results also include a glossary of the topic's important terms and quizzes to challenge you and reinforce what you've learned.
SITE instagrok.com
DESCRIPTION A research site to expand your knowledge
TARGET AUDIENCE Youngsters to oldsters
BOTTOM LINE A place to expand your horizons and brain
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