"Encylodictionalmanacapedia"

I have a wonderful new blog widget embedded in this blog, as well as my other blogs, called Answer Tips. I'm pretty thrilled with it, and it's given me some neat ideas for implementing it in a corporate environment.

First, a little exercise. Pick a non-hyperlinked word in this blog (ANY WORD) and double-click it. A little pop-up window should appear with the definition of that word. If the word is near a recognizable phrase, the phrase itself will be defined.

Now, think of the implications for learning. Humor me, and imagine you don't have a firewall and your students can always access the magical world of the Internet. Picture Answer Tips embedded in an elearning course, internal or external web site, or group wiki. It's an effective, just-in-time delivery of learning, right there at your user's fingertips - meaningful, memorable, and relevant.

It gets better. Answer Tips is a widget provided by the free service, Answers.com. Answers.com allows you to integrate their tool into your desktop, so much so that the pop-ups are even available when you read your email. It's all free. Even more importantly, they are using licensed content from brand-name information providers. The academic in me loves that they give you the tools to offically cite each piece of information you find in APA or MLA format.

Downsides? Well, I haven't yet installed the desktop tool, so I haven't yet read the license agreement. I don't know how much of your life they may - or may not - be paying attention to. In theory, they should be tracking what information is referenced in order to bulk up the most popular areas. In theory, they are also doing this with anonymous user data, which is good.

Other downside? You're stuck with Answers.com. I couldn't find anyplace on their web site where they mentioned internal customizations. If you're a healthcare company, for example, with specific and difficult terms and phrases, wouldn't it be wonderful to build your own customized content and have that information pop up for your employees? Just in time learning, when and where they need it.

Overall, Answer Tips and Answers.com is a nifty, free toolset. Spread the word. A tool like this has great potential, but we have to use it!

Technorati Tags: Answer Tips, blog widgets, Answers.com, Web 2.0