The Digital Research Tools (DiRT) Wiki

The range of digital resources for instructional use is pretty wide ranging (and constantly changing). Web 2.0 tools emerge quickly and sometimes disappear just as quickly. That’s why it’s always helpful to have a single source to determine what’s available…especially when you share a common interest and point of view (e.g., education). Lisa Spiro of Rice University and her wiki colleagues collect and share information about tools and resources that are useful for educators and scholars. Her project, the Digital Research Tools Wiki (DiRT) can be viewed at http://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com and includes “a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which we not only describe the tool's features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers.”

Browse a little and you’ll find tools that enable you to do everything from “Analyze Statistics” to “Visualize Data” plus many functions in between. Some of the categories of tools covered include those for blogging, creating mashups, editing images, making a screencast, managing bibliographic information, sharing bookmarks, converting files and much more.