Electricity 101: The Top Online Resources

Developing the technology to harness electricity and use it to power machines has been one of humanity’s greatest achievements, and as our dependence on it has increased, the importance of efficiently generating, storing, and distributing power has grown. Understanding the basics of how electricity behaves is crucial for electrical engineers who are working on modern technologies such as smart grid systems and new energy storage techniques. People other than electrical engineers need to have a good level of “electricity literacy” as well, and it can be difficult to find easily understood information on the more complex issues surrounding electricity and energy. The list below is a compilation of some of the best websites and online resources for learning about electricity, from the history of electrical technology to the modern industry of power generation, storage, and distribution. The sites aren’t listed in ranking order, as many of them cater to different audiences and offer different levels of information about the fascinating and increasingly important topic of electricity.

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99 Superb Sites on Mechatronics & Robotics Engineering

Mechatronics is an exciting, interdisciplinary field that combines electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, materials, robotics, and control systems. This is a great field for technically minded engineers who enjoy working on software, hardware, and everything in between.

Mechatronics has applications in manufacturing, aeronautics, and any other industry that relies on automation. It is not only intellectually stimulating, but offers a wide array of job opportunities in academic and industrial settings. Anyone with an engineering mindset and a broad set of interests could find endless rewarding challenges in the field of mechatronics, and as robotics continue to gain popularity in manufacturing, military, and even home-use applications, there will be no shortage of jobs in the industry. There are sites here that cater to advanced mechatronics students and professionals, as well as those just starting out. This is not a ranking list, since the info presented covers such diverse territory across the disciplines of mechatronics, robotics, haptics, and electrical engineering overall.

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100 Top Resources for Electrical Engineers

Electrical engineering is a highly technical pursuit that sits at the nexus of software and hardware development. Electrical engineers can design components and electronic systems for industrial machinery and consumer gadgets, and will often work in collaboration with manufacturers and designers to bring new electronic devices to market. There is also a huge hobbyist community of amateurs and professionals who advocate do-it-yourself electronics projects as a great way to learn about the inner workings of many of the household machines that people use every day. Electrical engineering can be quite technically challenging and requires a great deal of mathematics and physics knowledge, but the financial and personal rewards for succeeding in this field are great.

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Innovate My School

Innovate My School is a community-driven website that keeps teachers informed about the latest ideas and trends in education. From exciting new products and services to alternative teaching and learning practices, Innovate My School empowers teachers to think beyond traditional boundaries, lead proactively and, most importantly, feel inspired.

Read latest inspiration articles - packed full of fresh ideas, innovative practices and personal insights from teachers and industry experts around the world.

Browse comprehensive online marketplace to discover, compare and get quotes for all the newest educational products and services.

Keep up to date with all the buzz surrounding new trends, disruptive products and case studies, from startups and leading brands, by following the innovation news page.

Book a FREE innovation speed date to bring the the latest edtech innovations to your next meeting!

Download free teaching resources, covering a range of key topics, produced by teachers and suppliers from around the web.

Read and subscribe to the free digital magazine for a range of exclusive articles designed to inspire, challenge and excite anyone that works in a school.

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eLearning Papers

eLearning Papers adds a new dimension to the exchange of information on open education, OER and ICT in education in Europe and stimulates research. As such, the articles provide views regarding the current situation and trends in different communities: schools, universities, companies, civil society and institutions. Through these articles, the journal promotes the use of Open Educational Resources and new technologies for lifelong learning in Europe.

eLearning Papers issues include an editorial article, plus articles, interviews and/or reviews, and are usually published four or five times a year.

The texts published in this journal, unless otherwise indicated, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 3.0 Unported License. They may be copied, distributed and broadcast provided that the author and the e-journal that publishes them, eLearning Papers, are properly quoted. Commercial use and derivative works are not allowed.

eLearning Papers is a digital publication created as part of the Open Education Europa portal. The portal is an initiative of the European Commission to promote the use of Open Educational Resources and new technologies in education and training.

It is one of the most visited online journals on Open Education which fosters stimulating research and practices in Education, Innovation and Technology.

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300 awesome free things: A massive list of free resources you should know

Resources are grouped under four broad categories.

Business + Marketing

Design + Code

Work & Productivity

Discover & Learn

Full list

Related item: 40 free resources every designer should know

McKinsey on Sustainability & Resource Productivity

In the coming decades, demand for resources
is set to continue to rise precipitously even as
supply constraints multiply, posing challenges
for economic growth, the environment, and
social well-being. Yet many of these challenges
could be overcome if organizations were to
adopt existing technologies and approaches—and
invest in developing new ones—that improve
resource productivity and increase sustainability.

In launching McKinsey on Sustainability &
Resource Productivity, our goal is to serve as
a catalyst for action, presenting insights and
approaches that organizations can use to seize
the opportunity to transform how they manage
resources and drive sustainable growth.

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Science as a service

What happens when you apply software-as-a-service principles to science?

Software as a service (SaaS) is one of the great innovations of Web 2.0. SaaS enables flexibility and customized solutions. It reduces costs — the cost of entry, the cost of overhead, and as a result, the cost of experimentation. In doing so, it’s been instrumental in spurring innovation.

So, what if you were to apply the principles of SaaS to science? Perhaps we can facilitate scientific progress by streamlining the process. Science as a service (SciAAS?) will enable researchers to save time and money without compromising quality. Making specialized resources and institutional expertise available for hire gives researchers more flexibility. Core facilities that own equipment can rent it out during down time, helping to reduce their own costs. The promise of science as a service is a future in which research is more efficient, creative, and collaborative.

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Converting Text to Speech – Free Resources for Powering Learning with Audio

The power of audio in e-learning is undisputed. Studies have proven that the inclusion of multimedia – including audio– increases the adoption of basic skills in learners by 21 percentile and of higher order skills by 20 percentile (Source: Multimodal Learning Through Media– What Research Says). With the advent of mobile learning and its popularity, audio continues to be one of the most sought-after tools for making learning effective. Audio is used as an able accompaniment with text, or even as a stand-alone module, delivering just-in-time learning to the learner.

Text-to-speech converters have been available for the past few years, and they have evolved tremendously to keep up with the demands of the latest technology and emerging platforms of learning delivery. Here is a useful resource, listing text-to-speech resources that will help you introduce audio-element into learning. From reading out webpages to converting Word documents into audio files (in multiple language choices) to even creating instant voiceovers for your presentations – these tools can do it all!

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50 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

If you're reading this post, it means you somehow survived the Mayan apocalypse. We offer you our sincerest congratulations.

Just so you know, a lot has happened while you were hiding out down in that bomb shelter. If you're looking to get back up to speed, you've come to the right place.

While you were hiding, we at Mashable spent the past week checking out the newest and neatest in the tech world. As a courtesy, we've rounded all our most usable posts up for you.

The list that follows includes not only the latest gadgets and apps, but also spans social media updates, online business advice and digital resources for your everyday life. For everything you need and a some more cool stuff too, read on.

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Top 10 Ways to Embed Video into a Web Page

Since digital camcorders and video editing software became accessible to the large audience, it's no longer a challenge for anybody to make a video. This fact underlies a lot of web trends, namely the sky-rocketing popularity of video sharing portals and widespread use of video content across websites and blogs. A good piece of video can help you deliver your message more effectively, educate readers, stimulate discussion and get your brand going far beyond your own domain. Happily, it's not a problem nowadays to integrate a video into a web page, as there's a lot of different tools to assist with this task. Some of them are free, others are pricey. Here is a roundup of the most popular means of web video embedment.

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50 Useful and Free Web UI, Mobile UI and Wireframe Kits

Here we are featuring 50 useful, free and spanking new Web UI and wireframes resources that you will definitely love. Web designers always require some fundamental user interface elements to produce a model of user interface either of a website or software. For that, they require wireframing and UI design kits which help them to replicate the user interface.

In this round-up, we have collected some web and mobile user interface kits which are practical in creating low-fidelity illustrations for your projects. We hope you will like this compilation. Enjoy! Feel free to share your opinion with us.

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Really Useful Resources and Tools for Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design has been a trending topic for a little while now, plenty of tools have been developed around this technique to help designers and users to get the most out of their mobile and tablet browsers. Even if responsive design is not limited to small devices, most of the resources published today target the mobile and tablet world and try to provide easy ways to build beautiful and flexible websites. When dealing with responsive design, the first thing most designers think about is media-queries.

In this article, we will go far beyond the media queries, and showcase a list of pretty useful tools and resources everybody could use to improve the display of their website for mobile, tablet, and of course desktop browsers.

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50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Writers and Writing Majors

With the popularity of blogging and online journals, writers working in the online realm have a growing number of opportunities all the time to practice and refine their craft, and maybe even get paid for it. And if you're a writing major, why not take advantage of all the opportunities to get great free and open source resources that can help you to write, edit and organize your work? Here's a list of fifty open source tools that you can use to make your writing even better. Read the full post for the resources list

Online Resources for Businesses

The Internet is full of resources that can help you grow your business, find new customers and learn new sales techniques, but it can be difficult to find them. Where do you look for top quality business resources online and how do you avoid the junk?

While you can find plenty of business resources online, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are a lot of useless websites out there claiming to be resources, but they are more a waste of your time than anything else. However, you will find that there are a number of excellent websites that can help you with your small business.

If you know where to look, the number of resources available to you is impressive. Finding them is the tough part, so here are some of the best choices for those running their own business.

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