Standard+4+Test+Page

[|Mashups] From the Website:

What is a mashup?
A web mashup is a web page or application that combines data from two or more external online sources. The external sources are typically other web sites and their data may be obtained by the mashup developer in various ways including, but not limited to: APIs, XML feeds, and screen-scraping. Because mashups are often built using APIs (see below), this site gives you a variety of ways to view the relationship between a mashup and any supporting APIs used to create that application. You can find out more about mashups at [|Wikipedia], [|this video from ZDNet's David Berlind] and [|Mashup Camp]. [|top] 

What is an API?
An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of functions that one computer program makes available to other programs so they can talk to it directly. There are many types of APIs: operating system APIs, application APIs, toolkit APIs and now web site APIs. The classic example is a computer operating system like Microsoft Windows with hundreds of APIs providing services from accessing your hard drive to drawing on the screen. These opeating system APIs then are used by desktop applications like spreadsheets and word processors. Today, APIs can be specified by web sites. Thus amazon.com provides a set of 'retail APIs' that allow developers to create computer programs that make use of Amazon's sophisticated online retail infrastructure. Third party software developers have used this to create specialized storefronts. APIs from eBay facilitate program-to-program auction management, Google's APIs provide search and mapping services, and so on.

This can be used for all types of school projects. For science related work, I could see this being used for creating maps of the elephant population in Africa or tornado pathways through the Midwest United States, or about six trillion other uses.

I could also see this being used artistically, either for personal growth or for assignments. This tool would appeal to music fans and visual learners and touches on several skills, but I see it most relating to 4.1.8: Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.