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Displaying the GMS hat, top and left menu bars

Many times we find ourselves wanting to look up a phone number in the NUS directory or to retrieve some document from the Internet via a search engine such as Google. If the URL is frequently used then we will accurately remember it and enter it into the address box of our browser. If the URL is infrequently used, then we are more likely to type an incorrect URL into our browser.

Simple lookups are such a frequently occurring activity that we have implemented an alternative to remembering a URL and navigating your browser to the appropriate site: that of designing a "hat" that contains links to the major programs at GMS and an embedded search box that permits searches of the GMS directory, our GMS web resources and the world's web resources. By appearing on each web page, the hat brings these links to each page and short circuits energy expended navigating away from your current web page.

There are two purposes for the GMS hat:

  • to provide for quick lookups without leaving your current page
  • to extend your memory with the Internet Memory
Search engines are simple memory amplifiers. Combined with access to the world's Internet accessible resources, the search engine becomes an extension of our own memory. The main idea is that the availablity of Google + accessible Internet resources presents an opportunity to minimize the side effects associated with memory disuse atrophy - a well known property of the learning and forgetting process.

While most of us understand that learning requires repetition, many of us fail to grasp that forgetting is the result of disuse. If we can find a way to avoid having to learn infrequently used concepts and infrequently accessed information, then that energy is available for thinking and problem solving. Google + Internet offers an attractive alternative to memorizing infrequently used information. The hat brings this tool to each page you access. The hat is quietly displayed on the top of each of our pages (including this one).