Monthly eMagazine viewing figures from August 1st 2008

Note: A Learning provider will only appear as one viewer; in reality the identified IP Address may be one viewer or many!

The data below is cumulative, highlighting, from the initial tracking our viewers on 1st September 2007, their global distribution.

All the pictures and news shown on this eMagazine are the property of their respective owners.

• We don't hold any copyright about these pictures and news.
• These pictures have been collected from different public sources including different websites, considering to be in public domain.

If any one has any objection to displaying of any picture and news, it may be brought to our notice by sending an email to support@rsc-northwest.ac.uk & the same will be be removed immediately,after verification of the claim.

Links that have been included in previous eMagazines...

To visit the shared links go to http://www.only2clicks.com/pages/acljohn/ or use the live pages below...

For many Managers, Administrators, Practitioners and Learners, a flash drive is one of those accessories that stays with them at all times; why not use it to carry your favourite applications around, so that you always get to use the same programs with the same settings no matter where you are?

But which applications are you going to carry?

Of course, you need to decide, probably make a list and copy them one by one to your pen drive.

Or just visit this blog http://www.instantfundas.com/2009/01/5-free-portable-application-suites.html for some excellent ideas/alternatives.

Take a look at this...

Read the full article at http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/29/clock-for-geeks-1.html.

A very funny satirical look at training teachers. It's called Teacher Training (Done Right)

Go to http://smartboards.typepad.com/smartboard/2009/01/smart-boards-and-no-teacher-left-standing-teachers-college.html to view the full post.

A new permanent post listing online switch activities for learners with multiple or significant special needs.

The activities listed are chosen because...

• they can be used with switches,
• they are simple and
• they are enjoyable. 

The activities listed...

• are free and
• do not require downloads. 

Some activities may require set up by an assistant before switch use.  Although care has been taken not to include switch activities with any violence or graphic images teachers and others still need to check activities for age and general appropriateness before use.  

Read the full post at http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/2009/01/online-switch-activities-for-special.html. 

1. Apart from the fact that I've included Posterous in an earlier eMagazine (as a possible ePDP Portfolio), I've just experimented with it, with no particular aim apart from becoming familiar with it as an eLearning Tool.
2. Many of you have said that it is 'difficult to find the time' to read one eMagazine before the next comes out.

So, I'll try to use my posterous so that you can opt for a 'drip-feed' of eMagazine items, throughout the month.

Either subscribe to the RSS feed or visit http://acljohn.posterous.com/ for your daily update.

PS It started today when I posted Tuesdays finds (7th January 2009)

In so many ways, YouTube is the world's video portal. It is also, perhaps, the fastest growing website.

Sure, lots of it is seedy and inappropriate.  But so much of its content is legitimately important for education, for media and information fluency. 

The fact is, YouTube is blocked in many of our learning providers. 

• Practitioners spend a good deal of time trying to figure out how to get the videos they need to use into classrooms and libraries. 
• Learners who really do need to use YouTube videos in their presentations, face great frustration. 
• In organisations everywhere, and at homes at night, learners and practitioners are trying to figure out how to best capture video that is blocked to them during the working day.

This post provides a variety of strategies for treating the condition.

Read the post and discover possible solutions at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1410038141.html. 

Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations                              

An AbilityNet Workshop

Employers are required to have a process of workstation assessment for all employees who use computers. When this process identifies a problem, or the employee reports a difficulty, the employer must further assess the situation in order to recommend and implement any necessary changes. This course aims to help those involved in workstation assessments respond effectively to reports of a problem and develop suitable solutions.

"This course provided me with so many new ideas and also gave me more confidence in my ability to carry out assessments." Occupational Health Nurse

Dates coming up for this course are -

Friday 13^th February 2009 - BCS, London

Friday 24^th April 2009 - AbilityNet Warwick

For more information about the content of this course download Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations course information (PDF 491KB).

Using ICT to support people with Dyslexia

As we become more aware of how widespread dyslexia and other reading and writing problems are and how limiting their effects can be, there is a need for earlier identification and more effective remedial action. Computers are an extremely effective tool in making this possible. This course will equip delegates with information on software & hardware that helps those who have a reading & writing difficulty. At the end of the course, you will have a greater awareness and practical knowledge of how the computer can be used to help address reading and writing difficulties, such as Dyslexia.

"This is one of the most helpful courses of its type that I have ever attended. I would recommend it to colleagues!" Senior Lecturer, FE College

Monday 9^th February 2009 - AbilityNet, Warwick                                                                                         

Tuesday 21^st April 2009 - Manchester

For more information about this course download Using ICT to Support People with Dyslexia course information (PDF 477KB).

Introducing Accessibility in Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007

This course investigates how accessibility has been integrated within the new generation Operating system and Office Applications and is essential for anyone planning to purchase or rollout implementations of these products on 2008. This course will ensure that your planning will comply fully with the requirements of the DDA and health and safety legislation and well as maximising the free features of the system to reduce costs.

Tuesday 27^th January 2009 - Covent Garden, London

Friday 6^th March 2009 - AbilityNet, Warwick

For more information about this course download Introducing Accessibility in Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 course information (PDF 479KB).

To book a place on these courses please email courses@abilitynet.org.uk or call 01926 464095

East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham
Thursday 26 March 2009

The event is aimed at both practitioners and leaders from across the post-16 sector with an interest in e-learning, and is part of the E-Guides training programme. It is delivered by NIACE on behalf of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) as part of the Teaching and Learning Programme.

The event will feature an extensive range of workshops and speakers, providing an environment to network with other practitioners and professionals from all sectors of adult learning.

• Key speakers include Lord Tony Young and Jane Williams, Becta
• The workshop programme includes a choice of over 40 different workshops
• Breakfast chat - an exclusive networking opportunity
• Exhibition area
• ‘Tony Burgess E-Guide' Award
• Certificate of attendance - recording your learning during the event may provide evidence towards Continuing Professional Development

Participants can also choose to attend the evening before, which will commence with a three-course dinner, followed by ‘Dr Alan Clarke, NIACE in conversation with Prof. Gilly Salmon, University of Leicester' and includes accommodation with breakfast.

Registration is at 9:00am for a 10:00am start. The event will end at 4:45pm.

For further information, a full programme and to either download the application brochure or book online, see http://www.niace.org.uk/eguidesnatevent

Any enquiries or to receive the application brochure by post please email: e-guides@niace.org.uk or call Raksha on Tel: 0116 204 2811

You might be interested to know that JANET Training is due to run the following one day training courses at Peter House in Manchester:

Basic Networking
24^th February 2009
The main objective of this course is to provide delegates with a basic understanding of computer network technologies and concepts. It will begin with an overview of different network types and how these fit together within JANET. It then moves on to consider different network models and how they can be applied. The course will then look at some of the physical aspects of networks and the protocols that make it all work. Finally after a review of basic network applications, delegates will be lead through a very practical review of some of the key issues associated with campus networking. Throughout the course, delegates are given practical exercises and are shown demonstrations.
The full course outline is available at http://www.ja.net/services/training/courses/basicnetworking

IP Fundamentals
25^th February 2009

This course looks at the Internet Protocol in detail, from the basic principles of operation down to the actual data transmitted, with an emphasis on operation over Ethernet. It is presented in a way which should not deter those who are not from an over-technical background who should still gain useful information from the course.

The full course outline is available at http://www.ja.net/services/training/courses/IPfundamentals.html

Cost (per delegate per course, including VAT):

• Primary Connected Organisations: £180
• Interconnect Connected Sites: £200

Full details of these categories are available on our web site at http://www.ja.net/services/training/prices.html.

Payment can be made by credit card or organisations can be invoiced. Discounts are available through the JANET Training Credits Scheme see http://www.ja.net/services/training/trainingcredits.html for further details.

To book a place, simply follow the link on our web site at http://www.ja.net/services/training/schedule/by-date.html.

Further information on all courses and venues is available at www.ja.net/training

The NIACE Conferences and Courses team is taking bookings for the courses listed below. For more information about each course and to book your place, please visit the NIACE Website at:

http://www.niace.org.uk

NEW COURSE:

Improving Formative Assessment - a one- day course on developing strategies for building learner autonomy

Thursday 26 February 2009, London

Friday 27 February 2009, Birmingham

Monday 2^nd March 2009, Manchester

Thursday 12^th March 2009, Bristol

Screens and Pages: Technology and Reading for pleasure

Tuesday 10^th February 2009, Leicester

Saturday 28^th February 2009, Birmingham

Saturday 7th March 2009, Manchester

Tuesday 10^th March 2009, London

MORE DATES:

Readability: How to write so that everyone can read

Monday 23 February 2009, London (AM or PM Workshop)

Wednesday 25 February 2009, Birmingham (AM or PM Workshop)

Thursday 2 April 2009, Bristol (AM or PM Workshop)

Wednesday 22 April 2009, Manchester (AM or PM Workshop)

Mental Health: Introductory Awareness

Wednesday 4 February 2009, Derby

Online Learning Matters: Extending your organisation's learning provision

Tuesday 3 February 2009, Derby

Introduction to Foundation Learning Tier

Friday 6 February 2009, Birmingham

Monday 9 February 2009, London

Tuesday 10 February 2009, Newcastle

Application of Online Learning

Monday 2 February 2009 - Monday 11 May 2009 - Online course

Goal Setting and Action Planning with Individuals and Groups

Wednesday 4 February 2009, Leicester

Tuesday 24 February 2009, Bristol

Wednesday 11 March 2009, Manchester

Thursday 19 March 2009, London

Improving Teaching and Learning for Success using RARPA

Thursday 5 February 2009, London

Wednesday 25 February 2009, Manchester

Thursday 5 March 2009, Birmingham

Mental Health and Adult Learning and Skills: Policy and Practice

Wednesday 25 February 2009, London

Tuesday 3 March 2009, Birmingham

Tuesday 10 March 2009, Manchester

Tuesday 17 March 2009, Derby

How to use the Spelling Pack as a CPD Resource: a practical Workshop

Thursday 12 February 2009, London

Tuesday 24 February 2009, Manchester

Getting on Brilliantly 1 - Getting the best out of groups and Teams

Wednesday 11 March 2009, Sheffield

Getting on Brilliantly 2 - Getting the best out of Line Management

Thursday 12 March 2009, Sheffield

Demonstrating Impact for Quality using RARPA

Friday 13 March 2009, Manchester

Monday 16 March 2009, Birmingham

Friday 3 April 2009, London

Booking forms to be available on website shortly for:

Enhancing success and achievement for learners with mental health difficulties - training to support you and your organisation to work effectively with soft outcomes in learning for mental health and well-being

Wednesday 18 March 2009, London

Tuesday 7 April 09, Birmingham

Up-skilling Frontline Staff: training to identify and meet the needs of customers through effective interviewing techniques.

Thursday 2 April 2009, Birmingham

Tuesday 28 April 2009, London

NIACE hope their training courses will be of interest and they look forward to hearing from you.

Raksha Kanani
Events Administrator
NIACE, Conferences, Seminars and Training Course

Tel: 0116 285 9661
Fax: 0116 285 9670
mailto:courses@niace.org.uk

 

JISC is sponsoring an event aimed at developers in UK Higher Education that will take place in London on 9-13 February 2009.

The event will span 4 days and will consist of a pre-event day focussing on developing skills, followed by a 2 day coding session, and will conclude with a final day focussing on bringing developers into communities based around software platforms. Entry to the event is free.

Find out more at http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.org/.

FLOSSIE (Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS)) is the annual conference held by Schoolforge-UK to look at issues relating to free and open source software in the school sector. 

The next FLOSSIE is on the theme of "Sustainable ICT in Schools - Beyond the PC".

Venue: Birmingham on 12-13 February 2009. 

More details at http://www.schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/FLOSSIE_2009.  

To be held at...

The John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester
Wednesday, 1st April 2009,
9.30 - 16.30

Some comments from delegates attending this meeting in 2008:

"Fascinating insight into the world beyond Google " "One of the best workshops I've ever attended".. "A revelation! - enjoyed every minute"

Course Outline

With the major search engines claiming coverage of over 20 billion web pages in their databases, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate relevant information. Most of us head straight for Google when we want to search the Internet but Google is not the only search tool. This workshop looks at recent developments at Google and the alternatives, especially the new kids on the block and Web 2.0 'stuff'. Karen Blakeman will take you through the best of the search engine world and highlight how they can be used to significantly improve your results.

By the end of the day, participants will have a vital toolkit to help them search more effectively, including key search tools, comparisons, top tips and essential search techniques.

Topics to be covered include:

• different types of search tools and how they work
• making the most of Google and new features
• alternatives to Google
• advanced search techniques to help you track down the so-called "hidden web"
• image, audio, video and news
• blogs, RSS, wikis and Web 2.0 resources
• setting up your customised search engine
• tracking down pages that have disappeared

Delegates will have ample opportunity to test out advanced search techniques and to compare different search engines. A significant part of the day will be taken up with practical sessions; exercises will be provided but delegates are free to try out searches of their own. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. The techniques and approaches covered can be applied to all subject areas.

N.B. Places on this course are strictly limited because of access to PCs so please book early to avoid disappointment

Course Presenter: Karen Blakeman

Karen Blakeman has worked in the information profession for over twenty years and has been a freelance consultant since 1989. Her company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Karen writes for "Business Information Searcher". She also publishes a monthly, electronic newsletter called "Tales from the Terminal Room". Her publications include "Search Strategies for the Internet". She is a Fellow of CILIP and in 2002 received the Information World Review Information Professional of the Year award.

For more information or to book a place on this course, please visit www.ukeig.org.uk or email meetings@ukeig.org.uk

Costs (including lunch and refreshments):

• UKeiG members £160 + VAT (£188.00);
• others £190 + VAT (£223.25)

 

Please complete and return a booking form by 25th March 2009, to...

Christine Baker, Piglet Cottage, Redmire, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 4EH.

Tel & Fax 01969 625751. Email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk

 

 

Don't forget the UKeiG Conference 2009

UKeiG will be holding a residential forum that will provide opportunities for information and IT professionals to network, wine and dine in excellent social surroundings while catching up on the very latest developments in e-information.

Book now at www.ukeig.org.uk or by emailing conference@ukeig.org.uk to get your early bird discount!

UKeiG has the CILIP Seal of Recognition, which recognises high standards in the content and relevance of training courses. See http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/seal/ for details

UKeiG is a Special Interest Group of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE. Registered Charity No. 313014

To be held at...

The Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool,
1 Brownlow Street, Liverpool
Tuesday, 21st April 2009,
09.30 - 16.30

Course Outline

Find out how 2.0 applications are being used in libraries and information centres, and what actually works. Blogs, wikis, RSS? YouTube, podcasts, Slideshare? Flickr, Connotea, LibraryThing? Facebook, Second Life, Twitter? This workshop will look at the reality of 2.0: what is useful and what is destined for Gartner's 'Trough of Disillusionment', never to be seen again.

The workshop will start with a brief overview of Web 2.0 and what it means. It will then look in more detail at how 'stuff' can be used as sources of information, as a means of enhancing services to users, and raising the profile of information services.

The areas covered will include:

• Blogs, wikis, RSS feeds
• Shared authoring tools
• Start pages e.g. iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes
• Social bookmarking services
• Using YouTube and Flickr as information resources and to promote your group or organisation
• "Presentation" sites such as Slideshare and Authorstream
• Social networking sites e.g. Facebook
• To Twitter or not to Twitter

There will be a heavy practical element to the workshop so that participants can explore Web 2 and try out the technologies for themselves. There will be extensive notes and exercise sheets to guide participants through the day, and all the information and presentations will be available electronically.

Costs (including lunch and refreshments):

UKeiG members £160 + VAT (£188.00);
others £190 + VAT (£223.25)

Please complete and return a booking form by 15th April 2009, to...

Christine Baker, Piglet Cottage, Redmire, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 4EH.
Tel & Fax 01969 625751. Email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk

N.B. Places on this course are strictly limited because of access to PCs so please book early to avoid disappointment

Course Presenter: Karen Blakeman

Karen Blakeman has worked in the information profession for over twenty years and has been a freelance consultant since 1989. Her company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Karen writes for "Business Information Searcher". She also publishes a monthly, electronic newsletter called "Tales from the Terminal Room". Her publications include "Search Strategies for the Internet". She was recently made an Honorary Fellow of CILIP and in 2002 she received the Information World Review Information Professional of the Year award

Docstoc...the YouTube for documents.

In their own words...

"Docstoc provides the platform for users and businesses to upload and share their documents with all the world, and serves as a vast repository of documents in variety of categories including legal, business, financial, technology, educational, and creative. All documents on docstoc can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded for free."

I did a quick search

and was  suitably impressed with the results.

Previews of the documents were obtained by clicking the thumbnail image...

Take a closer look yourself at http://www.docstoc.com/.

Edmodo is an online microblogging system designed specifically for practitioners and learners.

• Using Edmodo practitioners can create a microblogging network for their classes.
• Edmodo allows practitioners to create a group specifically for their learners and exclude those not invited to the group.
• Edmodo provides practitioners with a place to...
  • post assignment reminders,
  • build an event calendar, and
  • post messages to the group.
• Users can share...
  • links,
  • videos, and
  • images.

Find out more for yourself at http://www.edmodo.com/ or watch a video at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P39rn3Fp-_A.
or the embedded version below...

We should all be encouraged to write down all those interesting things we do daily (a Reflective Journal), but who has time and it is not always secure.

Memiary has a solution to these problems. A web 2.0 online diary keeping tool that helps users remember what they did each day and allow them to return after days, weeks, months, years.

The idea and process of adding things to Memiary is really straight forward;  users are provided with a simple template and everyday they can add  5 interesting things that they did.

The site has quick registration process and a user friendly interface. Some of the features that make Memiary worth while looking at are...

• Easy tool for keeping a diary online.
• Record up to 5 interesting things each day; type and pressing enter.
• Add tags to your memories (Just put a # sign before any word and it will turn into a tag).
• Browse through Memiaries using...
  • dates,
  • time range or
  • tags.
• Keep thoughts secure with a password.
• Go back to any entry and edit it.

Take a look at http://memiary.com/.

Teampedia could be a good source of ice-breaker and "getting to know you" activities.

As I get older I find remembering peoples names increasingly difficult so one of the activities that I found on Teampedia, and plan to try when the opportunity arises, is Mnemonic Name Game which I'm hoping will help me to remember names.

Teampedia is a wiki of team building activities and as it is a wiki users can add their own suggestions.

Take a closer look at http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.

• No resources this month
  

A quick video to entertain you in your eBreak

If it doesn't play view it at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gugIfOSs1-8.

Lilian Soon from xlearn has come up with the creative idea of using MS Paint to make simple multiple choice quizzes for mobile phones which could be a useful technique for providing distance learning opportunities for learners.

The video clip, jpeg quiz on the phone, below shows the idea in action (or go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1524458075866693739&ei=XaFrSc3IKYjojgLY37zQAw&q=1524458075866693739)

 

 

and Creating quizzes for the phone video below runs through the process of generating a quiz (or go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2479360146328027324&ei=_qFrSdmTM5-QiQLPhvyqBQ&q=2479360146328027324)...

Why not get learners to create some of their own!

• Grammar Ninja - A Fun Grammar Game
• Know Your World
• Trig Spinner
  
• Also see Spelling Wizard in the Key Skills Section of Resources.
  

Grammar Ninja is a fun game for learners to play as they develop a working knowledge of the parts of speech.

Grammar Ninja has three levels for learners to work through.

As long as they answer questions correctly, they continue through the game, but answer incorrectly and the words explode.

Grammar Ninja is a part of the portfolio of developer Greg Lieberman

Play the game at http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html.

Maps of World <http://www.mapsofworld.com/> is a great resource for geography students and practitioners to take advantage of in order to improve their identification of the world’s many countries and cities. The site boasts having high quality maps of just about anywhere, but it was one of the games that caught my attention. The one that asks you to Know Your World. How hard could it be?

This game gives you 10 seconds to remember as many different countries and cities on a map as you can, then it takes away the text and leaves you with a bank map.

• The game prompts you with various locations,
• Users must locate them using their mouse (or an interactive white-board is even better. If you are anything like me, you’ll get to about round six before your brain gives up.

The game is a fun way to improve geography skills or for learners to study for an upcoming assessment.

Try it out at http://www.mapsofworld.com/games/exploreworld/.

Greg Lieberman has developed a trigonometry game designed to help students learn the 16 most important angles in the sine, cosine, and tangent functions.

Try it out at http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/trigspinner.html.

 

 

• Blind Speak
• Mrs Riley It's In the Cards
• Sign-Tube
  

BlindSpeak is a new text to voice email application that lets you convert entered text into speech and then forward it to any email address.

The recipient will get...

• an MP3 file and
• a link to the Flash player.

Currently users can send 5 messages a day.  All created messages will be hosted on BlindSpeak for 30 day period and then deleted.

Try it out at http://beta.blindspeak.com/.

Note: if you send it to yourself, you can then forward it to as many people as you want!

Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards is a communication card/board building application that is totally online. It combines photo symbols, picture symbols and text symbols in grid layouts of various sizes and configurations.

Currently Mrs. Riley's It's In the Cards is in free public beta.

• Users can try it without registering, but will need to register to save or print.
• It has a very intuitive, easy interface for communication board software. It beats similar software hands down as far as simplicity is concerned.
• It is felt that, once out of free public beta, if this site keeps the price down there may be an awful lot of professionals, teachers, and parents who will subscribe.

"Mrs. Riley was created so AAC professionals, teachers, and parents could collaboratively make educational materials, starting with picture cards. If you've ever made a picture card with a custom image yourself, you know that it can be tedious. We understand and after going through it ourselves for so long, we decided to wrap the entire process into a single online application with these goals:

• Easier - Designed to make simple tasks simple.
• Faster - Sharing is built right in so it's often a matter of search and print.
• Cheaper - During the Public Beta, it's free, and once that's over subscriptions will be very affordable.

We also built Mrs. Riley to tap into people's work automatically. For instance, as you find images for cards, we make them accessable to all users. When you save a page, each of the cards on the page become individually searchable, and a deck of cards is created from the page. So as more people use Mrs. Riley, there is more to search through and work with, which saves everyone time."

Try it out for free and/or register at http://www.mrsriley.com/home.

Sign-tube.com team is a group of deaf people who created this site allowing deaf people or those who wishes or involved in Sign Language or in the deaf community to share the news, information, events and even fun with people across the world.

Sign-tube.com...

• is funded by a company called Deaf Enterprise Partnership which is based in United Kingdom.
• was set up because there are too many clusters sites across internet world that consists of sign language but not being accessible.

Since the launch on 3rd March 2008, over 1 million hits had been made in the space of 12 weeks!

Could this excellent website be used by...

• learners to...
  • produce video evidence of current skills
• practitioners to...
  • produce 'just-in-time' resources for their learners
  • set tasks for their learners
  • provide martini support, tutorials etc.

I'm sure there are many other educational uses.

Take a closer look by visiting http://www.sign-tube.com/. 

Participants on CEL’s 2008-09 leadership of elearning programmes will be able to take advantage of a capital grant scheme for buying information and learning technology (ILT) equipment. The scheme, funded by the Learning and Skills Council, entitles LSC-funded organisations to claim a £2,500 capital grant for each staff member who has completed one of CEL’s elearning leadership programmes, up to a maximum of £7,500 per organisation.

Read and find out more at http://www.centreforexcellence.org.uk/?Page=nomenuReadProgNews&id=597.

1) If you would like take part in Realise...

...you should be able to attend one of the module 1 days listed below:

• Tuesday 24 February 2009 - London

Commitment to undertake this programme will be about two days.

To participate in Realise, a member of the organisation’s leadership team who has a strategic responsibility for ILT development will attend a one-off training event to fulfil the requirements of module 1. Details on how to complete module 2 will be given during the training event. The time commitment to undertake this programme will be about two days.

More details at http://www.centreforexcellence.org.uk/Default.aspx?Page=Programmes&id=4E9870B8-7257-49E2-8A57-AF1CC8E0CED6&status=Live.

•  Higher education team dismays MPs

MPs have said the 18-month-old Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills "has not yet found its feet" and may take decades to make an impact.

A select committee said its annual report showed signs of relying on jargon as a substitute for having a clear idea where it was going.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7838499.stm. 

During January users of Intute: Health and LIfe Sciences will have noticed a change in the presentation of subject headings on the Home Page. 

The Bioresearch and Natural History headings have, since Tuesday 13th January 2009, been combined into a single new heading: Biological Sciences.  The content of the two subgateways has been combined and is cross searchable, but the browse structure will remain basically unchanged, though with a few minor modifications.  These changes have been informed by user feedback and an Advisory Group of experts in the subject area. 

The content of the Biological Sciences area has also been improved by the addition of hundreds of new resources.

The changes took place on Tuesday 13th January 2009 and the new URL for Biological Sciences is:
http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/biologicalsciences/.

Open Letter...

Dear Colleagues

We are seeking suitably qualified people to take part in the evaluation process for this JISC Collections project.

The Digital Images for Education Project comprises three separate tenders to supply still and moving images for the long-term use by the UK education community (schools, Further Education, and Higher Education).

The three tenders are:

1. Still images from commercial agencies (funding of up to £0.75m)
2. Moving images from commercial agencies (funding of up to £1m)
3. Still and moving images from institutions (the academic sector and publicly-funded institutions with a goal of life-long learning) (funding of up to £?)

The criteria for selection of images are slightly different between calls (1) and (2), and call (3).

We are seeking suitably qualified assessors to carry out the first and second evaluation stages. Evaluators should have good knowledge and experience of multimedia use in the following sectors:

• UK secondary schools
• UK Further Education
• UK Higher Education

Evaluators will receive expenses from JISC Collections for travel to the workshop.

First evaluation
The first evaluation session will be done remotely, without a face-to-face meeting. Evaluators will be emailed bids, and we anticipate that you should spend around 20 minutes per tender submitted. We anticipate receiving up to 130 bids, which would take up to 45 hours, so we expect most evaluators will only read a small proportion of the total bids.
Following your check, there will be a conference meeting on March 2 between 2pm and 5pm where any issues can be discussed and resolved.

The first evaluation stage is intended to remove all bids that do not comply with the project terms. Each evaluator will be expected to follow a checklist for compliance that we will provide; for example:

• Are the images offered on a perpetual or long-term (>25 years) licence?
• Have major changes been introduced to the model licence?

Any bid that does not comply with these terms will be eliminated at the first evaluation.

We would also like you to comment on the quality of content received. The goal of this session is to eliminate the non-compliers, and to provide a simple comparison tool for the second evaluation stage. The second stage takes place in a single day, and no provision has been made for extending the second evaluation session beyond a day, so all the competing tenders must be ready for comparison on that day.
To this end, we will provide a scoring system.
The overall scoring system is as follows:

25% compliance with the JISC Collections Licence
25% value for money
25% quality of content, encodings and metadata
25% relevance of the digital film and images to the education community

Nearer the time we will provide more detailed criteria that enable these figures to be assessed more precisely.

Second evaluation
The second evaluation stage will be done on 13 March. All bids that remain will be discussed in a face-to-face meeting, to be held in London for the entire day (10:30 - 4:30). A sandwich lunch will be provided.

Third evaluation
The JISC Collections team will review the results of the two evaluation sessions and will carry out any resolution required, for example if there is a disputed selection. No external evaluators will be involved in this stage.

Please let me know if you are interested in participating in the evaluation process for the first or the second evaluation.

Best wishes

Michael Upshall
Project Manager, Digital Images for Education
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/projects_and_reports/digi_ed
ConsultMU Ltd
Phone 01865 453410

• Adult literacy report comes under fierce attack
• Cash-strapped ministers freeze university expansion
• Colleges welcome new leaving age plan
• 'Dismal picture' of adult literacy in UK
• Frozen building plans puts colleges at risk
• Have the wheels come off the vehicle of research?
• Lack of education for prisoners serving longer sentences
• Local council's apprentice scheme is bucking the recession
• Municipal room for improvement
• Older people's education 'neglected'
• On-the-job training too complicated for employers and wastes money, say MPs
  

Chair of education select committee labels survey 'superficial and disgraceful' - article by Polly Curtis

The chair of a powerful education select committee in the Commons has launched a scathing attack on his counterpart on the Public Accounts Committee, accusing him of producing a "superficial and disgraceful" report on adult skills that threatened to bring the whole system of parliamentary scrutiny into disrepute.

Barry Sheerman, the Labour chair of the children, schools and family select committee said the PAC's Skills for Life report, published yesterday, was the "thinnest" piece of research he had ever seen.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/30/sheerman-leigh-literacy. 

To read the report go to http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/154/154.pdf. 

Cap placed on student numbers for next two years - article by Anthea Lipsett

Universities that recruit too many students in the next two academic years will face severe penalties, ministers warned today.The crackdown on recruitment quotas is an admission that the government cannot afford to pay the financial support – such as loans and grants – it has promised to students, after the numbers applying rose higher than predicted this year.

Rather than look to universities to take in more young people as unemployment mounts, cash-strapped ministers are freezing any expansion and abandoning any lingering chance of reaching their target of 50% of young people entering higher education.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/22/university-recruitment-cap. 

 

Further education leaders happy to take on teenagers from school but some still wary about funding and lecturers' pay - Article by Peter Kingston

Colleges would cautiously welcome an immediate raising of the school leaving age to 18 - although fitting all the extra students in could be tricky at first, further education principals said today.

Further education colleges rather than school sixth forms will probably take most of the strain if the government brings forward its plans to lift the leaving age, because the bulk of young people affected are likely to have outgrown school and a squeeze on apprenticeship opportunities is anticipated.

More money and better advice for 16-year-olds about their options are urgently needed if the change is hurried through, according to the Association of Colleges (AoC).

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/05/leaving-age-college-reaction. 

Despite Labour's £5bn programme, numbers are unacceptably high, says watchdog - article by Peter Kingston

The number of adults unable to read or count remains unacceptably high in England despite £5bn spent by Labour trying to improve the situation, according to an influential parliamentary spending watchdog.

Even if the government, which has made greater efforts than previous administrations to tackle this problem, hits its targets, the country's basic skills will still not match the best in the world, concludes the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Progress on numeracy has been particularly disappointing. The government's Skills for Life programme has helped barely one in 10 people with maths skills below the level of a good GCSE.

Even among the captive prison population progress has been relatively slow, the committee notes. Only one in five offenders with an identified literacy or numeracy problem has enrolled on a basic skills course.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/29/literacy-numeracy-skills. 

"Blackburn, Bolton Community, and Oxford and Cherwell Valley colleges were among seven institutions that had been poised to get the final go-ahead from the LSC at its national council meeting on 17 December for major redevelopment works."

"A further 15 were identified by the Association of Colleges (AoC) as acutely affected by the quango's decision. But backing up behind them in the queue for final approval for building plans is a larger group of colleges."

The prime minister could not have expected to soothe everybody with his new year pledge to keep public building projects going during the economic crisis. But some college heads were surprised to hear his views. They had been told just before Christmas, without any warning, that their rebuilding plans were to be put on ice for three months. And this moratorium until March on funding decisions for capital projects, announced by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), could tip some of their institutions into serious financial difficulties, they say.

The LSC decision was made suddenly with no public statement. College principals were told individually. One describes it as the latest factor in a "a toxic mix" that could spell financial crisis for colleges.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/20/colleges-building-plans. 

 

Woolly findings promoted in the media undermine serious academic work, writes Anthea Lipsett

Academics that court the media are often disdained by their peers.

They are accused of neglecting proper research in favour of consorting with the media to get maximum publicity for their findings, however weak they may be.

Largely, complaints are unjustified – it's important that researchers explain their findings to the wider world. More often than not, moaning about media-friendly academics comes across as less media savvy scholars having a pop at their peers.

But more often than is ideal, woolly research finds its way into papers that undermines the value of all research and researchers.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2009/jan/05/bus-research-scrutiny. 

Inmates serving four years or more are missing out as training is geared towards those serving shorter sentences
- article by Peter Kingston.

Prison education is failing to meet the needs of people serving longer sentences, according to Ofsted.

While most jails are running training programmes for offenders detained for a year or less, the inspectorate has identified few if any with learning strategies for those inside for four years and more.

Programmes are designed around the average lengths of stay in particular institutions and do not suit prisoners who stay for longer or who move on to another jail, Ofsted finds.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/19/prison-education-longer-sentences. 

An apprenticeship scheme on Merseyside is assisting young people to work through the economic downturn, and beyond - article by Fay Wertheimer

In early 2008, Knowsley council introduced an internal apprentice programme to provide 23 council jobs for young people. In September, it looked to expand it to the private sector. Unwittingly pre-empting the government's proposals for 35,000 new apprenticeships, Knowsley launched its own £1.5m apprentice programme. It was financed by the government's new Work in Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) for deprived areas, and aims to develop a dynamic, well-qualified workforce for Knowsley's future.

Businesses were asked to set up apprenticeships for 100 unemployed 16- to 20-year-olds, and for those youngsters to be in work by the end of the year. Within a week, 33 companies in media, leisure, accountancy, construction and engineering had signed up - including Everton Football Club, Abbey Housing and GKB Accountants.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/28/young-people-merseyside-apprenticeship-scheme.

Holding adult classes in civic buildings such as museums is a great idea - but it isn't happening article by Peter Kingston

"Making promises you cannot keep is foolish, but is this what ministers seem to have done with their attempt to breathe life back into "informal" adult education by making more space available in public buildings such as libraries, museums, colleges and schools for day and evening classes?"

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/13/adult-classes. 

Vast majority of education budget spent on under 25s, despite growing elderly population, says new report

- article by Peter Kingston

Older people must be given more chances to learn if they are to contribute to society rather than be a financial burden, according to a new study on population published today.

The current approach which concentrates on younger people and on skills for employment is inadequate to meet the challenges of demographic change, it says. Only 1% of the education budget is currently spent on the oldest third of the population.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/20/furthereducation-longtermcare.

• MPs claim Leitch report now outdated
• Employers describe system as 'dog's breakfast'

Article by Peter Kingston and Jessica Shepherd

A powerful committee of MPs have today accused the government of spending millions of pounds on qualifications employers do not want and do not understand.

The current system of training is "impenetrable to everyone apart from possibly a few civil servants and a handful of academics", said MPs on the cross-party innovation, universities and skills select committee.

Qualifications alone will not lift the UK out of a recession or improve productivity and employers can no longer afford to subsidise workers to sit them, they argued.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/16/training-leitch-recession.

The Learning and Skills Network has introduced MoLeTV which will be targeted primarily to colleges in England, under the auspices of the Learning and Skills Council.

Use of this new digital media site enables registered users to upload media in most of the common formats - AVI, MP4, MP3, Windows Media and Quicktime. The uploaded media will convert to Adobe Flash Video, Windows Media, MP4 and 3GP and is available as a link or embed code which can be inserted into a VLE or web page. 'Uploaders' are able to edit and delete their content at any time.

 

What are the benefits of using this service?

 

• Promotion of curriculum content and sharing good practice
• media automatically 'streams'
• often a smaller file size
• video is converted to a variety of formats and is accessible to VLE's such as Moodle, websites, mobile devices and PDAs using the embed code and/or download links as appropriate.
• is curriculum relevant
• is primarily UK based resources
• is divided into Learning and Skills Council (LSC) categories
• saves uploading media to your college servers
• saves on back-up time for large files
• embeds as flash media and saves trouble with plug-ins for other formats cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Macintosh)
• helps stop staff uploading large AVI files to your server! (although only AVIs with specific codecs will convert)
• has RSS feeds
• will link to iTunes
• can upload podcasts and vodcasts

 

The website is now available at http://www.moletv.org.uk. Users can create an account on the site (login area) which will allow them to upload media.

 

For further information see the Help, Site Notes and Site Issues areas on the MoLeTV site.

 

Steve Butler

 

admin@moletv.org.uk
(MoLeTV is based on the 'OurTube' MoLeNET phase 1 project from The Manchester College)

• Add

• No articles this issue

• No articles this month
  

FiTES - I'm inviting you to Find, Try, Evaluate and Share.
You are the experts in your field of work, management, administration, practitioners etc., and you know what works for you! By sharing not only will you raise the awareness of your colleagues but you should also benefit from their submissions.

Share your resources by completing the form available at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6ZzsRcFe4Rh71c9ArHs2OQ&email=true. or use the embedded form below...

 

• No Suggestions this month - Editor (John Dalziel)
  

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Innovation Forum 2008 (JIF08) was held at Keele University on 15 and 16 July 2008. It brought together over 300 people representing more than 100 different organisations within JISC's portfolio of innovation projects and programmes to share their innovations and experiences with funders, JISC Services, innovation centres and each other. 

The report is now published and is available for download at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/innovationforum2008finalreport.aspx.

The January issue of the Spotlight science magazine is written for Intute by science writer David Bradley, Spotlight contains topical science articles and news features.

This issue has articles on...

• 3D computer visualization in astrophysics,
• nanodiamonds in North America, and
• biological fuel cells.

Find out more at http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/spotlight/.

• 4 Teachers
• CoolFlick
• Snitch.Name
  

A website for those involved with Initial Teacher Training and/or qualified practitioners.

4teachers has a wide range of tools that teachers can use to make their lives easier. Some tools have already been included in our eMagazine.

The Teacher Tacklebox will allow users to search the best of the resources found on 4teachers.org. You can input a subject, a theme, and a topic, and it will come up with lesson ideas.

Take a look at the many useful tools at http://www.4teachers.org/.

In their own words

“COOLIRIS + Flickr = The best way to search for images online.”

Any person who is looking for a more versatile Flickr experience will find this service appealing.

The never-ending array of pictures that make up Flickr is an exciting media collection, but the simple fact that the number of images can result in endless searches in pursuit of what users are looking for. If practitioners and/or learners are looking into ways of having access to these selfsame files in a straightforward fashion, then this new solution will most likely do the trick.

Essentially, CoolFlick combines together Flickr and Cooliris, the famed browser plugin that makes for slideshows of online images. The site lets you browse by tag.

Whenever users choose to take a closer look at a picture, they will also have access to the options that characterize Cooliris; like coppying the image to the clipboard as well as accessing the Cooliris search interface.

Try it out for yourself at http://www.coolflick.org/.

Snitch.name is a site which lets users search social network sites for a person by their first and last name in one single interface.

What snitch.name does is quite simple - instead of individuals having to go and search for someone separately on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or MySpace, it presents them with search results, from those sites, in separate blocks on one page.

The site searches and lets you find people, potential employees and/or learners etc., on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn, Hi5, Twitter Google, Wordpress.org blogs and video sites like Vimeo. Additionally users can also make it search academic sites like Oxford and Google Scholar.

Have a search yourself at http://snitch.name/.

Note: An ideal tool to raise learner awareness of how easy it is for potential employers to find out more than the learners may want them to!

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Art...

• An interactive Van Gogh activity
• Charlene Chua
• Draw Type
• Vincent's Gallery
  

...for touchscreen and interactive whiteboards.

Access the original at http://www.bewitched.com/m/night.html.

Looking for an example of how learners, or you, can use Web 2.0 'to raise an artist's profile'? then look no further...

Charlene Chua has embraced technology with...

• a website http://www.charlenechua.com/index.html;
• a blog http://blog.charlenechua.com/;
• a video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FY_X9RwXzs8. An Illustration demonstration of a space girl in Illustrator CS3. Speed rendered in about an hour.

...to my knowledge, and there may be more.

Draw Type could join the family of web-based resources that lets you articulate your feelings in a different manner - through drawing.

Any resource for letting off some frustration in a harmless way is commendable.

There are many ways to express your feelings on the web.

Draw Type provides a (very) basic drawing tool that allows users to put their thoughts on the screen straight away.
Users can set...

• the opacity and
• the stroke,

...but there is no option to add any text at all - instead, you have to do that manually, and draw the letters in question. Whether that could be described as "a bit of a pain", it can't be denied that the resulting drawings certainly have character of their own.

The site is completely free to use. Family learning could save alot of drawing paper with their younger learners (as could the parents/guardians/minders).

Try it out at http://www.drawtype.com/.

A resource where visitors will find...

• Van Gogh drawings,
• watercolours,
• graphic works,
• letter sketches, and
• Van Gogh's paintings.
• Discussions and critiques on Van Gogh's
  
  • Starry Night,
  • Sunflowers,
  • Irises and
  • The Potato Eaters are just a few of the many pieces which are covered on this site.

To search a list of his paintings by...

• name,
• date,
• current location or
• museum,

...visit the Catalogue of Work section.

On this site you will also find Vincent van Gogh's...

• biography,
• a timeline of his life,
• Van Gogh quotes,

...and much more.

What are you waiting for? Go to http://www.vangoghgallery.com/.

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Business Courses...

• No Resources this month but why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential,
  in our Over2U section
• But take a look at Gchart: World Time in the Key Skills Section
  • and Docstoc in the eAdministration Section

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Catering...

• No Resources this month but why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential,
  in our Over2U section
  

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Design...

• Font Picker
• Also see Charlene Chua in the Art Section
  and It's no Laughing Matter in the Media Section
  

Font Picker is a free online font comparison tool that shows users all text fonts that are installed on their computer. More importantly it helps users choose the most appropriate text font based on their requirements.

An excellent utility for designers and learners looking for an appropriate text font for projects or papers etc.

Easy to use...

• Simply start typing text in one of the edit boxes and all the other boxes will have the same text in corresponding fonts.
• There is also an option to add fonts to favorites by clicking on the tick mark on the right
• To delete a font from the list use the cross (X)

Try it out at http://richardsprojects.co.uk/products/font-picker/.

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Economics...

• No Resources this month but why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential,
  in our Over2U section

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Engineering...

• No Resources this month but why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential,
  in our Over2U section

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in English Language - Literature Teaching & Learning...

• Adolescent Literacy
• Quotes Daddy

• Also take a look at It's no Laughing Matter in the Media Section
  and Grammar Ninja - A Fun Grammar Game in the eGame Section
  

AdLit is a website that is all about adolescent literature.

Within AdLit practitioners can find...

• book lists,
• video interviews with authors, and
• a comprehensive list of strategies for teaching reading and writing.

Strategies for Teaching Adolescent Literature

The strategies page gives detailed descriptions of how to implement each strategy.
AdLit's strategies page also gives guidance as to the proper timing for implementing the suggested strategies.

Note: The suggested strategies can be applied to fiction or non-fiction literature.

Find out more by visiting http://www.adlit.org/.

How many practitioner have found that creating stimulating and engaging writing prompts is not easy?

New practitioners (and us veterans) have a number of web resources for writing prompts. Quotes Daddy is one of those!

Quotes Daddy, as you might guess from the name, is a compendium of quotes from famous and not-so-famous people. Each day new quotes are featured on the homepage of Quotes Daddy. If practitioners and/or learners have a VLE, blog, website etc. they can add a Quotes Daddy widget to it.
Like this one...

Take a look your self at http://www.quotesdaddy.com/.

Note: Refreshing the page (F5 key or Ctrl+F5 keys) will change the Quote in the widget.

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Family Learning...

• Childtopia
• Online Colouring
• Online Colouring; even more
  
• Parental Control: Vista
• Pete’s PowerPoint Station
  

• See also Mrs Riley It's In the Cards in the eInclusion Section

The vast number of interactive resources makes this one of the very best sites available for interactive whiteboards on the Internet.

You may have to wait a bit for some of the activities to load but that's to be expected with such outstanding graphics and interactivity.

Take a look for yourself at http://www.childtopia.com/index.php.

TheColor.com is a website that offers interactive and easy online colouring pages for all. The sketches can be...

• either coloured online
• or printed out.
• TheColor has a comprehensive database of coloring pages organized by categories and popularity.

The site is pretty simple and fast. There are no java or flash components which are common among such sites and, as a result, take longer to load.

Here is one I coloured earlier...

Try it out for yourself at http://www.thecolor.com/. 

Enchanted Learning’s Dinosaur Pages to Color is an educational online Colouring Site.

The pictures...

• list the scientific name for each dinosaur,
• has some text giving details about the animals.

Since we don’t know the colors or textures of dino hide, your learners can get really creative as they color these creatures.

Here is one I coloured earlier...

Try it out at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/painting/dinosaurs.shtml.

In this episode of Tekzilla there are a couple of short tips that every parent should know about monitoring the computing habits of their children. These tips apply to Windows Vista.

Watch the clip below or go to http://revision3.com/tzdaily/2009-01-23parentalcontrol to watch it online.

Visit http://revision3.com/tekzilla/ if you want to discover more.

Maybe Microsoft’s PowerPoint is one of the easier tools out there for bringing multimedia into teaching, but it is still time consuming.

In the chaos of the family learning taster courses / courses / academic year..., few practitioners find the time to develop text, search for images, or download audio to create the kinds of multimedia presentations that can turn a mediocre session into an engaging, interactive whiteboard / big-screen event.

Luckily, the website Pete’s PowerPoint Station offers literally hundreds of free PowerPoint presentations on subjects ranging from english to science, from bullying to problem solving.

Once users download a presentation, they can easily...

• change the order of the slides,
• edit the text, or
• change the images.

In fact, if practitioners or their learners are new to PowerPoint as an application, it may be more fun to learn the program’s functions by editing an existing presentation than by starting with a blank template.

Editing might not be optional in some cases: the available presentations vary significantly in...

• age-appropriateness,
• content, and
• quality.

Pete’s PowerPoint Station offers links to related websites for learners to use, but its real strength lies in the range of already-prepared PowerPoint presentations that have the potential to spice up existing materials.

Find out more at http://www.pppst.com/.

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be use in Creative Writing...

• Take a look at Quotes Daddy in the English Language - Literature Section

Overview of Resources, in this month's eMagazine, that could be used in a number of curriculum areas...

• Academic Earth
• Big Brother, or a wonderful resource?
• Free Stock Images
• Online Calculator
• Sites for Videos
• The Educational Audio & Video Library
• Whiteboard Resources

• See also Gchart: World Time in the Key Skills Section
  • and - History of the Internet in the Sciences section of this eMagazine
  • and - Docstoc in the eAdministration Section
  • and - National film Board of Canada in the Genealogy - History Section (Free Clips).
    

AcademicEarth is a new website that lets users watch university lectures online.

AcademicEarth provides thousands of video lectures from world's top educators that lecture in universities such as Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

Users can...

• search for video lectures,
• browse them by...
  • subject,
  • universities,
  • instructors and
  • popularity.

No registration needed for searching and watching videos, however if users register they are able to add videos to your favorites, rate and leave comments.

Find out more at http://academicearth.org/.

Henchman's Helper: a webpage filled with live video cams and weather information from around the world.
The site’s attractions include...

• 42 live webcams from around the world,
• 9 constantly updated weather graphics, and
• a large, ominous-looking satellite image of North America.

Go to http://henchmanshelper.com/ to see for yourself. 

“Photo laboratory photl.com is the owner and distributor of the largest collection of exclusive free photos (Free Stock Photo Images) of high resolution for commercial purposes”

Free images are good, especially if you can avoid those pesky royalties, for Practitioners & Learners.

As may people already know, it can be hard to get good pictures for teaching & learning. There are thousands of stock photo sites, but Photl.com is a welcome addition to that family.

Via the website, users will be able to find all types of images, with many different themes. There’s no telling how many uses users can give them.

Blog writers will love this site, as the massive library of images will allow them to find the right picture for any type of article. But if you’re not a blog owner, then chances are you’ll find the site interesting nonetheless. Don’t forget, it’s free. You might need a picture for any kind of written assignment, be it coursework or a presentation.

The search feature is OK, but users need to make sure you don’t type in anything too specific, because if you do, it won’t yield any results.

See what you can find at http://www.photl.com/en/.

Another online calculator with the ability to show the calculation as well...

• Key in the calculation...
  
• Click the = and
• The calculation is displayed as well as the answer...
  

Try it out on the embedded page below or go to http://web2.0calc.com/.

What to include or not include?

• Should I only list sites that have educational content? But then again who I am to decide what kind of content is educational?

Thus the linkbunch includes sites I know of, it is up to you to decide if the site is educational or otherwise valuable for use in teaching &/or learning. Some of these may be just as blocked as YouTube by your YouTube. Meaning you may have to go with a Video Downloader kind of solution.

Try out the links at http://linkbun.ch/6le1 if you know of any I've missed please let me know.

Open cultures website hosts large collections of cultural and educational media.

In total, these collections offer thousands of hours of enriching audio and video, and it’s all free. Users can download almost all of it straight to their computer or mp3 player.

Find out more at http://www.oculture.com/2009/01/the_educational_audio_and_video_library.html.

Resources from the Interactive Whiteboard Project who support and promote the creation and sharing of teaching resources for use on interactive whiteboards.

Co-ordinated by Brett Laniosh (Curriculum Support Consultant (Dudley Grid for Learning/RM)

The aims of the project are to:

• Investigate the use of hardware independent software to create and share teaching materials for use on any interactive whiteboard.
• Increase effective use of interactive whiteboards.
• Build on developments in LEAs such as Herefordshire, Dudley and Stoke.

This project has built on the BECTA report by finding ways in which teacher created resources can be saved, shared and used across the region, regardless of the whiteboard technology in use.

Take a look at http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/15.cfm.

Or for more resources and information about the project go to http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/14.cfm.

Overview of Geography Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Embed panoramic photography
• The Places We Live
• Also look at  Know Your World in the eGames Section.
  

360 Cities, a panoramic image collection that I've written about in the past, now publishes an embed code with each image.

This is a great improvement to the service as it will allow learners and practitioners greater flexibility when building virtual tours. The resulting images in 360 Cities, as you will see in the image below, is much better than that typically found in Google's Street View. Note the code for the image below can be found at http://360cities.net/image/ribblehead-viaduct-river.

view Panoramic photography of England

The Places We Live is a riveting narrated Flash-based slideshow of the world's slums.

It takes the form of a series of panoramic photos of slums around the world, with voice-overs from people who live there (as an English translation). 

They currently include...

• Caracas - Venezuela
• Kibera, Nairobi - Kenya
• Dharavi, Mumbai - India and
• Jakarta - Indonesia. 

Practitioners and learners should take some time to look at these resources at http://www.theplaceswelive.com/. 

Overview of Genealogy - History Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Early 20th Century London street video
• National film Board of Canada
  
• World History: Coming soon
  
• Also see - History of the Internet in the Sciences section of this eMagazine
  

Interesting glimpse at street life in London around the turn of the previous century.

Also available at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1348426473/bctid1873835598.

What good use of public money!

The National film Board of Canada (NFB) has opened up its archives - there are more than 700 films, clips and trailers now available on the film board's new website launched on 22nd January 2009.  From entertaining shorts and cartoons, to deeply moving or disturbing documentaries - they're all there for free and more being added every week.

Take a closer look, searching by title, at http://www.nfb.ca/explore-by/title/.

WorldHistory is a new tool, that, when launched publicly, will offer practitioners and learners interactive maps in which they can view historical content by...

• time,
  
• place,
  
• event
  
• or person.

Just select a location and visually see all the historical events that took place there or just the events from a certain date range; or track the events a certain historical figure was involved in.

Users will also be able to add your own genealogical information (e.g. a great grandfather who fought in a famous battle), which could be an excellent, interactive way to engage learners in history lessons.

It is currently in beta testing and not immediately open to the public — potential users have to submit their e-mail address for an invite — you can however view some demo videos, to get a glimpse of the features and information WorldHistory will offer, at http://www.worldhistory.com/demo/

Register interest at http://www.worldhistory.com/splash.

Overview of Hair - Beauty Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Communication: Rough Cuts

Dear All

A brief reminder about the Rough Cuts forum for Hairdressing Training tutors. The group is set-up to help tutors share ideas and to have discussions about how to use resources such as the award winning Hairdressing Training service (available at http://hairdressing.ac.uk/index.html and htmob.mobi on mobiles) and is FREE to join.

The group currently has nearly 50 members and members of this list are invited to join at http://roughcuts.ning.com.

Best wishes

Stuart

Stuart Smith
Mimas
The University of Manchester
hairdressing@mimas.ac.uk
0161 275 6109

Overview of Key Skills Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Gchart: World Time
  
• Spelling Wizard

• See also Mrs Riley It's In the Cards in the eInclusion Section

This Google Maps mashup website lets users easily find out the local time and time zone for any major city worldwide.

You can see the local time by merely clicking on the desired location on the map or use keyword search feature. In both cases the bubble will pop out and show you local time and time zone.

Gchart also displays Flickr images and blogs related to particular location.

Try it out at http://www.gchart.com/index.php.

Spelling Wizard from Scholastic.com lets learners and practitioners create their own word search and word scramble games to play online.

Each game can have up to ten words. To use Spelling Wizard simply...

• enter ten words into the list field then
• select word search or word scramble.

Spelling Wizard can be used with all age groups, although it was designed for younger children; remember it isn't the software it is what you do with it!

Try it out at http://www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/spelling.htm.

Overview of Language Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Skritter

Learn Chinese characters by writing them, using handwriting recognition, spaced repetition, and active recall.

Find out more by going to http://www.skritter.com/.

Overview of Mathematics Resources included in this eMagazine...

• IMF Resources
• Nova Roma: Roman Numerals
• See also Gchart: World Time in the Key Skills Section
  Trig Spinner in the eGames Section
  and Clocks for Geeks in the Blogs Section

The International Monetary Fund has some good resources that can help practitioners help their learners gain an understanding of global economics.

On the IMF education page you can find resources for learners. One of the games called Where in the World & What in the World is Money? Practitioners will find complete sets of lesson plans for teaching basic/intermediate economics.

The IMF's Data Mapper is also well worth a look. It allows users to see the current, past, and predicted distribution of wealth around the world. Use the slider tabs on the IMF Data Mapper to change the map's display.

Find out more at http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/st/eng/index.htm.

Handy Roman Numeral Converter.

Type in any number, and it’ll be converted to a series of Ls, Cs, Ms, Xs, Vs and Is. Users can learn how Roman numerals work.

Try it out at http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html.

Note: the page also explains what each letter means.

Overview of Media Resources included in this eMagazine...

• 2008 International Photography Contest
• Aerial night-photos of London
• Frozen soap bubbles
• It's no Laughing Matter
• Photographic: Cockatoo Island Project
• Running: Animated animal skeleton
• Stop Motion Music Video
  
• TiltShift Maker
• Also take a look at National film Board of Canada in the Genealogy-History Section
  

National Geographic posted the winners of its 2008 International Photography Contest. All of the images are breathtaking.

This is the Nature Winner, From the English Edition Viewers' Choice

Take a closer look at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest/2008-winners.

A gallery of stunning aerial night-photos of London from Jason Hawkes, who notes, "I often shoot tethered to my MacBook Pro to check the sharpness of the images whilst I shoot."

London from the sky -- is something else entirely. Seen from above, London is pure magic. 

Take a look yourself at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/more_of_london_from_above_at_n.html. 

There are more like this...

It is the ideas that produce the unusual; take one idea and with a good camera, a cold night and a soap-bubble-maker and you can also create your own gallery of frozen bubbles:

"It's very cold tonight, so we played with bubbles. If you blow them upwards enough they have time to freeze on the way down."

Take a closer look at http://www.skipweasel.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/freezebubbles/album/index.html.

Political cartoons are a great way to learn about current news events as well as the subtle shades of meaning of political satire. Learners however need to understand the various elements that create a good political cartoon.

It's No Laughing Matter is a learning activity developed by the Library of Congress designed to help learners understand and analyze the elements of a political cartoon.

It's No Laughing Matter provides learners with...

• an interactive guide to understanding,
• practice activities,
• a short glossary of terms, and
• brief histories of the featured cartoons.

It's No Laughing Matter also offers a compilation of resources for teachers.

Learners can use the practice activities individually before moving on to exploring other political cartoons that at 'historic' and/or 'current'.

Find out more at http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/political_cartoon/index.html.

I've always been drawn towards 'Industrial Memories' and Patrick Boland has captured these ancient, rotting machines very well indeed.

Cockatoo Island is for anybody who likes industrial and historical decay; with rust coloured machines smeared with grease from a thousand worker’s hands, towering H.G. Wells tripods and cranes.

Take a look yourself at http://patrickboland.com.au/project/index.html. 

 

From Rex the Dog at http://vimeo.com/rexthedog.

Bubblicious from Rex The Dog on Vimeo.

A nice example of what can be done.

TiltShiftMaker is an online tilt-shift miniature faking tool that lets you manipulate your digital photos by adding a tilt-shift effect (Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model) and make them look like a miniature photographs.

You can manipulate images from your hard drive or any webpage.

To create your own image simply...

• upload it to the site,
• use provided editor to customize the tilt-sift effect and then
• click on the “Preview” button.

If you’re with satisfied with the result then...

• click on the “Get Full Size” button and download it to your computer. No need to play around with Photoshop and looking for tilt-shift tutorials.

Try it out at http://tiltshiftmaker.com/.

Overview of Music Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Blank Sheet Music

BlankSheetMusic is a music sheet maker tool that lets you create your own music sheets and then print them for free.

There are lots of customisation features enabling users to create almost any music sheet they require. The website’s music sheets directory offers a whole range of preprepared sheets.

The site is free and there is no registration, however if users register they will be able to save created sheets online and access them on any computer. 

Take a closer look at http://www.blanksheetmusic.net/. 

Overview of Science Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Astronomy North
• European anatomy museums
• Frog dissection plus: online with Froguts
• History of the Internet
• Scitable
• Wildearth.tv
  
• Also see - Frozen soap bubbles in the Media section of this eMagazine
• See also Gchart: World Time in the Key Skills Section

James Pugsley's Astronomy North, is a website that has some amazing images of the Aurora Borealis <http://www.astronomynorth.com/Library1A.html>. Besides the many still pictures, Astronomy North provides time-lapse photography videos of the Aurora Borealis, weather and viewing forecasts, and loads of Canadian astronomy resources.

Find out more at http://www.astronomynorth.com/. 

"In 2007, I received a travel grant to visit various medical and anatomy museums in Europe. In particular, I was interested in those museums with extensive teratology — the study of "monsters" — collections. During late January and early February 2008, I traveled to England, France and Holland drawing from and photographing (with permission of the curators of each institution) interesting specimens and objects." - Prof. Jas. Mundie

Take a look at these  images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgmundie/sets/72157604152157045/.

"You never want to set a classroom full of learners with scalpels loose on a long-dead and well-preserved frog without some guidance."

Froguts.com offers a paid service, but their free demos are a great tool to introduce the basics of dissection before pulling out the wax trays and pins.

When users access the site (click on demos in the top right corner, and then begin on the page that comes up), learners can manipulate a virtual scalpel, pins, and scissors to start the process. The demo leads users through the dissection from pinning the frog to identifying its organs.

As you would expect, the paid version offers much, much more, but for a simple getting-started tutorial, or pre-dissection preparation, the Froguts demo is great. It can also be used for the conscientious objectors practitioners may have in their classroom, as an alternative to the actual dissection.

In addition to the frog demo, they also have samples of their squid and owl pellet dissection programs.

Try it out for yourself at http://www.froguts.com/flash_content/index.html.

Readers may also want to look at http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_16/BL_16.html, http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog2/ and http://froggy.lbl.gov/virtual/.

"History of the Internet" is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.

The history is told using the PICOL icons on picol.org , which are available for download soon. On blog.picol.org you can get news about this project.

Play the embedded video clip below or go to http://vimeo.com/2696386.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Nature Magazine has created Scitable, 'a collaborative learning space for science undergraduates.'

It’s got...

• articles,
• online class tools,
• teacher collaborative tools,
• learner collaborative tools,
• discussion areas

etc...

This initial implementation focuses on genetics, although I understand that Nature is planning on expanding the topics.

Find out more at http://www.nature.com/scitable.

Wild Earth TV provides live video feeds of animals in Africa.

As I write this the feed is showing a pride of lions resting.

I haven't registered but am assured that while watching the video feeds, registered users can chat with each other about what they're seeing.

Note: If the video feed is not live when you visit the website, you can choose from any number of recorded videos.

Take a look at http://www.wildearth.tv/home.

Overview of Thoughts-Beliefs Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Bible Map

The Bible has the distinction of being one of the most translated texts ever.

The scriptures generate an incredible amount of debate as to whom exactly wrote what and when. Needless to say, there are several online resources that aim to give those interested in the Holy Book of Christianity a more comprehensive understanding of...

• places,
• names and
• events.

BibleMap is an atlas that aims to make the Bible come more alive than ever by combining the ancient truths of God with the latest developments in technology. Based on GoogleMaps giving users an experience as thorough and rich as possible.

This online atlas could play an important educational role, and practitioners and learners alike will appreciate such a service being provided for free.

The site gives everybody a more immediate appreciation of places and names within the Bible.

See for yourself at http://www.biblemap.org/.

It would be nice to see similar sites for other religious books.

A simple vector graphics editor for creating flowcharts, UML class diagrams, illustrations and slide shows.

Diagram Designer is a simple vector based graphics tool that can create all kinds of diagrams and charts like flowcharts, schematic designs,  electronic circuits etc. Users can also create UML class diagrams and even mock GUI for software.

Find out more at http://logicnet.dk/DiagramDesigner/.

Some of the features of this tool include...

• Customizable template object palette.
• Spellchecker
• Import/export WMF, EMF, BMP, JPEG, PNG, MNG, ICO, GIF and PCX images.
• Slide show viewer.
• Simple graph plotter to plot mathematical expressions.
• Advanced "pocket" calculator with equation solver.
• MeeSoft Image Analyzer integration for bitmap image editing and extended file format support.
• Uses compressed file format for minimizing drawing file size.

“An Online photo enhancement and presentation platform.”

Because of Pho.to (and other similar online resources) processing a picture is no longer the domain of those who have the equipment to do so; it is now readily available to any person who has an Internet-enabled computer.

Any person who has access to the 'Interweb', and has even a slight idea of what it is that needs to be done, can execute the changes using any of the many applications that can be procured for free. Pho.to is a site that fulfils that very same aim.

Pho.to  features a fully-enabled presentation platform as well as the tools for processing photographs effortlessly. The photo editor is wholly-web-based and through it users can upload pictures from...

• their desktop or
• any URL

and put their mouse to good use.

For its part, the publishing platform makes it possible for users to show their images in a multitude of ways, including...

• flash animations and
• 3D environments.

Other services that are also part of the 'package' include...

• “Funny Pho.to” that will let you add effects to any picture and modify it for tomfoolery purposes,
• a 3D screensaver that can be used to give any site an edge.

All of these services are provided for free, so if you wish to find out more go to http://pho.to/.

PhotoPeach is an online web application that lets users create slide shows with music.

The service allows users to...

• use images from online accounts
  (Currently supported online services are Flickr, Picasa and Facebook) and/or computer
• add music tracks from YouTube and
• generate slide shows.

There are a number of 'Educational Plusses" for example...

• Captions: Clicking the comment box auto-pauses, while users type, resuming when users type the enter key
• Zoom: clicking an interesting/important part of a phot, causes the player to zoom on that part in future showings
• Privacy: slide shows are not searchable by search engine; if users would like to share a slide show with colleagues and/or tutors etc., they can use the "Click to share" functions; invited people will not be able to see other slide shows. Choosing "Private" for a slide show means only those with invites can see!
• Comments: Visitors who write their names can comment on slide shows without logging in (as a assessor, verifier etc this could save so much time)

Note: Currently the service allows up to 100 photographs per slide show and 100 slide shows per account.

PhotoPeach could be used in so many different ways by both learners and practitioners

Take a closer look at http://photopeach.com/.

Picupine is a quick image sharing application that provides users with an easy way to share images online.

There is no registration, simply...

• select images from a hard drive and
• click on the “Submit” button.
  The images will be uploaded and users will get the URL that they can share with others. 

All uploaded images will be viewable on the page linked to that URL in slide-show like interface. Go to http://www.picupine.com/987f582x to see how it looks.

The site also allows you to...

• add description to images,
• edit (crop, rotate) images, and
• change the order in which they are shown.

Try it out for yourself at http://www.picupine.com/.

For those who want greater flexibility than that provided by existing presentation tools, look no further...

Prezi - is an online zooming editor that allows the production of stunning presentations and/or learning objects.

In their words...

"Prezi allows anyone who can sketch an idea on a napkin to create and perform stunning non-linear presentations with relations, zooming into details, and adjusting to the time left without the need to skip slides."

You must find the time to take a closer look at http://prezi.com/.

Note: Access is currently by invite only...

Digital Magazines, eBooks and virtual catalogues:

• automatically transform PDF, Word, PPT, Open Office... files into a WoBook for free.
• Embed your MINI wobooks on websites, blogs...
• Send your wobooks by email
• consult your statictics

Find out more and or create your free account at http://www.wobook.com/.

Office 2007 - Outlook’s calendar normally displays dates in a consecutive manner. Sometimes, however, I would find it useful to view several nonconsecutive dates on my Calendar. Any Ideas?

This is relatively straight forward...

• Open Outlook.
• Go to Calendar.
• Select the single day view.
  
• Go to the smaller calendar in the left pane. Select the first day you wish to view. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the rest of the dates you wish to view.
  

The Calendar will display all of the selected dates so that you can review appointments or add information.

HELP! Where is the equation editor in Office 2007?

You are jumping the gun a little here; I will get round to updating the eBook that includes this but, as you ask, here goes...

Equation Editor is a feature of Microsoft Word that enables the user to insert mathematical notation into MS Word documents. A must for Mathematics/Science/Engineering/etc practitioners.

Equation Editor makes math symbols available via a set of toolbars. Unfortunately, there are no keyboard shortcuts for the symbols, so they must be accessed using a mouse.

There is a process by which an icon for Equation Editor can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar in Word 2007.

It isn't surprising that, as an ex-Maths teacher, I believe that the icon for Equation Editor should be inserted as a matter of course on all computers in every organisation where learners have acces to MS Word.

Here’s what the Equation Editor icon looks like on the “Quick Access” toolbar in Word 2007

To place the icon on the Quick Access Toolbar, you must...

• Open the drop-down ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’ menu which is found to the right of the toolbar,
  
  
• and select ‘More Commands...’
  
• In the dialog box that opens, click open the drop-down menu under ‘Popular Commands’
  
  
  ...
  and select ‘All Commands’, as shown below.
  
• Scroll down the list that appears and locate ‘Equation’, select it...
  
  ...
  and click on the ‘Add>>’ button to add the icon to the Quick Access toolbar.
  

• ∏ Equation will now be added to the Quick Access Toolbar list...
  
• Click OK
  
  Hovering the cursor over the symbol opens a tool-tip showing the keyboard shortcut to open Equation...

Note: - that there are some other math tools are available in Word 2007, so you may wish to experiment with some of these as well.

August 1st - Jan 31st 2009

The data below is cumulative, highlighting, from the initial tracking our TV viewers on 1st September 2007, their global distribution.