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.

The maps below cumulative reader/viewer statistics...

- from Jan 2009

 

- from Sept 2007

 

- from Sept 2007

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...

"...teachers and people in general have heard the terms blog, wiki, website but they're not sure of the differences between them. My quick explanation of the differences is generally this;

• websites are good for providing a static resource of information,
• blogs are good for frequent updates and communication, and a
• wiki is great for collaborating on the creation of a reference site.

I realize this is a very simplistic explanation, but many times that's all that people need to know when creating their first online presence."

"Here are eight places that teachers can build and host a website for free:"

They include...

Read the full blog entry at http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/05/8-ways-to-build-websites-not-blogs-for.html.

Presentations - whether they are made with Powerpoint or other applications, are a great way to support a speech, visualize complicated concepts or focus attention on a subject.

However, a bad presentation can achieve the opposite. Badly designed slides with too much text or bad graphics can distract or worse, irritate the audience.

Read the full Blog Entry at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-tips-for-preparing-a-professional-presentation/.

Before I forget, the delegate booking is now open, for…

FORTHCOMING NIACE EVENTS

Engaging the Learner:

Enhancing the range of reading experiences

Friday 26 June 2009, London, 10:00am - 3:40pm

Friday 3 July 2009, Birmingham, 10:00am - 3:40pm

Friday 11 September 2009, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 10:00am - 3:40pm

NIACE has developed a range of materials with the aim of encouraging practitioners working with adults, (including families), to introduce more reading for pleasure into their sessions.  The work was developed in partnership with The Reading Agency's Vital Link programme and NIACE's campaigning work for Quick Reads in order to promote wider use of reading for pleasure in a range of settings.  The events aim to draw attention to the new materials and offer a hands-on opportunity to engage with the materials

Audience

• Skills for Life practitioners
• Practitioners interested in developing their use of technology in the teaching of reading
• Union Learning Representatives
• People working in Offender Learning

Event fee per person: £150, NIACE members fee: £99

Gender on the Agenda: Women, skills and work seminar

Thursday 18 June 2009, 1pm - 4:15pm, London

In the current recession it is important to recognise where women and men are differentially affected by job losses, the pay and opportunity gaps, and the constraints and barriers to women accessing new employment or skills retraining.  This seminar aims to brief participants on issues relating to the gender aspects of skills and work, discuss and debate implications for policy and practice and identify ways in which the learning and skills agenda can be developed to respond better to gender dimensions.

Audience

• Government departments: DIUS and DWP
• Learning and Skills Councils and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service
• Government Offices
• Local Authorities
• Sector Skills Councils and Lifelong Learning UK
• Regional Development Agencies and Regional Skills Partnerships
• Local Strategic Partnerships
• Trades unions
• Learning providers
• Third sector bodies
• Equality practitioners
• Academics / gender studies students
• Voluntary sector consortia
• Information, Advice and Guidance advisors
• JobCentre Plus.

Event fee per person: £99

NB: NIACE does not charge VAT on conference and course fees.

For further details look up http://www.niace.org.uk

Enquiries to NIACE Events Team - Tel: 0116 204 2833

E-mail: gurjit.kaur@niace.org.uk

yUML allows users to create online UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams in seconds from inside their blog posts, articles and documents. No special tools needed.

Practitioners and/or learners can add UML diagrams by using the insert image tools in a blog or wiki or, as I have here, eXe document; I've not tried it in a commercial ePortfolio but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

Here is my first attempt using a Class diagram...

My regular monthly 'outputs' available via our website...

And this is my first attempt at a Case Diagram...

Why not take a closer look at the online tool by visiting http://www.yuml.me/.

When I first came across this I wasn't sure if learning providers would find it useful! I searched wikipedia for the learning providers we support and , I must admit, I was surprised how many had their own 'pages'. For them, this is very important...

The story so far... 

Those who contribute to Wikipedia generally like to keep track of the articles they contribute to, watching for changes and edits. Wikipedia has a feature called “Watchlist” that allows a user to do so. A 'logged' user can add pages to their watchlist and see any changes made to these during a given time period. But the problem with watchlist is that there is no notification system, and so you have to keep checking the watchlist from time to time.

wikiAlarm is a new online service that comes really handy.

• It allows users to keep track of up to 5 Wikipedia pages
• Any changes or edits made to these pages will be notified to you via email.
• wikiAlarm monitors the watched pages every hour and email updates are sent as soon as a change is detected.
• At worst users will learn about the edit an hour late. Time is vital because if any anonymous user vandalizes your pages you would want it restored as soon as possible. If the inaccurate information isn’t removed quickly it can be quoted by journalists and bloggers leading to the serious problem of Wiki Circularity.

What happens in Wiki Circularity

• A competitor or upset former learner edits your Wikipedia page to say something bad about your organisation. 
• Left unedited for a few weeks the information is picked up by a blogger or journalist doing research for a story. 
• The story then appears in a blog or website & the author doesn’t mention they researched the story on Wikipedia 
• When you find the inaccurate article and try to edit the information on Wikipedia you find that the Wiki moderators refuse to remove it 
• To add insult to injury the Wikipedia page is updated to include a link referencing the inaccurate blog or newspaper article

Wiki Circularity is real and it happens more often than you think.

wikiAlarm can...

• send you email notification containing...
  • full information on the changes
  • the IP address of the person making the changes.

Users can add multiple email addresses to be notified.

I’m a little confused as to why the number of watched pages is restricted to only 5; particularly since there is no mention of any Pro or paid plans where users can increase the limit. Besides, their home page say “unlimited pages”.

Find out more and/or prevent Wiki Circularity on your pages by visiting http://wikialarm.com/.

Workrave is downloadable software that times your computer usage and prompts you at set intervals to take breaks.

Workrave has 3 types of break...

1. micro-pause, a short thirty second break which occur every three minutes, by default. The idea is to make users stop using the keyboard and relax your hands as frequently as possible. You don’t have to walk away from the computer since the breaks are short – just 30 seconds. One nice feature of the micro-pause is that the timer pauses if you stop using the keyboard and mouse for a few seconds. So if you stop typing to think or say attend a call, the timer pauses since you’re already taking a break.
2. rest break which are longer and comes at an interval of 45 minutes by default. During these breaks you are supposed to walk away from the computer, stretch your arms or take a cup of coffee. You are also given a few exercises to perform. Like micro-pauses, the timer for rest breaks is paused during period of inactivity.
   
3. this break isn’t a break, it’s a complete shutdown. It monitors the total amount of time you spend on the computer in one day and once the set number of hours is over it will prompt you to stop using the computer. The default is set to 4 hours, which will be rather low for most users; far too low for me. Of course you can increase the allotted time for each day or completely ignore it, but that would defeat the very purpose of the software. Here again, the timer pauses when you are inactive.

The software is quite aggressive during the rest periods – blocking all inputs by default. Users can change this to a simple reminder or blank screen if they wish.

I think I will find the frequent reminders a bit annoying to say the least but having suffered with RSI this year, I'm going to let it do it’s job and hopefully I wont have any hassle again.

For those of you who want to try it out go to http://www.workrave.org/welcome/.

Download further information as a pdf (115kB).

• Cobocards Create Flashcards to Use Online or Offline

• Flashcards and Word Searches Using Google Spreadsheet
  

Cobocards offers learners and practitioners the best of both worlds, an option for studying online and an option for studying offline.

Approximately one third of learners still don't have Internet access at home, creating Cobocards flashcards allows them to print them out and take them home -an excellent alternative to online studying.

The key differences between Cobocards and other flashcard services is that Cobocards provides users with pdf copies of their flashcards that they can print to study offline. Of course, learners can study using their flashcards online. If learners study flashcards online, Cobocards will keep track of results.

If practitioners would like to share their flashcards with a private group, like their learners, Cobocards allows them to do that too. Another of Cobocards' better features is a comprehensive set of video tutorials explaining all of the options and features that you can utilize.

Find out more at http://cobocards.com/.

On the 22nd May 2009, The Official Google Docs Blog featured three Google Docs spreadsheet templates that may be of interest to learning providers.

The three templates allow practitioners and/or learners to create...

• flashcards,
• word searches, and
• a word study game.

Users can access and read more about the templates at http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/05/spotlight-on-developers-educational.html.

One advantage of using these templates over a commercial program is that practitioners won't be exposing their learners to any advertising on the resulting word search or flashcards.

Is this NSFW?

Go to http://www.sporcle.com/games/chatacronyms.php to see if you are up to date with Common Chat Acronyms; no surprise that I wasn't.

One of the most useless Windows applications I've ever found!

Deskpecker is small Woodpecker, the bird not cider, that flies to the currently active window/dialog box etc. on the desktop and starts pecking at it’s right border. Desktop toys are pointless but somehow I like this one.

Download and enjoy at http://www.zamaansoft.com/deskpecker_home.php. 

Here's a wonderfull BT-Video on the future of the phone and teleworking!

BT envisaged this remote communication. Nearly Telepresence but not quite!

Tell the RSPB what crawls, hops, flutters and flies in your garden this summer!

To take part, simply spend one hour during the week of 8-14 June, counting the birds and any other wildlife that visit your garden, and record the highest number of each species you see at any one time.

Find out more at http://www.rspb.org.uk/naturecount/how.asp. 

 

180 Technology Tips is a series of 180 five minute tutorials on software, hardware, and Internet resources.

Users can subscribe to 180 Technology Tips to receive one tip per day from September through June.

Users can just search the index of published tips to find what they need, when they need it.

The tips are categorized as...

• software, (based on Microsoft programs)
• hardware, or
• Internet.

180 Technology Tips could be a useful reference for those involved with initial teacher training.

Go to http://www.180techtips.com/ to find out more.

Fighting death by PowerPoint... by Alexei Kapterev - How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.

Watch the clip below; food for thought...

For Practitioners and/or learners who want/need to learn how to use a program or a tool. Search for specific manuals or handbooks to find out how to perform any specific task.

This site was created with the intention to give users the ability to search through an almost unlimited number of specific and accurate manuals about many programs or solutions.

The website looks like a search engine and is where users can find, at the time of writing this article, more than 5,770,000 manuals to search for whatever they need.

The manuals are not OS specific, therefore it does not matter if users have an IPod or an I phone, a Mac or a PC, users will have a chance to be successful in the search for their required manual. 

Try it out at http://the-manuals.com/.

There is a nice guide called "KODAK Self-Teaching Guide to Picture-Taking", that could also be used as an ePortfolio outline for digital photography, available at http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/guides/.

Another little-known aspect of Kodak's website offers lesson plans tailored for educational use - the grade levels are U.S. grades in twelve subject areas.

The lesson plans are organized by U. S. grade level...

• Pre-Kindergarten
• Kindergarten
• Elementary
• Junior High School
• High School
• Higher Education
• Special Education

and subject area...

• Art
• Career Education
• Community Studies
• English
• History
• Languages
• Mathematics
• Music
• Photography
• Science
• Social Studies
• Language Arts

As well as Teaching Guide mentioned in the introduction.

These are not skeleton lesson plans, the Kodak lesson plans have very detailed directions for classroom implementation. All of the lesson plans include the use of photographs and or cameras.

So if you are looking for good ideas for integrating art and photography into just about any subject area visit http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/edu/lessonPlans/.

• Arcademic Skill Builders
• Ayiti The Cost of Life
• Can you drive effectively and talk to someone on your mobile phone?
• Flash Music Games
• Sheppard Software
  
• Spelling City
  • Take a look at Money Bingo in the Mathematics section of Resources.
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Arcademic Skill Builders are research-based and standards-aligned educational games that offer an innovative approach to teaching key academic skills. Incorporating features of arcade games and educational practices the fun online games will engage, motivate, and assist the teaching of learners.

Learners can play games for free. There are multi-player and single player games and those that can be played using the Wii. There are plans to enable practitioners to save records, tailor content for differentiated instruction, and pinpoint learner problem areas!

Find out more and/or have a play at http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/.

Ayiti The Cost of Life is an educational game designed to teach learners about the cost of living and the struggles to improve life in rural Haiti. (Ayiti is the Haitian Creole word for Haiti).

In the game learners have to help the "Guinard Family" improve their lives in terms of...

• finances,
• health care,
• education, and
• general happiness.

The game plays out over a timeline of four years and sixteen seasons. Each season brings a new challenge.

This could be an excellent game for learning about the struggles and challenges of life as a farming family in a less economically developed country.

Go to http://ayiti.newzcrew.org/globalkids/ to find out more and/or play the game.

Many people drive while talking on the phone! In the UK it is both dangerous and illegal.

To prove to people that they can't drive effectively and talk to someone on their mobile phone a short game has been created.

Play the Driving Challenge game and see if you can listen and complete the challenge.

• Make sure you have the volume on your computer turned up.
• Go to: http://www.dft.gov.uk/drivingchallenge/ listen and follow the instructions.

Learn to play piano, guitar and drums by playing online virtual instruments.

In their words...

"There are various methods from which we could learn music. By playing music games you can improve your hearing (name tones and chords by ear). This games can help you to get a better grip on your instrument. You will find cool interactive music games in this website." 

Visit http://www.flashmusicgames.com/index.html to find out more. 

In their own words...

"We design educational software and online games with these goals:

1) To add sound and visual effects to make learning fun and more memorable.

2) To design games with many difficulty levels so that players will continue to be challenged no matter how far they progress.

3) To provide games that will exercise players' brains."

There are indeed some very good educational games and quizzes including those for...

• Chemistry
• Health
• History
• Maths
• Nutrition
• Science
• Vocabulary
• World Geography etc.

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

SpellingCity is adding to and improving their online games.

Three of the ten games...

• MatchIt!,
• Alphabetize and
• Audio Word Match

...have been newly developed or totally revised in 2009.

Try them at http://www.spellingcity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1100&Itemid=84.

 

 

• Adaptive Worksheets
• Early Mouse Movements
• e-quality
• Hiyah.net
• Switch Accessible News Reader
• Understanding Autism
  
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Silverlining Multi Media have a new worksheet and photo card download site, Adaptive Worksheets. 

Take a look at the limited free area with 30+ samples to download and evaluate; a number of these could be used with Family Learning and/or with ESOL Learners and/or with learners with learning difficulties etc.

There is a paid membership option - $9.95 a month or sign up $39.95 for a 1 year membership. 
Membership offers access to all worksheet generators and all PDF worksheets (which are added to weekly - although it doesn't say how many a week) and free support.

Go to http://www.adaptiveworksheets.com/ and look for the Free Samples Button...

The Early Mouse Movements activity works with...

• a touchscreen,
• an interactive whiteboard and
• on a Tablet PC with stylus as well as
• a PC and mouse.

It can be set the color changes as users go over the paint spots and it can be set to have additional music or sound effects to add to the enjoyment.

Ideal for young children and those with physical and/or learning difficulties.

Try it out at http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/creative/mouse_movements/MouseMovements.shtm. 

The summer edition of eLearning Accessibility & Inclusion is now available to download.

Full of interesting and helpful articles about using accessible technology for learning.

There are articles on...

• preparing documents to be read by a screen reader,
• making moodle easier to access,
• information on how to change text to an MP3 format,
• details of an Access Apps application for learners with complex needs

...and much more.

Download at http://www.scottish-rscs.org.uk/access/?p=845.

HiYah offers simple spacebar (or switch set to spacebar) programs about basic concepts for download or play online. 

Hiyah has recently redone many of their basic language programs and added some new programs including:

• Spring,
• Yummy Tummy,
• The Earth Revealed...at Last!,
• Happy 4th of July,
• Colours-Basic, and
• Opposites-Basic.

Find out more at http://www.hiyah.net/index.html.

The new BBC switch accessible news reader is a well designed interface for children, 'tweens and even teens and adults with cognitive challenges/learning disabilities to read or have read to them via text to speech the news.

The website focuses mainly on UK news.

A great thing about the BBC Accessible News Reader is the level of customization. 

Users can...

• change how many categories of news from 1 to 6,
• use the scan feature or not
• adjust the scan feature to 3, 5, 10 or 15 seconds for a scan rate.
• use the text to speech or not
• choose from a high quality male or female voice
• change the color scheme of the text to high or low contrast or a color overlay for dyslexia

It does not currently two switch scan (except if you turn the scan off and use tab/enter - which means increasing cognitive load as it then scans everything and has no auditory scan). 

With the scan off users can also use what ever access equipment they have including...

• touch screens,
• eye or head tracking,
• alternative keyboard with a custom overlay or a joystick. 

Overall an amazing, free resource. Access it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/newsreader/index.shtml.

This is a must for all practitioners especially those with an equality and diversity remit.

Twenty-year-old John Simpson, who himself is on the autistic spectrum, guides us through the theory and reality of life for many ASD pupils at secondary school.

John is keen to help raise awareness to ensure future generations of pupils with ASD get more from a mainstream school environment. As well as sharing his own story, he speaks to Autism West Midlands' Sue Hatton about the condition, and Mike Collins from the National Autistic Society, who reveals the terms used to describe people on the spectrum.

We hear from the parents of an autistic child about their day to day life, and we hear ideas from the experts about how teachers can further include ASD pupils.

View the video clip at http://www.teachers.tv/video/21820. 

• Universities and colleges to offer real help now for communities in tough times

Successful bidders for share of £50m in economic investment match funding scheme announced 09 April 2009

More than 70 universities and colleges will be offering real help to individuals and businesses during the downturn after winning a share of £27m in Government funding, it was announced today by HEFCE and DIUS.

The £50 million Economic Challenge Investment Fund will offer practical help to 50,000 people and 11,700 businesses whether in the form of:

• over 2,000 internships and work placements for new graduates
• short targeted courses
• vouchers for the unemployed for training and help with looking for work

Funding allocations, in the Northwest, for the Economic Challenge Investment Fund

• Blackburn College - £423,487
• Liverpool Hope University - £300,000
• Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - £59,520
• Liverpool John Moores University - £385,000
• University of Bolton - £249,958
• University of Central Lancashire - £135,000
• University of Chester - £168,322
• University of Cumbria - £1,000,000
• University of Liverpool - £150,000
• University of Manchester - £500,000

Read the full article at http://www.dius.gov.uk/news_and_speeches/press_releases/hei_real_help or for a full list of the institutions whose bids have been approved go to http://www.hefce.ac.uk/econsoc/challenge/.

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

• No Articles this month
  

• Adult learners 'lowest since '97'

The proportion of adult learners in the UK is at its lowest level since Labour came to power, a survey suggests.

A study among nearly 5,000 people found those in the highest socio-economic groups were twice as likely to study as those in the poorest.

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education which ran the survey, says the results are worrying.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8038412.stm.

I wasn't sure where to put this item but, for many, this may be news so here goes...

Canadian singer (it isn't just Geeks that are sexy) Coco Love Alcorn, has composed a song named “Intellectual Boys.”

Intellectual Boys is part of Coco Love Alcorn’s new album, Joyful.

Listen to the track at http://cocolovealcorn.com/music/#lyrics. (Track 6)

or read the lyrics at http://cocolovealcorn.com/music/intellectual-boys-lyrics/.

Hopefully that has brought a smile to the faces of all you Geeks!

• No articles included this month
  

The Integrated quality and enhancement review (IQER) is a review method specially devised for higher education in further education colleges (HE in FECs) in England.

It has replaced academic review of subjects which operated for the last time in 2006-07

Find out more by visiting  http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/iqer/default.asp.

• No articles included this month

• No articles this month
  

• OpenOffice.org 3.1 released

The New Version of OpenOffice.org, the World's Leading Free Office Software, is Now Available for Download

The OpenOffice.org 3.1 free office software released 7th May 2009 contains a raft of new features voted for by users, including much improved on-screen graphics and improvements to all its components. The software is available as a free download via the OpenOffice.org website.

Find out more at http://www.prweb.com/releases/OOo/31/prweb2388264.htm. 

Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that Amazon’s Kindle is appealing, perhaps counterintuitively, to an older generation. According to Marginal Revolution, “over half of reporting Kindle owners are 50 or older...

Read the full article at http://www.openculture.com/2009/05/the_kindle_to_save_the_elderly_and_the_newspaper_industry.html.

• National roll-out of  mentoring scheme

• Pass on Your Skills recruitment campaign

• Universities: Capital Investment

 

The 12 May 2009 witnessed the National roll-out of ground-breaking mentoring scheme will help pupils to aim higher

David Lammy, Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, announced the national launch of the Aimhigher Associates programme, following a successful pilot last year.

Read the full article at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7RYCGG.

Lifelong Learning UK has launched a new programme to help lifelong learning providers fill vacancies in subject shortage areas with people with job-related skills and experience looking to start a career in further education.

Go to http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7S3FUY to read the full article.

"Employers who have, or are likely to have, vacancies in priority subject shortage areas can register for Pass on Your Skills for free by visiting http://www.catalystprogramme.org/ or calling 0845 600 4061."

 

Capital investment in research drives up productivity and attracts business

Public capital funding in universities has supported the UK's dominant position in international research and produced many other benefits, according to a report published 13 May 2009.

Read full article at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7RZF69. 

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...

 

• Open Space - Bill Pearson

 

"Have you seen:http://openspace.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/openspace/gallery.html

Lots of good stuff here for teachers!

Regards

Bill"

Thank you Bill, for bringing this to our notice. I've found and included some of the individual resources in past eMags and blogs but, this provides access to a number of excellent resources. JDL

...recorded by Kevin Hickey

Netbooks at The Manchester College

David Beaumont, programme team leader for 16-18 IT at The Manchester College, explains what netbooks are and how they are being used at the college.

To download the podcast go to http://www.garageband.com/mp3/Netbooks.mp3?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2rYVW-ZmpiBw.

For a complete list of podcast interviews (as well as detail on how to subscribe to future episodes) go to http://www.garageband.com/user/JISC_RSC_NW/podcast/main.

Note: - Discuss this podcast on our forums at...

http://moodle.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=1887

If you wish to...

• ...make any comments on our podcasts or vodcasts
  
• ...be a volunteer for future podcasts/vodcasts (sharing good practice)

then please contact Kevin

He can be contacted by email
at kh@rsc-northwest.ac.uk

---

If you are a member of the Microblogging service Twitter, you can now receive updates from the JISC RSC-Northwest by following us at http://twitter.com/JISCRSCNW

DIUS, as those of you from the UK will know, is responsible for post-19 learning and aims to improve the nation's skills at every level, with provision for people at every stage of their adult lives.

Follow DIUS Skills tweets at http://twitter.com/DIUS_Skills.

I'd like to think that you all know that Intute is a free online service providing practitioners and learners with a database of hand selected Web resources for education and research - http://www.intute.ac.uk/.

Well practitioners and learners can now keep up with Intute news on twitter; go to http://twitter.com/intute.

MakeUseOf understands that like many things, venturing of into a completely unknown world can seem rather scary, and also be pretty difficult in the beginning. It’s while adapting to the unknown, that one needs a guiding, and caring hand.

MakeUseOf is, in their words, "proud to present to you" a number of ebooks/publications (pdfs)

They include... 

• A Newbie's Initiation To Linux - http://www.makeuseof.com/downloads/initiation-to-linux.pdf.
• The Big Book of BitTorrent - http://downloads.makeuseof.com.s3.amazonaws.com/The-Big-Book-of-BitTorrent.pdf.
• The Idiot's Guide To Photoshop - http://downloads.makeuseof.com/idiots-guide-to-photoshop.pdf.
• The BIG Book of iTunes - http://downloads.makeuseof.com.s3.amazonaws.com/The-Big-Book-of-iTunes.pdf.
• The Ultimate Idiot's Guide To Building Your Own Computer - http://downloads.makeuseof.com/how-to-build-pc.pdf.

NIACE Publications
Save time, order online

 

Order your new NIACE publications catalogue

 

I am pleased to tell you that the latest NIACE publications catalogue, containing our full range of resources, is now available for you to order.

This is the first catalogue that contains the complete list of all NIACE titles together with those originally produced by the Basic Skills Agency.

We have also improved the way in which our publications are categorised, making it easier for you to find the books that are relevant to you.

As well as finding details on the many resources we offer for sale, you will find information on a variety of free resources that can be downloaded from our online bookshop.

How to order your catalogue

 

Order your free copy of the catalogue today by calling 0870 600 2400
or e-mailing niacecustomerservice@omsg.co.uk and quoting MCEM001

 

Alternatively you can view the catalogue online in e-book format http://www.myebook.com/ebook_viewer.php?ebookId=8066.

 

You can also download a free copy of the catalogue from www.niace.org.uk/publications/catalogues

How to buy your resources

 

Resources are available to browse and buy online at http://shop.niace.org.uk
or by calling 0870 600 2400.

 

The May issue of the Spotlight science magazine is now available.

Written for Intute by science writer David Bradley, Spotlight contains topical science articles and news features.

This issue has articles on...

• mercury levels in Arctic seals,
• increased chemical weathering of rocks by rivers, and
• new microwave detectors for studying the cosmic microwave background.

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

This publication offers senior managers in further (FE) and higher education (HE) best-practice guidance for applying e-business approaches to their institutions.

Particularly in the current economic climate, IT - especially web technology - is a powerful tool that enables institutions to manage their business in a more innovative, cohesive and strategic way. Applied effectively, in support of clear business processes, it can confer competitive advantage, as well as provide enriched opportunities for collaboration. From supporting teaching and research to managing strategic partnerships as part of business and community engagement, e-business is bringing new opportunities in efficiency and service improvement.

Find out more at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/erevolutionebook.aspx.

If learners and/or practitioners are making any kind of videos then check out this excellent guide from the Guardian.

It covers everything from basic techniques to special effects through to editing.

Check the guide out at http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/jan/26/makingvideoguide.

It was apparent, at one of the eGuide Day 3 sessions, that a number of practitioners were not aware of this publication.

The White Paper, 'The Learning Revolution', was launched on 23 March 2009 and sets out the Government's strategy for informal learning

Go to  http://www.dius.gov.uk/skills/engaging_learners/informal_adult_learning/white_paper to find out more
OR

http://www.dius.gov.uk/~/media/publications/L/learning_revolution for the publication. 

"Over the past several years there has been a rise in the number of mergers among further education (FE) colleges. This has been against a background of changes to the structure and role of the FE sector. This report is based on research undertaken by LSN to examine the factors that drive mergers among colleges, the circumstances in which they happen, and the elements that make them work."

Download the publication at https://www.lsneducation.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=090067.

• Again But Slower
• Search Options: Google
• Spezify
• WolframAlpha
  

• Also take a look at Factbook in the Geography Section

Unlike the implication from the logo, again but slower could be useful for...

• young learners (Family Learning)
• non experts and
• people who are still learning English

I've included Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> and Simple English Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_English_Wikipedia> in previous issues of the eMagazine;

AgainButSlower is a mashup website that displays both versions of Wikipedia, helping learners to understand the harder to read Wikipedia pages.

Simply...

• type an article name or URL in the box
• click the “Again, but slower” button.

AgainButSlower will try to load the original article and the simplified article side-by-side.

Note: - If it doesn’t find the simple version, try a different article - not all Wikipedia articles are translated into simple versions. Currently users can view simplified version of over 59,000 content pages.

Free and no sign up, just go to http://againbutslower.com/.

Google has launched a new feature on their search page – Search Options.

• Do a search on Google
• Notice a new link on the top “Show Options”.
• Click on it to open up a plethora of new search tools that helps you filter and refine your searches in a whole lot of ways.

1: Google already displays videos and forum results within the search. Now you can filter the results to display only videos or forum threads.
.
2: The Review feature is really useful for someone who is shopping online.

• Just enter the product name and
• choose the Review option to get only reviews of the product. Google actually pulls important snippets out from the review and shows them directly on the search page.

3: There are also some time options that enables users to narrow down the search to...

• recent,
• past 24 hours or
• the past week or
• year.

4: Even more time specific search options are available with the “Timeline” feature. Timeline allows users to go back in time and search for items during specific time periods.

5: The Wonder Wheel is a visual representation of how different topics are related to each other. it has its uses but isn't very useful for searching information. 

Just open google and have a go yourself http://www.google.co.uk/. 

Spezify is a new online attempt at creating an easy-to-browse visual search engine.

To use Spezify...

• type a word or phrase at the top of the page where it reads "enter any word here." Note - There isn't a clearly defined search box
• type the enter key
• Spezify searches Google and Yahoo for results. Results are displayed visually with small screen captures, images, and text boxes. You can browse the search results using the arrow keys on your keyboard or using your mouse.

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

This online 'Computational knowledge engine' was brought to my attention by Chrissie Turkington and Bill Pearson thanks Chrissie & Bill!

Wolfram|Alpha isn't a search engine, it's a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.

Wolfram|Alpha is...

• free for personal noncommercial use as described in its Terms of Use. Subscriptions will be available in the near future with enhanced features for large-scale and commercial use.
• for Everyone! Its goal is to bring expert-level knowledge to everybody.

Eventually, it is in alpha development currently, users should be able to ask it about essentially any kind of systematic factual knowledge. Users can get an idea of what it currently covers by looking at the Examples.

Watch the overview video at http://www96.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html.

Find out more and/or try it out at http://www96.wolframalpha.com/.

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

• O and X Challenge
• UCLAN Art student creates invisible car with a paint-job
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section.

The Panamericana School of Art and Design

created a clever ad campaign that could make a great exercise for art/design/Family Learning classes.

It’s a simple idea that I came across on...

at http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/05/06/school-of-art-and-design-creativity-test/.

The challenge consists of a sheet of paper with a series of Xs or Os. Learners are challenged to use these X and O as starting points to create as many drawings as they can.

A simple idea, which could make a great introduction activity.

Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.

She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston.

The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.

See the end result and read the full BBC article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8030766.stm. 

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

• TypingWeb
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

TypingWeb is a Free online service for those who want to learn touch typing.

TypingWeb provides a variety of interactive tutorials to learn quick typing for all levels (beginner, advanced, special).

To use, simply...

• select the tutorial you want and
• start typing.

Find out more by visiting http://www.typingweb.com/ and Learn Quick Typing Online.

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

• Sugar Stacks
  • Also look at A Balanced Diet in the Science Section
    
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section
  

Sugar Stacks is a good website for understanding how much sugar is in the food and beverages that we consume.

Sugar Stacks lists popular food and beverage items in ten categories;

• Beverages
• Breakfast Foods
• Candy
• Cookies
• Desserts
• Fruits
• Sauces
• Shakes & Smoothies
• Snacks and
• Vegetables

note some of the foods included are not available here in the UK. Every item is pictured with a stack of sugar cubes. Each sugar cube represents four grams of sugar. This is a great way to see just how much sugar you really consume in your favourite snack or beverage.

Sugar Stacks provides good effective visuals that health practitioners could use to show learners just how much sugar they consume. Practitioners could also adopt this concept of Sugar Stacks and task learners to create their own visuals (for UK foods) with sugar cubes.

Go to http://www.sugarstacks.com/ to investigate further.

Here I've chosen an example showing there is sugar in vegetables as well... 

PS I don't like Corn on the cob! 

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

• Writing Den
  • Take a look at iWrite in the English Language-Literature section of this eMagazine
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

The Writing Den is an online reference for student writers.

Writing Den offers learners...

• a word of the day,
• tips on grammar rules, and
• tips on sentence and paragraph construction.

For practitioners Writing Den offers ideas for using the resources in their classrooms.

Writing Den doesn't have a web 2.0 feel, but still offers some useful tips for learners and practitioners.

Go to http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/index.htm to find out more.

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

• A Simple Measure
• CD DVD Cover Creator
• Repper
  
  • See UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams in the eAdministration Section
  • Converticious in the Engineering Section
  • O and X Challenge in the Art Section.
    
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

A Simple Measure takes the repetitive and mundane tasks of decorating; measuring

• floors,
• walls,
• fixtures, and
• fittings,

A Simple Measure allows Decorators and/or homeowners to store measurements in one easy to access online portal. Meaning that each time users...

• redecorate,
• re-floor, or
• simply buy a new sofa,

...the only thing they need to do is access the required dimensions online.

And the best bit? It’s free to use. The concept behind A Simple Measure can also be applied to gardens, allotments, nurseries, and personal work spaces.

What’s more measurements can be accessed anytime, anywhere, by logging on to http:// www.asimplemeasure.com and entering the user name and password. Measurements can be accessed with one quick click. Simple!

We are informed that there are lots more features coming soon too! This is only the beginning…

Apart from the obvious use, A Simple Measure can also be used for Key Skills - measurement and DIY for example.

CD/DVD CoverCreator is what it says in the title, it lets users type and illustrate their own CD/DVD covers or booklets and then print them out.

It allows users to...

• customize almost any part of the cover,
• create multiple pages,
• select from a variety of layout templates,
• apply different background colours,
• add text and
• draw.

CD/DVD CoverCreator is free and there is no sign up, just...

...go to http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/cd-dvd/ and start using it.

Repper is a web utility for creating patterns online. The application is simple and easy to use, all you need to do is upload an image (or click for random one) and then use editor to to make the pattern.

Repper’s editor grabs a part of the image and repeats it in both directions creating pattern effect. The varieties of patterns you can make are limitless. Created patterns can be saved onto your computer, used as background on a social network or used on websites etc. (CSS code provided).

Try it out for yourself at http://repper.studioludens.com/.

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

• Crrncy: Currency Converter
  
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential,
  in our Over2U section

Crrncy is a simple and elegant currency converter.

Users can convert between...

• United States Dollars (USD),
• Euros (EUR),
• British Pounds (GBP) and
• Swedish Kronas (SEK).

Either

• Click on a flag to make it a default currency,
• enter the amount and
• click Enter to convert.

Or

• Type...

• http://gbp.crrncy.com/281 in the address bar to convert an amount of 281 where British Pounds are the default currency - or
• http://eur.crrncy.com/281 in the address bar to convert an amount of 281 where Euros are the default currency - or
• http://usd.crrncy.com/281 in the address bar to convert an amount of 281 where U.S. Dollars are the default currency - or
• http://sek.crrncy.com/281 in the address bar to convert an amount of 281 where Swedish Kronas are the default currency.

The Crrncy website will open with the correct currency, amount and conversion. (click on the links to try it out)

Or

• just type http://www.crrncy.com/27,95 if the default currency is already selected.

Go to http://www.crrncy.com/ to try it out or use one of the options above.

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

• Converticious
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

A Clean & Simple Unit Conversion Application

Converticious is intuitive allowing users to quickly convert...

• temperature,
• volume,
• distance,
• weight,
• area and
• speed units

...online.

The application has  clutter free and user friendly interface.

To convert, simply go to the site,

• chose what you want to convert,
• type in a value,
• select the units to convert from and to
• select the numer of decimal places required (accuracy) and then
• click “Convert”.  That’s it!

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

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

• Every Day Poets
• iWrite
• Ode to Poetry
  
• Write Rhymes
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Every Day Poets publishes a new poem everyday.

Poems of up to 60 lines/500 words or fewer are published daily, to be read during a lunch hour, in transit, or even over a meal.

Encourage learners to browse around the site, check out the archives, or even sign up to receive a poem in your inbox... every day!

If practitioners/learners add their email address to the subscribe box they will receive a new poem everyday in their email.

Visit http://www.everydaypoets.com/ to find out more.

Great Source iWrite <http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/index.html> features an animated and narrated glossary of grammar terms.

In this glossary users will find...

• animated,
• narrated videos

...explaining...

• the use of punctuation.
• the parts of speech and
• the mechanics of writing

If practitioners want their learners to do any type of formal writing, the Great Source iWrite glossary of grammar terms is a great reference; just go to http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/students/s_grammar_hndbk.html to find out more.

See the example below (it may take a little time to load)...

This post, from Making Teachers Nerdy, is a freebie to help practitioners and/or learners with their own poetry units.

They have identified a list of poetry generators online along with a few ideas that might help spark a little creativity...

Read the full post at http://mrssmoke.onsugar.com/3118203.

Write Rhymes is a fun and useful site for creative and/or lyric writing and poetry writing purposes (yes, I do realize most poems don't rhyme).

Write Rhymes finds words to rhyme with just about any other word.

I've experimented and each time Write Rhymes came up with something.

To use Write Rhymes simply...

• type a word in the text box then
• alt-click on it to see a list of rhyming words (broken into a list of 1, 2, 3 etc., syllables).

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

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

• A Kingdom For Every Child
• Edupics
• This is sand
  

• Take a look at Scribble Maps in the Geography section
• Early Mouse Movements in the eInclusion Section
• Hiyah.net also in the eInclusion Section and
• O and X Challenge in the Art Section

• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

In their words...

“Unique art gift! Fun way to display a family tree. Make a child a king or queen!”

An ideal resource for parents/guardians/Family Learning Practitioners etc. that want to encourage children to develop their imagination and self-confidence.

Kidlandia lets children make their imaginary kingdoms become real. On this site parents/guardians/Family Learning Practitioners etc., will be able to help children create their own kingdom with friendly monsters, and fantastic characters they can place on their kingdom’s map.

Children, with help if needed, will be able to name their kingdom’s cities and territories and place different monsters and creatures wherever they want. It is also possible to name other territories with names of relatives and friends.

By using Kidlandia, children will have ownership of maps, as well as opportunities to talk about friends and family, improve reading, drawing and social skills.

In case you just want to create your own kingdom, I have, just go to http://www.kidlandia.com/.

EduPics is a must have resource, for Learners engaged in Initial Teacher Training, practitioners, parents and guardians, that contains educational photographs and free colouring drawings for children.

Browse drawings and photographs by categories (at the time of writing this there were 7776 drawings in 40 categories) or search with keywords.

Download pictures onto a computer in different sizes or print them out from the website.

Users can rate, download and print pictures without registration.

If users register, they can save their favourite pictures in a personal album for later use.

Take a look at http://www.edupics.com/.

ThisIsSand and an interactive whiteboard (IAW) allows everyone (even children if they have to ☺) to play with sand all day without getting any sand between their toes.

Young children are absolutely transfixed by this activity that simply drops sand from anywhere they touch on the IAW; especialy if it is a SmartBoard and they can use their finger. If you touch and drag your finger/pen, the sand follows your movements and drops sand from wherever your finger is.

The onscreen keyboard can be used to change the colour of the sand and by double-clicking the sand fall continuously without touching the IAW.

Is there an educational value to this activity?

Play around at http://thisissand.com/ and discover for yourself.

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

• Fresh Ideas for Learner Projects
• Life Online
• Pimp Your Font
• Readability
• Solvr: Group Problem Solving Application
• WordSift
  • Also see - Scribble Maps in the Geography section of this eMagazine
• Why don't you suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Fresh Brain, funded in part by Sun Microsystems, provides practitioners and learners with ideas for technology projects.

By visiting Fresh Brain learners and practitioners can find projects in which they...

• build games,
• build Facebook and iPhone applications,
• make mash-up videos and
• web pages.

I personally feel that the most valuable element is - Fresh Brain provides a list of suggested tools and getting started guides for completing each task.

So if you are a practitioner, looking for creative ways to bring digital content creation into the classroom, then you should explore Fresh Brain at http://www.freshbrain.org/.

LMK Life Online is a gender specific website created for the purpose of educating girls about online safety.

LMK Life Online is sponsored by the U.S.A. Girl Scouts and Microsoft.

On the site girls can learn, through articles and videos, about protecting themselves from online predators.

Girls will also find lessons about cyberbullying and online privacy. After reading the articles and watching the videos, girls can test their knowledge through interactive quizzes.

In general, LMK Life Online is a good place for girls to learn about protecting themselves while online. It is a site that I would recommend to parents/guardians and/or family learning practitioners, who are looking for materials to teach their daughters/learners about online safety.

Find out more at http://lmk.girlscouts.org/.

Pimp Your Font was designed by a group of professionals that wanted to create the world's largest TrueType fonts collection. 

Pimp Your Font provides practitioners/managers/learners etc., the chance to find all the fonts they need in a very effective and fast way.

Pimp Your Font is an online resource that provides users in excess of 10000 free fonts.

In their own words...

“Cool fonts! 10000+ Free TrueType Fonts. The largest hand-selected archive in the Net. Have a look at our TOP 100 list”

View and download the fonts at http://www.pimpyourfont.com/. 

Message from Alan Tuckett, Director, NIACE

Dear Colleagues

Did you know that a "typical" editorial in The Sun has a (SMOG) readability level of under 14, The Daily Express is under 16 but The Telegraph and The Guardian both score over 17?

How can you be confident that you are writing at a level that is appropriate for your audience? We have been working with Professor Colin Harrison at Nottingham University to develop a new tool, which is now on the NIACE website that will help you to establish the "readability level" of any text instantly. There is also a downloadable leaflet <http://shop.niace.org.uk/readability.html> which will help you to interpret the readability score given, and provide more information about how to present text so that it is easier to read.

You can find both the readability calculator and the leaflet at http://www.niace.org.uk/development-research/readability.

To celebrate Adult Learners Week we thought you might like to test a small piece of your writing'

Please also flag it up to colleagues and organisations in your networks. We are hoping that it will bring users to our website.

Yours sincerely
Alan

Sent by Alan Tuckett
Director
NIACE

 

 

Solvr is an interesting collaborative problem solving tool which lets users collaboratively discuss problems and ideas over the Internet.

The application provides platform where users can enter thoughts or problems and then invite others to add ideas on how to solve them.

Each suggested idea will be presented as a separate branch. Everyone can vote on suggested ideas and even add a new problems to some ideas.

To start, simply...

• enter your 'problem' and
• click "Start" button.
• Solvr will create a new and unique page for your entry,
• grab the URL and use it to invite others.

Features:

• Helps with collaborative problem solving and decision making.
• Users can Create and collaborate on as many problems as they want.
• Users can Invite as many collaborators as they like, by forwarding the URL.
• Everybody who knows the URL can do everything...
  • add idea(s)
  • add problem(s)
  • add comment(s)
• Users can print out discussions.
• It's Free with no registration.

Try it out at http://www.a.freshbrain.com/solvr/.

Visualize Text - Demonstration: César Chávez

WordSift is a tool that has been created primarily for practitioners. It is an online resource that is available to instantly capture and display the vocabulary structure of texts, and to help create an opportunity to talk and play with language.

WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts...

• cut and paste any text into WordSift and users can engage in a verbal quick-capture!
  

The program helps users to quickly identify important words that appear in the text.

Note: This function is widely available in various Tag Cloud programs on the web, but here it is integrated with a few other functions, such as visualization of word relationships and Google searches of images and videos.

With just a click on any word in the Tag Cloud, the program displays instances of sentences in which that word is used in the text.

For practitioners, the tool offers a quick way of assessing the text that he or she is using for instruction. Practitioners assess learners, and the most successful practitioners use this information to guide their teaching.

So why not assess the text as well? By using WordSift, practitioners get a heads up on key vocabulary appearing in the text, and can line instruction up with what might be challenging for learners.

Watch the video clip below to find out more...

Or try it out at http://www.wordsift.com/.

P.S.  Try copying and pasting in the "Harnessing Technology" document or "The Excellence Framework" - makes interesting reading; I think I found out more by doing just that!

Overview of Geography Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Factbook
• MapTrot
• Scribble Maps
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

FactBook is website which provides users with a unique way to retrieve facts about countries of the world.

FactBook provides users with a set of filters that helps them to easily find out what they need.

For example, lets say you want to find out Which South American countries speak English? All you have to do click on to South America first and then click on to English language. The results showing all English speaking South American countries will be presented.

The results can be sorted even further using other filters such as...

• population,
• religions,
• GDP,
• government type,
• natural resources,
• continent,
• neighbours… etc.

Try it out for yourself at http://factbook.bodukai.com/.

MapTrot is an easy-to-use online map creation tool.

To use MapTrot simply...

• click "create a map" to get started.
• There are three methods for creating placemarks on your map.
  
  • By entering an address,
  • By specifying latitude and longitude coordinates, or
  • by simply zooming in and clicking on a location. Note: I found zooming in and clicking on a location to be the easiest of the three methods.
• After specifying the location of a placemark you can add information about your chosen location.

The map below is one that I created in about 1 minute using MapTrot...

MapTrot is a tool for introducing students to making maps online. MapTrot has many uses - learners could map...

• the locations in a story/article/journal etc., they've read.
• the locations of volcanoes or the site of an earthquakes.
• the birthplaces of artists and/or the location of significant works of architecture

...and so much more.

Visit http://maptrot.com/ to find out more.

Scribble Maps is both fun and a useful application for drawing and typing on Google Maps.

Using Scribble Maps users can...

• draw on any Google map
• type on any Google map
• still use the zoom options
• still use most of the search options available

Zoom in on an area - type text - draw a circle or a box around an area, even doodle cartoon figures or whatever you like on your map.

Here is one I doodled earlier...

Or visit http://www.scribblemaps.com/#id=_hYbl4aAkY.

Note: Maps created by using Scribble Maps can be shared via email or embedded into websites, eXe documents, VLEs etc.

Scribble Maps could be a good resource for practitioners & learners of geography, history, or current events. Using Scribble Maps learners could create a map on which they highlight various sites and include short text descriptions of those places.

Go to http://scribblemaps.com to try it out.

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

• Take a look at Scribble Maps in the Geography Section,

• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

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

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

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

• Take a look at Money Bingo in the Mathematics Section
• Crrncy: Currency Converter in the Economics Section
• Converticious in the Engineering Section
• Create a Quiz in the Software - Hardware Section
• iWrite in the English Language-Literature section and 
• A Simple Measure in the Design Section
  
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Overview of Land-based Studies Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Take a look at Converticious in the Engineering Section

Overview of Language Resources included in this eMagazine...

• TypeIt
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

If learners and/or practitioners have the need to type anything in a foreign language which has accents and other strange-looking characters, and you only have a keyboard, your life can be miserable.

You used to have to do one of the following...

• ignore the special characters
• memorize unintuitive keyboard "shortcuts" such as Alt+0128
• go letter-hunting with the Character Map in Windows or Word
• install Windows keyboard layouts which have the nasty side effect of interfering with your ability to type normal letters
• buy and install third-party text input software

Now, using Unicode and JavaScript, users can just...

• navigate to TypeIt,
• type whatever is needed into the text box, and then
• copy & paste it wherever you need it - into your word processor, e-mail message, etc.

Users can type foreign characters by clicking a button or by pressing an intuitive keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Letter); this doesn't block normal letters.

Try it out at http://www.typeit.org/.

Note: In Firefox and Safari, the keyboard shortcuts are disabled, so users will need to use the on-screen buttons to type any foreign characters.

Languages covered include Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and English Phonetic Symbols.

Overview of Mathematics Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Money Bingo
  • See also Converticious in the Engineering Section and
  • Crrncy: Currency Converter in the Economics Section
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

An excellent resource for Initial Teacher Training, Key Skills and Family Learning.

Maths worksheet wizard has money bingo in three currencies:

• British,
• US$ and
  
• Euros.

Its very quick and easy to use.The worksheet generator makes a different worksheet when Make Worksheet is clicked.

Note: The same coins appears in each worksheet but they are in a different order and one of the coins is repeated twice.
This means that when learners play this bingo remember to have the rule of crossing off one coin at a time otherwise everyone wins at the same time!

Take a closer look at http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/kindergarten/money.html.

Overview of Media Resources included in this eMagazine...

• 80+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy
• Dumpr
• Dvolver - was Dfilm -  Adds Embed Code
  • Take a look at UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams in the eAdministration Section
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Alec Couros, professor of educational technology and media at the University of Regina (USA), helps new teachers become technologically and media literate. I've just become aware of his blog Open Thinking.

One of his blogs pulls together a collection of videos that touch on technology and media literacy. The videos are, in the main, informative and some are entertaining.

It’s a collection well worth a closer look.

Go to http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1480 to find out more.

Create photo effects in 3 easy steps...

1. select the effect you want to process. Each effect has its own customizations options.
2. Users will be prompted to upload a photo (or image) from their PC.
   Some effects offer several variations (ie, pick a museum to hang your photos in.)
3. When done, click Continue and the uploaded image will be processed immediately.

There is no limit on how many effects users can generate. Most of our effects are free but some are for PRO users only. We are told this is because some require more computing power than others.

After dumpr has processed photographs, the results will be displayed. Above the resulting image users will notice a menu. Click on "Save" and select where to save this file on the PC.

I understand that photographs taken on Geography/Science field-trips/field-studies can be converted, very effectively into field sketches (using the Photo Pencil Sketch effect)

Try it out at http://www.dumpr.net/.

Here is one I made earlier... 

Last time I put fingers to keyboard, about Dvolver, it was called Dfilm. Whatever it's name, it is a really great site that allows both learners and practitioners to create animated Flash cartoon movies with their own dialogue in just a couple of minutes.

I'm delighted to say that, since my last visit, an embed code has been added for movies created. This, I'm sure you will agree, is great news as it makes it much easier to share the end product and, if required, include them in digital materials such as ePortfolios, blogs, web pages, eXe documents etc.

Visit http://dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html to try it out yourself.

Overview of Music Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Interactive Whiteboards: Music to my Ears
• Top 5 Sites For Learning Piano Online
• Bach played by dancers!
  
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

For music and Family Learning practitioners and learners and Initial Teacher Training Students.

A fun collection of interactive websites related to Music that work well on Interactive Whiteboards.

1. Sphinz Kids - contains interactive games and videos from the Sphinx Classical Connections CD-Rom as well as from the New York Philharmonic's KidZone website. Thanks to the New York Philharmonic and their Educational Department for sharing their technology!
   Go to http://www.sphinxkids.org/index.html.
2. Freaky Frank's Music Machine - Use the IAW to access Drums - Bass - Acoustic Guitars - Synthesizer and Sound effects.
   Go to http://www.paulysplayhouse.com/paulys_playhouse/lab_games/franky.html.
3. Arts Alive - In their words "Orchestral music is lots of fun and these activities and games prove it".
   Go to http://www.artsvivants.ca/en/mus/activitiesgames/.
4. Note Names - An IAW Activity for beginners (Family Learning etc)
   Go to http://www.classicsforkids.com/games/notename/notename.html.

It’s extremely difficult to find legitimate free piano lessons online. MakeUseOf has come up with a list of five of the most useful and educational piano lessons around. Their criteria for classifying a website with piano lessons as useful and “top-ranking” was the following.

• The quality and skill level of the website author’s music expertise
• The “intent” of the website - does it only exist to sell you something or to actually teach you about playing piano?
• The technology - are there flash or java applications that let you actually play music based on the lesson at hand?

Using these criteria, they were able to isolate five useful and high-quality piano lesson websites that anyone could use to teach themselves how to play the piano.

They include...

• Zebra Keys
• PianoNanny
• Plern Piano
• BerkleeShares - from the Berklee College of Music and
• Ricci Adams' Music Theory 

Find out more at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-sites-for-learning-piano-online/.

 

Two talented women run up and down the keys on the giant floor-piano at FAO Schwarz, belting out an astounding rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bach never looked so good...

Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhAiDiHYP9k to view on YouTube.

Overview of Science Resources included in this eMagazine...

• A Balanced Diet
• ActiveScience GSK
• Boolean logic
• Build an Atom
• Medical Animation Library
• Oxygen
• Sports Science
  • Also take a look at Sugar Stacks in the Catering Section and
    
  • Converticious in the Engineering Section.
    
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Health education is vital but it can be quite difficult (and a little boring) to explain the concept of a balanced diet.

Practitioners can use some great interactive websites and their IWB (Interactive White Board) to help learners learn the concepts of a balanced diet.

ActiveScience GSK has a great interactive activity called...wait for it...Balanced Diet that lets learners...

• interact with six different people,
• read about their goals for a balanced diet and
• choose the best meals throughout the day.

Feedback about their choice of diet helps educate them about the importance of the types of foods they are eating.

This activity also has supporting worksheets including a word search and a word scramble.

Try it out at http://www.activescience-gsk.com/module13/home.html.

A couple of things to point out, this application provides helpful information when you move your mouse over certain items. SMART Board users should use the Floating Mouse feature to get full benefit from the software.

A short tutorial is available at http://www.teacheronlinetraining.com/library/mod/resource/view.php?id=637.

Active Science provides a range of different interactive modules to choose from including...

• Humans and Animals
• Illustrated Materials Database
• Mission Material
• Humans and Animal Habitats
• Energy Challenge
• Population growth
• Body Builder
• The Heart
• Materials Database
• Balanced Diet
• Elements Database
• Population Growth and Predators (Spreadsheet)
• Selective Breeding & Genetic Engineering
• Enzymes in Biotechnology
• Interactive Periodic Table

These are aimed at a wide range of learners from younger to older. The content of the modules relate closely to the National Curriculum for England and Wales. Curriculum mapping is also provided.

Try them out at http://www.activescience-gsk.com/home.html. 

Logicly: An interesting logic gate simulator.

Logicly simulates the boolean algebra performed by logic gates, which are a vital part of digital circuitry and computer architecture.

Built by Josh Tynjala with Adobe Flex, this application showcases flexwires, an open source component library for creating drag-and-drop data connections.

Add different logic gates (AND, NAND, XOR etc) connect it with wires and put a bulb at the output.

• If the bulb lights up when you apply the inputs the result is one.
• If it remains off, its a zero.

Try it out for yourself at http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/Logicly.html.

Build an Atom: Is a simple collection of images showing the inside structure – electrons, protons, shells and orbitals of atoms of all the elements.

Take a closer look and/or try it out on an Interactive Whiteboard at http://keithcom.com/atoms/index.php.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System provides nearly 200 video animations and explanations of injuries, diseases, and body systems. The animations are concise which makes them good for general reference purposes.

The medical animation library could be a useful resource for biology and health practitioners, and practitioners of anatomy and physiology.

Go to http://pennhealth.com/health_info/animationplayer/ to find out more.

I just had to include this...
Now, if all science classes where this interesting, I guess it wouldn’t be very hard to get learners interested again!

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

"This is Oxygen, produced at the Ringling College of Art + Design as my thesis for the department of Computer Animation.

As a recent graduate, I am hoping this film along with a number of effects I have done for other students will help me get a job doing vfx for film, tv, or games.

Visit my website at http://particleart.com to see my reel and (not quite so fantastic as this) other work!"

If users want some ideas about getting into shape and/or are looking for workout routines, they could try Workouts. I'm not qualified to say if these resources are good or not but I do like the interactive image for selecting muscle groups...

On this website users can...

• Select a muscle group
• They then get a number of related workout links pulled from Del.icio.us.
• Users can then click through to the actual resources in turn and get more info.

Sports Science practitioners could get their learners to evaluate the 'workouts' as part of assessments and/or highlight quality resources.

Do let me know what you think.

Visit http://strongestman.org/?page_id=143 to find out more.

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

• No Resources this month
  

• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

The free web tool BeFunky can be used to transform digital photographs.

In turn they can be used to produce personalised 'comics/stories' in Word or PowerPoint or Photo Story 3 etc. Befunky does not require registration and images can be saved straight to a PC.

The 'comics/stories' could be embedded into blogs, web pages, eXe documents etc., by using SlideShare or similar software.

If users decide to import images into Word or PowerPoint users can use Autoshapes to add narrative text and speech bubbles (known as Callouts).

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

Here is one I made earlier...

Buttonator is an online web buttons maker letting users create web buttons for use on web pages.

Just...

• Choose a button design from different button categories
  
  • Old Buttons
  • Large,
  • One Round Corner,
  • Rounded,
  • Special,
  • Square,
  • Tabs
  • Web2.0
• Drag-and-drop to apply the design to the button.
• Change...
  • text properties,
  • text and
  • background colours and
• Apply different effects.

Users can create as many buttons as required and download them to their computer with one click - image format GIF.

No sign up needed. However if users sign up, they will get to host their buttons on the site and link to them from web pages.

Visit http://www.buttonator.com/ to try it out.

Content Generator's programs allow users to generate their own e-Learning...

• quizzes,
• games and
• applications - no coding required.

The...

• Multiple Choice quiz generator
• Match-up quiz generator and
• Fling the Teacher generator

...are all free.

To download, users need to registering and joining as forum. There is no charge - just register and confirm an email address. You can then download the software immediately.

Go to http://www.contentgenerator.net/ to find out more and/or download the free software.

Here is one I made with the multi-choice quiz generator...

• Create quizzes and share them online with colleagues and learners. These quizzes are flash based and are learner engaging.


• Post the quiz, in blogs, myspace, and other social networking and blogging sites and in eXe documents VLEs etc., allowing learners to take the quiz directly.


• You can view the scores and know how learners fared when taking the quiz - I'm not sure if you would get all scores but they are ranked.

• Ideal for Formative Assessment

Here is one I made earlier...


Create A Quiz | View Scores

Sign up and/or find out more at http://www.funquizcards.com/ or create a quiz by going directly to http://www.funquizcards.com/qc/step1.php.

P.S.

1. Nik Peachy's "Daily English Activities" at http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2009/05/take-and-make-quiz.html is a nice resource/activity for ESOL/EFL/ESL. Thanks for flagging this Nik.
2. I took the...

Test

and this is what I got...

Anybody get anything different?

Early days as yet as I've only just applied for a Beta login. What I've seen so far is potentially impressive.

Users will be able to...

• Draw,
• share and
• collaborate on
  
  • online diagrams,
  • flowcharts,
  • office and home network diagrams,
  • mockups,
  • user interface designs,
  • wireframes,
  • Class diagrams,
  • UML diagrasm,
  • ER Diagrams, and
  • process flows.

Watch the video below to get an overview or watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTn31irqNCg...

Visit http://creately.com/ to find out more or to register.

Farkie is a free online application which can be used to Download...

• Youtube Videos,
• MySpace Playlists, 
• movies,
• audio,
• images,
• javascript,
• ajax,
• objects,
• applications,
• flash,
• links and much much more...

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

Free-ORC is an online application that can recognize and extract text from image files such as...

• scanned documents,
• photographs or
• digital camera captured pictures.

Extracted text will be presented as plain text.

The application currently supports...

• a PDF,
• JPG,
• GIF,
• TIFF,
• BMP or
• PNG files

and can recognize 6 languages...

• English,
• German,
• French,
• Italian,
• Dutch and
• Spanish.

Try it out at http://www.free-ocr.com/.

Phone.io makes it easier than it was with the original Drop.io voice service to push your voice recordings to iTunes or embed your voice recording as an MP3 into blogs, VLEs, eXe documents, websites etc.

As many of you know, I've been experimenting with an audio version of the What DL is Happening? Blog; options so far include...

• Listening to the Audio Blog - embedded at the end of each blog entry - http://acljohn.posterous.com/.
• Notifying those who Tweet - using Twitter - searching for #wdlih provides links to all the audio files (right-click links to download)
  and now...
• visiting http://drop.io/wdlihblog visitors can now...
  • subscribe to an RSS Feed or
  • download the Audio Blogs via iTunes

Since Gcast changed from a free model to a minimum $99 fee service, some practitioners have been looking for new ways to share/produce podcasts.

Phone.io provides a simple, free platform for creating short podcasts. The storage limit is 100mb.

Visit http://drop.io/file/phone to find out more and or produce your own drop.

PictureTrail offers several services that enable practitioners and/or learners to express themselves.

• Photo sharing,
• Slick photo slideshows, and
• Image hosting

...will enhance user online community experience.

I'm particularly impresses by the photo slideshows that include...

• 3d Cube
• Rotating Glass
• Floating Pics
• Carousel
• Spiral

...and many more. 

Free and Pro options.

Go to http://www.picturetrail.com/ to find out more. 

Drop.io have just released another free, service, called Present.io.

There is no registration required to use the service and there is no software to install.

To use Present.io...

• create a drop and
• share the drop's unique url (and optional password) with whomever you would like to participate in the conference. 
• When ready to start a conference click "start presentation."

If you create the conference you are the administrator and have full access to show the other participants...

• files,
• links,
• photos, and
• any other media you're using on your computer.

Present.io could be used for conducting online courses and online tutoring sessions, as well as for collaborative work and, as Present.io is entirely web-based it can be used from any computer connected to the Internet.

To find out more and/or set up your own drop go to http://drop.io/?code=present. 

StripMail removes unwanted formatting from your email.

If you or your learners receive an email which has been forwarded multiple times, you’d notice it can be difficult to read if every line is prefixed with one more more ‘>’ characters. 

Stripmail is a great piece of freeware which will help users to strip any unwanted characters from your email and, as an added bonus, formats it into proper paragraphs and indentation so it’s much easier to read. 

Stripmail is a free standalone utility which does not require installation so it’s incredibly light and portable.

Find out more and/or download at http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/.

Stupeflix is a new web based application, currently in Beta testing and free, which allows users, practitioners & learners. to combine images and audio in order to create professional videos for use in the classroom or as vodcasts (video podcasts).

Vodcasting can be very intimidating, as it requires a fair bit of ICT knowledge as regards file formats and file conversions for example.

Stupeflix simplifies this process considerably with its...

• intuitive upload,
• drag and drop interface and
• automated file conversion.

To create a vodcast in minutes...

• Upload pictures and audio
• Rearrange them and group them by simply dragging and dropping them in place.
• Look for the + icon to...
  • add text either individually to each picture or to groups of pictures
  • add sound either individually to each picture or to groups of pictures; note - recordings can be produced using Audacity (You may want to join my next Audacity and CamStudio Workshop on the 16th June 2009; keep an eye our events section of our website for more details).
• To Generate the video...
  • chose the format you need
  • click the Generate Video button at the bottom of your screen. Rendering times, the time it takes the service to generate your video, are comparatively fast.

Stupeflix's drag and drop editor fulfills most users’ needs; the more advanced xml editor however allows users to tweak and fine tune the video, allowing users greater control over...

• effects and transitions,
• durations,
• font colour and
• audio

Vodcast your video

As well as generating a unique URL for the video, Stupeflix allows users to download their video for off line viewing.

To make a true vodcast, i.e. a recording which is available for download via syndication (RSS), users will have to sign up to a vodcast publishing service. Podomatic supports both podcasts and vodcasts and it is free for the first 500 MB of storage.

This means that...

• learners can subscribe to practitioner vodcasts
• practitioners/assessors/verifiers/employers etc. can subscribe to learner vodcasts (for ePortfolio evidence perhaps?)

...via iTunes.

Find out more and/or give it a go at http://www.stupeflix.com/.

"I'm the Web Master for a learning provider; some of the links on our website are broken. How can I check, periodically, the links on my website without 'Checking them manually'?."

Broken links are a pain , no matter where they are and, as you say, checking them manually isn't a realistic option. Wouldn't it be helpful if there was a service that did it all for you?

Now there is, located at http://validator.w3.org/checklink, just...

• enter the URL of your website
• it will scan all your links for you, to make sure nothing fails
• it will provide you with a breakdown of any issues that it finds with any links on your site

This is obviously super-helpful if you maintain a website with hundreds or thousands of links; another tool to save you time. 

"I use Outlook for sending and managing emails; is there a way I can stop emails from being sent if I forget to...

• add a subject
• add an attachment?

Also, is there a way that I can print out the parts of an email I want to print and, by doing so, save paper?"

The answer is yes to all three; the solution being - one download...

Download Outlook 2007 Essentials and once loaded it...

• provides a reminder about missing subject lines. If users try to send a mail with the subject line blank, a reminder window will pop open. Users then have the option to...
  • cancel the email and return back to compose mode to correct the error, or
  • ignore it and send the mail anyway.
• will alert users if they mention an attachment in the mail but forget to actually attach the file. If words like “attach” and “attachment” are used in an email message and users then try to send the mail without attaching a file, Outlook will pop open a window reminding users of the missing attachment.
• the last feature that is added to Outlook 2007 is the ability to print a selected portion of any email message. To do this...
  • Locate the email in the inbox
  • right-click on the email,
  • select Outlook Essentials Mail Viewer and
  • select the section of the mail users wish to print.

To find out more, and/or download Outlook 2007 Essentials, go to http://www.oe2007.ifastnet.com/.

Word isn't a full-featured layout program, but it does offer some tools that let users control the position of text on a page. The following text and images show users how to use a column setting to get text where you want it (and keep it there).

As an example, assume the text in columns for a newsletter looks like this...

An image is required in the first column so a space needs creating.

Users could...

• use the Enter key to move the text, but any edits to the first column will likely move the text back into the first column or push it farther down the second column
• use word wrap on the image, but  again any edits to the first column will likely move the text back into the first column or push it farther down the second column

Follow these steps to avoid having to reposition the text again:

1. Click at the beginning of the block of text you want to reposition in the next column.
2. Go to Format | Columns.
   In Word 2007,
   click the Page Layout tab then
   click Columns in the Page Setup group and
   select More Columns.
3. Select This Point Forward from the Apply To drop-down list
   
4. Select the Start New Column check box - see above
5. Click OK.

Users can now insert a picture into the space in the first column, without having to reposition the text in the next column, as shown here...

My posterous Blog provides 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.

Latest News...

Upon reflection, I decided to experiment with an audio version of the Blog; this would enable practitioners/managers/administrators etc., to listen to the blog online or on their mp3 players.

Practicing "what I preach; one size doesn't fit all". We now have...

• The monthly eMagazine
• The Blog (working out to be about 14 per month)
• The audio blog and
• Notification of publication via Twitter (search for #wdlih or go to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23wdlih)