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...

Clicking on the maps will take you to the various media resources.

NEW: - aclJohn's Website

from 24th August 2009 

- from Jan 2009

 

- from June 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...

D. Goodwin's Blog is well worth a visit; in one entry they have included a slide show of Free Web 2.0 Tools.

To view the slide show, go to http://classroomnext.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-web-20-tools.html.

Which came first the video or the Blog? Well in Davids case, the video...

http://blip.tv/file/1262079/ or the embedded copy below

The video forms part of this month's video loop on RSC TV http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/RSC_TV/index.html.

I found the video clip inspirational and I hope you enjoy it as well; the blog is also worth more than a second look and can be found at http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/. 

In their own words...

“Feederr is a web application which creates an image to display your latest blog post titles. Whether it be for a signature, banner or whatever. The image will automatically update each time you publish a new blog post. You can customize the image with your own choice of colours along with the size of the image itself. To begin just enter your blog url or RSS feed url in the input field below and then click the "Let's do it" button.”

All users have to do in order to get going is...

• paste the URL of their blog or (alternatively) the RSS feed in order to instruct Feederr which post should be processed.
• modified the resulting picture by...
  • tweaking the predominant colours
  • resizing it.

Go to http://www.feederr.com/ to produce your own 'updating image link'!

Online learning is revered and respected by an rapidly increasing number of practitioners and learners the world over.

The eLearning Coach is a blog that showcases sites and products that have been reviewed.

Categories include...

• Audio
• Designing eLearning
• How People Learn
• Justifying eLearning
• Learning Objectives
• Storyboarding etc...

Visitors can also browse older postings by month and see the thematic evolution that way if that is what they want. And if visitors want to dig deeper into any of the provided subjects they can check out the "Blogs Of Interest" roll that is featured.

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

Sacha Chua has created an excellent presentation which you can view in her blog.

In the slideshow Sacha shares that she is an introvert and offers advice to other shy people on how to network.

The advice she shares could be used by learners that struggle with shyness preventing them from making connections at work and when in a learning environment.

To view Sacha's blog entry go to http://sachachua.com/wp/2009/08/11/the-shy-connector-thinking-out-loud/.

The slideshow is embedded below...

Mike Fisher has created an interesting wiki called Visual Blooms.

Visual Blooms inserts web resources into the hierarchical categories of Bloom's Taxonomy.

The web resources are placed into the categories of...

• remembering,
• understanding,
• applying,
• analyzing,
• evaluating, and
• creating.

For example, Del.icio.us is placed in the remembering category while Wiki Spaces is placed in the creating category.

I like the way Mike has used Glogster for links within the wiki.

To view the wiki go to http://visualblooms.wikispaces.com/.

Christy Tucker from Experiencing E-Learning has published, in her Experiencing E-Learning Blog, a presentation about the basics of wikis and why they are useful; she has made it with the text-to-movie tool Xtranormal <http://www.xtranormal.com/>.

View "Why a Wiki?" at http://christytucker.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/why-a-wiki/.

FORTHCOMING NIACE EVENTS

Engaging the Learner:

Enhancing the range of reading experiences

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

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

Do you use Skype for communicating with learners?
Are you planning to get a SkypeIn number, so they can contact you on skype?

Wait! don’t buy yet, because there is an alternative and a free one.

Ring2Skype is a free service that allows users to receive calls on Skype from landline and other phone networks free of charge. As you might be aware, that SkypeIn offers the same service but you need to buy the numbers. Ring2Skype on the other hand, is free. That’s not all...

• While SkypeIn is available in only 20 countries, Ring2Skype is available in 40.

When users sign up for Ring2Skype they receive an online number along with an extension. All calls to this number are routed to your Skype ID, which lets you answer calls from Skype no matter where you are on the world. The caller doesn’t even need to have a Skype ID to call you.

Users can have as many online numbers as they want and they can have them in different countries. On a personal note, this can be pretty useful at times. Suppose they have a son living in San Francisco and they live in the UK and their son wants to call them but he doesn’t use Skype. They can register a new Ring2Skype number in San Francisco and ask their son to call that number. Calling a local number in USA would be cheaper for their son than calling the UK number. As for them, they would receive the call in their Skype no matter which number he calls. It’s win-win for both parties.

Register and get a skype number at http://www.ring2skype.com/.

A website for those looking to have some good-natured fun...

CoverDude empowers users to create fake magazine covers; all web-based and intuitive enough - users simply create a fake magazine, and then upload their picture into it.

The resulting picture can be captured/downloaded.

There are many templates to choose from, and the team behind CoverDude hope to add new templates on a daily basis.

Check it out at http://www.coverdude.com/index.php and view some of the designs that have already been created in the “Recent Creations” section to have a good taster.

Can be viewed at http://billychasen.com/clock/.

Personas is an art installation that turns a vanity search of your name in a spectrum of keywords associated with it.

The end product, seen in the spectrum screenshot above, is interesting in its own right, but the most interesting part of Personas is watching it work. After you enter your name, you can see it crunching the text selections from the Google search results. While a good percentage of the quotes that flew by were about me, the remainder were from my interesting dopplegangers; As I said, the process itself is quite interesting.

I tried it out with the name I use online and got a much more accurate piece of experimental artwork. There wasn't a single quote that flew by that wasn't directly related to me. Below is the result...

Try it out for yourself or a colleague, member of the family etc., at http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html.

Dimensión 2.5 - Revolt of the Mouses - Shortfilm from Dimensión 2.5 on Vimeo.

 

"The text below covers Excellence Gateway Case Studies across the 9 regions from the start up to the end of Aug 2009...

...and there were probably more I could have included that you might have been interested in...

...I've tried to select what I thought were most appropriate for your role and interests, under some (very) loose headings!"

 John Davey (RSC Information & Communication Officer)

 

1: Skills

Homefield College: Learning IT and pre-vocational skills through eBay

Published: 22 April 2009

In April 2008 a new vocational enterprise called Aladkins Cave was created by Homefield College as a project to develop the functional and IT skills of its students. The enterprise provides a service buying and selling items on the online auction site, eBay, thereby providing a wealth of learning opportunities for its students.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=197341

Portland College: Testing the switching skills of learners in specialist colleges

Published: 11 November 2008

A learning object aimed at Pre-entry Level learners reliant on switches for computer/communication aid access was developed by Portland College. No escAPE is a motivational game that helps develop an understanding of cause and effect whilst encouraging higher-level switching skills such as timing.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=167843

Darlington Borough Council: Libraries and Community Learning Service

Published: 29 October 2008

Community learning at Darlington Borough Council successfully uses different e-learning methods to attract and attain otherwise difficult-to-reach adults. The age of technology has not been embraced by many of these learners. Once learners have been introduced to computers and online learning, their new skills allow them to keep up with their child's learning and they often continue to gain further qualifications.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=166627

Trinity Training Services: Learning new skills - DVD production for retention and recruitment

Published: 17 November 2008

Learners at Trinity Training Services, a West Midlands work-based learning provider, produced a promotional DVD outlining how Trinity helps young people into employment, and to encourage those at risk of being not in education, employment or training (NEET). The project, a result of a Learner Innovation Grant (LIG), gave learners the chance to gain valuable new skills in technologies they had not previously used.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=168045

2: Resources

City of Sunderland College: Latest technologies inject fun into learning

Published: 13 May 2009

Andrea Errington teaches art and design, i-media and graphic design at City of Sunderland College. She uses a wide range of technologies in her lesson plans, such as mobile phone technology, podcasts, Dreamweaver and Flash, and also creates her own games and quizzes to add fun to learning. Students not only benefit from learning resources created by her with the latest technologies, but also learn how to use these technologies themselves. This provides them with a good grounding in digital work and prepares them for future employment.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=207003

South Tyneside College: Virtual games inject fun into learning

Published: 21 April 2009

Samantha Lavery, Business Lecturer at South Tyneside College, is passionate about making learning as much fun as possible and uses a range of interactive learning materials to enhance her students' learning experience. She develops some learning materials herself but also purchases commercial material from a variety of suppliers. She has recently won the RSC Northern e-Learning Award for Bringing Fun to Learning. The RSC Northern Awards celebrate exceptional contributions to e-learning and education in the North East of England.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=194884

Middlesbrough Adult Education Service: International language project on Moodle

Published: 19 May 2008

Middlesbrough Adult Educational Service has developed an innovative language project where learners can interact directly with native French, Greek or Spanish speakers through their virtual learning environment (VLE).

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=159430

Bede College: Developing virtual revision tools

Published: 2 May 2008

This case study explores the development of an innovative online revision resource for A-level Biology students at Bede Sixth Form College. It is an interactive programme on the college's VLE which combines music and learning.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=158999

New College Worcester: MP3s for learners with visual impairments

Published: 7 April 2008

This case study highlights the effective use of audio technology to support visually impaired learners. The Head of Science at New College Worcester has created a series of MP3s for GCSE Physics and A-level Biology students to re-enforce learning and help with exam revision.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=157248

Bolton Community College: ELVIS on video! - the development of video resources to engage learners in ACL

Published: 26 May 2009

Through its NIACE-funded ELVIS project, Bolton Community College developed a series of video resources to generate interest from the local community in its adult and community learning (ACL) courses. Initially working with a video production company, the College has used further project funding to progress to training tutors in developing effective video content for their courses.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=223866

Hugh Baird College: Hugh Tube - video on demand

Published: 11 December 2008

Three members of staff at Hugh Baird College have created a set of video resources to demonstrate joinery techniques and procedures. Learners can access the resources through touch-screen technology in the workshop environment, enabling them to revisit demonstrations when they are performing these techniques and procedures for themselves.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=169807

3: Staff development and strategy

Harrow Adult, Community and Family Learning: Working inclusively with learners

Published: 12 May 2009

Harrow has adopted a whole-organisation approach to accessibility. Tutors and staff follow a development programme that gives them the confidence, knowledge and access to advice to enable them to support all learners. "Accessibility is incredibly important to us as an organisation", says Harrow's Karen Bhamra, Adult and Community Learning Programme Development Officer. "It has helped shape who we are, the type of employer we are and the models of disability that we use to deliver our services."

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=207113

Sutton College of Learning for Adults: Strategy to practice

Published: 29 October 2008

The vision of developing college-wide access to elearning at SCOLA is supported by the SMT and driven by curriculum managers who, with teaching as part of their role, perceive the benefits to learners. SCOLA has used its planning processes including the self-assessment report (SAR) and the e-Learning Positioning Statement (e-LPS), to take the whole college forward with an evolutionary approach to embedding e-learning.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=167015

Bristol Learning Communities: Councils co-operate to benefit adult learners

Published: 7 April 2008

This case study looks at the benefits for adult learners, which have been achieved through the co-operation of four local authorities who have combined forces to provide a virtual learning environment for their adult learners.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=157238

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Adult & Community Learning Department: Loaning equipment for learning in the community

Published: 29 June 2009

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Adult & Community Learning Department (Rotherham ACL) has developed an equipment loan scheme with their learning providers, as a result of funding from NIACE. This has had a major impact on learners in the community, making more equipment available and increasing learner support. A new IT culture is being established amongst staff and learners alike.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=227513

Calderdale Adult Learning (part of Calderdale Council): Resource Management in the Community

Published: 19 August 2008

Calderdale Adult Learning (part of Calderdale Council) is piloting a new approach to managing community resources to give the community ownership over the management and learning in the centre.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=163065

4: Equipment and technology

Care Training East Midlands: The mobile classroom

Published: 22 April 2009

Care Training East Midlands has successfully developed a carry-case that has all the necessary information learning technology (ILT) equipment to set-up a classroom wherever the learners are based.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=196658

Nottinghamshire County Council: Using ultra mobile PCs in adult and community learning (ACL)

Published: 26 January 2009

Nottinghamshire County Council's Adult and Community Learning Service (ACLS) working in partnership with North Nottinghamshire College have had a successful start in a pilot project using small mobile PCs to carry out teaching and learning in the dispersed community venues that it uses to deliver learning. The new devices have helped incorporate information learning technology (ILT) into settings where it has often been lacking historically, and more tutors are getting the devices as the project expands.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=170621

Thurrock Adult Community College: All aboard! Let's learn!

Published: 6 March 2009

Through LSC funding, Thurrock Adult Community College (TACC) purchased a single-deck bus, equipped with all the essential equipment that has allowed them to deliver fundamental IT skills within local communities. The bus travels to various local towns and villages which in turn has brought learning to the learners. This has proved to be very useful for those who perhaps have difficulty travelling to the main campuses or do not have the confidence to enrol on a course.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=190804

CSV Media Clubhouse

Published: 29 October 2008

CSV Media Clubhouse, a learning provider that specialises in providing work-based training in media and ICT, have adopted and are currently using a low-cost, portable media format called the CVCD which can be used by students to document their skills, interests and abilities using video, audio and other media.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=166786

Southend Adult Community College: Walk like an Egyptian - A new reflection

Published: 18 August 2008

Southend Adult Community College hosts a regular Middle Eastern and Egyptian dance class for all ages and abilities.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=163043

Thurrock and Basildon College: Improving institutional effectiveness through U3 technology (The Quality Pen)

Published: 26 February 2008

This case study looks at the innovative use of U3 technology at Thurrock and Basildon College, which has improved institutional effectiveness by keeping staff regularly up-to-date with college policy and quality standards. In addition, the implementation has saved the college a significant sum of money in printing costs. While the U3 Quality Pen is only used at staff level, it promises to be an effective tool for learners once it can be developed and harnessed effectively.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/article.aspx?o=134662

Southwark College: The impact of low-cost video cameras across the curriculum

Published: 9 December 2008

Southwark has introduced the Busbi - a low-priced, pocket-sized camcorder - to a number of curriculum areas. The Busbi offers one-button video recording and transfers video to a PC easily via a USB connection.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=169097

Richmond Adult Community College: Using technology to make a step change in business efficiency and responsiveness

Published: 19 August 2008

Richmond Adult Community College set out to make better use of technology to transform their business operations and to achieve greater efficiency and cost savings and succeeded in developing an integrated solution that has supported their key business processes during a period of substantial growth.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=163099

Newcastle City Learning and Gosforth Community Education: Social network for adult guitar class students

Published: 19 January 2009

'Jonny's Guitar Classes' is an online social network in Ning for learners of Jonathan McCourt's guitar classes at Gosforth Community Education, which is part of Newcastle City Learning. It contains blogs, discussion forums, video (vodcasts), photos and recordings which support and inform the learners outside their weekly classes. Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=170759

Middlesbrough College: e-Learning and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

Published: 6 November 2008

Middlesbrough College offers its ESOL learners an opportunity to enhance their English as well as a chance to use and develop their ICT skills through the use of technologies such as wikis, blogs and online recordings.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=167747

Portsmouth College: Streaming multimedia

Published: 19 May 2009

Since October 2008, Portsmouth College has been piloting its own internal media streaming service. Simply named TPC.TV, this new facility for students and staff combines open-source software with ‘retired hardware' to provide a highly cost-effective and simple-to-use solution to support teaching and learning with anywhere anytime video resources.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=207602

Amersham embeds exemplar e-learning into ESOL programme

Published: 15 October 2008

The outreach ESOL provision at Amersham & Wycombe College has found a new home in a purpose built ESOL Centre equipped with two well appointed IT suites, interactive whiteboards and the Blackboard learning platform. In just over a year, the outreach ESOL Centre has developed some of the best examples of blended e-learning in this sector and found great success by integrating IT skills courses within the ESOL programme.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=166594

Academy for Training: Learning Innovation Grant 3 funding puts Academy in touch with young workers

Published: 13 November 2008

Funding for capital expenditure is always difficult for small businesses and, in order to stay in touch with the young trainees in the catering industry, the Academy for Training needed Tablet PCs, a scanner, whiteboards, cameras and voice recorders. Funding through the Learning Innovation Grant (LIG) 3 project has meant that, not only has the company been able, in the Managing Director's words, "to move from the dark ages" - it has also been able to embark on a major new project to launch a virtual hotel in which the students can train online.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=166845

Weymouth College: Middle Ages meets 21st Century

Published: 19 August 2008

The masonry students at Weymouth College are developing an ancient craft with the aid of 21st century technology.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=163079

Henley College Coventry: Film production service improves teaching and learning quality

Published: 17 July 2009

Henley College has its own film production service and widely uses video in teaching and learning across the curriculum.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=238727

Sandwell College: Learning materials undergo Metamorphosis

Published: 7 April 2009

Sandwell College has purchased Metamorphosis - e-learning authoring software that converts Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents into more interactive learning objects through features such as images, quizzes and closed exercises.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=196672

Solihull College: Blogs for Travel and Tourism

Published: 6 March 2009

Solihull College introduced blogging for students to record their experiences whilst on overseas study visits. This has proved to be a popular alternative to traditional paper-based reports.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=191908

Hull City Council Adult and Community Learning: Facebook your learners for engagement and retention

Published: 24 July 2009

Theresa Rowland directly supports her learners via the ‘Instant Chat' facility on Facebook. This case study highlights the successes of her method.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=239504

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council ACL Department: The mobile classroom

Published: 26 June 2009

As more of its services are being transferred online, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Adult and Community Learning Department (Rotherham ACL) is piloting the loan of laptops with dongles so that all learning providers, especially those based in non-traditional learning environments, can connect to the Internet.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=227154

Longley Park Sixth Form College: LPTV - Networked TV for modern teaching

Published: 11 May 2009

Tutors have long found using videos beneficial to visual learners. Longley Park Sixth Form College has developed an in-house TV system that allows easy access, control, and flexibility for the organisation and its staff.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=206622

 

5: Systems

Harrow: Using Geographical Imaging Systems to map provision of personal and community development learning

Published: 11 May 2009

The Harrow Adult Community and Family Learning Service uses the Monterpoint management information system (MIS) and takes data from this to Arcview, a geographical information system (GIS). This enables some very sophisticated reporting for a small adult and community learning service. These reports enable Harrow Council and the Harrow Personal and Community Development Learning (PCDL) Partnership to be much more responsive to learners' needs.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=207035

Slough Borough Council Lifelong Learning: Slough adult and community learning Excels with custom-designed e-register

Published: 17 December 2008

Slough Borough Council (SBC) Lifelong Learning has developed an Excel-based electronic register that streamlines and integrates induction, initial assessment, individual learning plans (ILPs), withdrawn/retained statistics, learning outcomes and all necessary data into a single, easy-to-use spreadsheet, thus greatly reducing workload for tutors and practically eliminating data-entry errors. Oh and, by the way, it also takes the register.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=169991

North Yorkshire County Council: Recording inclusive evidence for learner progression

Published: 29 October 2008

A case study on the creation of an Electronic Learner Progress Book that includes video and audio evidence. It is intended to make the RARPA process more inclusive for learners with profound and multiple disabilities. The future potential of this project is also considered, including the development of the "e-personal passport" and facilitating a more joined-up programme of care for supported learners.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/Programmes/page.aspx?o=166607

Sefton Enterprises Ltd: Improving the management and sharing of resources via a web-based interface

Published: 2 March 2009

Sefton Enterprises Ltd. was introduced to ‘Protopage' as a solution to managing and sharing information and documents across a consortium of Work Based Learning (WBL) Providers putting a funding bid together. The free, web-based ‘start page' did not take-off for the funding bid, but its potential was realised in helping staff at the organisation become more effective and efficient internally, and in the provision of information and resources for their students.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=189461

Google Docs, the preferred word processing tool for many learning providers, (especially for collaborative working) has just improved again. On the Google Docs blog, Google has announced the integration of Google Translate into Google Docs.

Users can now translate any document in Google Docs into their choice of forty-two different languages. To use the new translation feature, just select the "translate" option under the "tools" drop-down menu.

If practitioners have learners that live in homes where English is not the primary language, the new Google Docs translation option could be very useful. Now when users need to...

• send letters,
• set tasks
• produce resources etc.,

...they can easily print them out in multiple languages.

Those without and account, can set one up at http://docs.google.com/.

Note: I've produced two eBooks on Google Docs available at...

• http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/BookCase/GoogleDocs.exe and
  
• http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/BookCase/GoogleDocs2.exe.

Google publishes some excellent tutorials in written and video form, but users often have to jump from service to service to find the tutorials.

Google Tutor (not officially anything to do with Google) offers an extensive collections of tutorials and tips all things Google.

Google Tutor covers everything from simple tasks like recovering a forgotten Google Account password to more difficult tasks like creating charts in Google Docs or modifying Google Chrome to suit your tastes.

Google Tutor also reports on enhancements and improvements to Google's products.

A good place to find clear tutorials for improving practitioners' and learners' experience with Google's services.

Visit http://www.googletutor.com/.

A collection of very clever video clips – if you decide to work your way through them, you’ll see that you eventually end up with some screencasts showing particular features of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

What is riveting on the journey is the way that you navigate your way around the videos – using hand drawn animations and hotspots on each video to give visitors a route to learn more.

It comes from the team of DeepFat and JamesOne who have been exploring the features of Win7 and WS2008 via the medium of art, some YouTube annotations and then some screencast videos. If you wish, you can start here and click through to the elements you are interested in.

Does this have potential for revision gateways and other learning resources – basically linking a series of videos together, with some navigation – rather than the conventional channel/menu approach?

Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTOuQwOxFc to start the journey. 

• Games that Reward Vocalizations
• Gamequarium
• Jig Saw Doku
  • Also take a look at Free on-line Typing Tutor in the ICT + Section.
    
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

A big thank you to the teaching learners with multiple needs blog for the following links...

Practitioners and learners will need a microphone on their computer to play. These fun free activities encourage learners to vocalize and/or engage with vocal play; learners can also use them by pressing a switch that plays sounds.

Visit...

• the frog game <http://www.zefrank.com/frog/frog.swf> this is my personal favourite (See embedded version below)!
• bounce <http://www.neave.com/bounce/>
• light <http://www.neave.com/light/>
• dandelion <http://www.neave.com/dandelion/>

...and allow access to experiment/use the online software.

 

Note: Using iSpring (I've included this in a previous eMagazine) shockwave files (.swf) can be embedded in PowerPoint Presentations!

Gamequarium has been developed by Diana Dell, it offers an excellent catalog of mathematics games and video demonstrations of mathematics functions.

Find out for yourself at http://www.gamequarium.com/math.htm.

Online Sudoku puzzles, which are ideal for use on an interactive white board, with...

• different size grids - 4x4, 6x6 and 9x9
• different levels of difficulty - easy, medium and hard

and with the options of using...

• numbers
• symbols or
• letters.

Ideal for all ages and all levels; develop strategies, interact, progress.

Have a go at http://www.jigsawdoku.com/.

 

 

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

Many countries have their own distinctive sign languages, and the UK is home to tens of thousands of British Sign Language (BSL) users.

British Sign Language is taught in most schools for the Deaf, and regularly appears on television – from signed versions of dramas and the news to children’s shows and pop videos.

VideoJug shows users the essentials of signing...

• from giving compliments,
• asking questions and
• chatting about the weather

Find out more at http://www.videojug.com/tag/british-sign-language.

Watch the embedded sample below or by going to http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-compliment-someone-using-sign-language...

British Sign Language:
How To Compliment Someone Using Sign Language

An application that helps users read more of the web.

Transforming text on any website using...

• fonts,
• colours, and
• layouts

...of your choosing.

By presenting content in a format that users are comfortable with, Readable makes the reading experience much more enjoyable — and faster as well.

Readable is the most customizable solution for manipulating content (on the web) and making it readable. It's also very simple to use and completely free.

Find out more at http://readable-app.appspot.com/.

Microsoft have updated their website...

The new look and feel is good; changes include...

• specific sections for Further Education, Higher Education, Teachers and Students
• better linking between the blog and the website -e.g. users can now click on a blog story in the website, and read it right there, without having to jump across to the blog (on a different website)
• tags to help find relevant information, allowing users to jump straight to key content, without having to search through the menu structure

Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/default.aspx.

• Inaugural OSS Watch newsletter
• SourceForge's 4th Annual Community Choice Awards

The first OSS Watch Newsletter has been published. Starting in August 2009, OssWatch will publish a monthly newsletter that showcases...

• specially selected content and
• blog items from OSS Watch along with
• news and events.
  

To view online go to http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/newsletters/august2009.pdf.

The SourceForge Community Choice Awards allow the community to vote for their favourite open source projects from the popular software forge.

This year's winners have been announced with PortableApps.com taking no less than 4 awards.

View the 'winners' (and past winners) at http://sourceforge.net/community/cca09/winners/.

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...

 

• eco font - John Davey, Information & Communications Officer, JISC RSC-Northwest
  
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - Alistair McNaught, Senior Advisor JISC TechDis service
• TED Open Translation Project - Colin Gallacher
  • Take a look at Twazzup in the Reference/Research section - Kevin Hickey
    

"After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well."

A big thank you to John Davey, our Information & Communications Officer, for bringing this to our attention.

The prints learning providers make for their 'daily use' not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ creative communications their ink cartridges (or toner) could last longer.

SPRANQ has developed a new font: the Ecofont.

After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved, as you can see, by using small circles. The resulting font uses up to 20% less ink.

It is Free to download, free to use at http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html.

A big thank you to Alistair McNaught for flagging this up on the Apollo Mailing List. In his words...

"From Utah State University - a collection of online interactivities demonstrating a wide range of basic maths and numeracy skills. You can buy a desktop version or go online and use the web version for free. Pity about the title (national library of virtual manipulatives) but otherwise it's perfectly normal and seems very good."

As I'm sure you will agree "Mathematics is not a spectator sport" and too much of current instruction fails to actively involve learners.

One way to address the problem is through the use of manipulatives, physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications. Computers can now be used to create virtual learning environments to address the same goals.

 

The Utah State University team have created exciting new approaches to interactive mathematical instruction.

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a resource from which practitioners may freely draw to enrich their mathematics/key skills/family learning/ classrooms. I also feel that the materials are also of importance for those engaged in Initial Teacher Training.

Find out more and get engaged by visiting the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives at http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html.

A big thank you to my colleague Colin Gallacher for bringing this to my attention...

There are few things on the Web more educational and/or more thought provoking than TED Talks. TED, the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, brings together some of the world’s brightest people, which in turn has produced hundreds of amazing lectures and presentations, most of which are available free via http://ted.com/.

However, they’re not accessible to all; every talk is in English, which excludes billions of people that don't speak English.

TED’s goal is simple: for every video to have a fully translated text version in as many languages as possible.

Visit http://www.ted.com/translate to find out more and/or to view a clip in the language of your choice.

By the way, when all the translations are completed, every video will have subtitles, language-specific destinations (thus you can share a specific translation), and the ability to browse by talks.

By far the coolest thing about this push are the time-coded transcripts, which makes it possible for a non-English speaker to jump to any point of the video with ease. Every sentence in every transcript can be clicked. Clicking on it will take you to the corresponding section of the talk. It’s amazingly useful and could even be helpful for brushing up on a language as well.

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

Below is a live feed using Scoopler <http://www.scoopler.com/>

Tweeting With Your Webcam

TweetMojo is a way for practitioners & learners to tweet using their webcam. By doing so, they can share more information than by just tweeting and let others have a better understanding of who they are and what it is they want to transmit to them. The site also makes it possible for you to tweet files such as docs and text on the spot.

Anything that reflects the way users feel when and how they feel it is a welcome development.

Check the site out by visiting http://tweetmojo.com/.

Note users can not broadcast in real time - yet. That is a functionality the programmer is currently working on, and one that will definitely be interesting.

See my first effort at http://tweetmojo.com/uhdcg (second really as I forgot to save the first J )

'Getting Started with Second Life' is a new JISC guide written by teachers for teachers who are interested in using virtual worlds as part of their teaching. 

The aim of the guide is to...

• present the basics of getting started in Second Life,
• allow teachers to experiment with Second Life.

The guide answers a range of the most common questions as well as providing examples of how teachers are using Second Life to support their learners.

To find out more and/or to download, go to http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/gettingstartedsecondlife. 

• Deeper Web
• WatchKnow

DeeperWeb is a free search engine tool for Google users that allows navigating through search results by employing Tag Cloud techniques. 

Technologies such as Topic-Mapping methods are also  implemented to assist users in identifying relevant results upon a specific topic.

There is a tutorial available at http://www.deeperweb.com/help/tutorial-howto.php.

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

WatchKnow is an online community that helps users to create or collect, and more importantly, share free inventive educational videos.

This site is being developed by following an interesting ideal: to collect the best free instructive videos for children/learners, and give visitors the chance to have access to them.

A website where visitors can watch all these videos in order to help their children/learners to have a better educational experience.

The way this site works is simple and interesting at the same time because it categorizes the videos by subject and educational level.

Visit http://www.watchknow.org/ to find out more.

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

• Pimp the Face
• Think Draw.
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section.

PimpTheFace is a new web-hosted service that will let users draw faces.

The editing tool is flexible and straightforward...

• facial elements are already available...
  • Jawlines
  • Beard
  • Head
  • Eyebrows
  • Hair
  • Mouth
  • Moustache
  • Eyes
  • Glasses
  • Noses
• Users can, among other things, adjust aspects like
  
  • opacity and
  • scaling
• and a background can be implemented for added effect.

The results can be shared on blogs, VLEs, websites, eXe documents and on social sites such as Facebook.

Here is one I made earlier...

Try it out yourself at http://www.pimptheface.com/.

View an outline below or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnx5HMsssgw... 

Think Draw...

• is somewhere between art and a puzzle,
• lets you create original and fun pictures using different shapes
• exercises the creative parts of your brain, just like Sudoku uses the logical side.

Think Draw is also a growing community of people enjoying the ability to discuss their pictures and even create stories with them.

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

Here is one I made earlier...

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

• Rouxbe
• Visual Recipes
  
  • Take a look at Designer Lokesh Dhakar: Coffee in the Design Section and
    
  • Mouse Anybody? in the eBreak Section
    
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section
  

Rouxbe is an online video cooking school complete with...

• practice video recipes,
• cooking exercises,
• culinary quizzes,
• progress reporting and
• personal chef support...

Full access to the Rouxbe Cooking School requires a paid Premium Membership.

What is free on Rouxbe?

Rouxbe offers...

• a free sample lesson every day
• all the...
  • instructional video recipes,
  • text recipes,
  • tip and technique videos and
  • community forums

Users don’t have to sign up to learn a great deal on Rouxbe.

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

FREE RECIPES WITH STEP-BY-STEP PICTURES

VisualRecipes is a community of cooking enthusiasts who have the ability to share recipes with step-by-step pictures. Members can also discuss and share comments.

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

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

• All Silhouettes
• Howpack
• Official Seal Generator
  
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Created by Stanislav, AllSilhouettes is as self-explanatory as it's name, it is a massive archive of free vector silhouettes of all kinds!

The term "Silhouette" was invented in 18th century, but today you it is found almost everywhere...

• web-design,
• prints,
• T-shirts,
• vector Illustrations...

Many Graphic Designers find that silhouettes are one of the most useful tools in any design work! Easy to mix and modify for any needs.

AllSilhouettes is probably the place for getting free silhouettes, shapes, signs and icons.

Go to http://all-silhouettes.com/ to see what is available and/or to download some for your own use.

Whether practitioners want their learners to produce/design a package for a single fragile ornament or fold an elaborate gift box, HowPack has an enormous number of printable paper folding templates for every kind of object and configuration users can imagine.

There are templates for...

• boxes,
• tubes,
• dispensers,
• papercraft novelties like trucks and planes,
• geometric shapes, and even
• historical buildings.

Each template is available as a JPEG image. Although JPEGs don't scale quite like a PNG file, since users will only be using them as templates, a few jagged pixels on a large printout shouldn't cause a problem.

It easy to quickly move through all the thumbnails of the templates but a search engine would have been helpful.

Find out more and/or view the templates at http://howpack.com/.

Official Seal Generator as the name suggests is an online seal generator with which users can...

• create cool custom seals,
• download them and use as you like.

Official Seal Generator provides users with variety of seal templates (Circular, Oval, Vesica, Convex, Pentagon, Square, Triangle, Claddagh, Clan Badge, Shield, Rectangle) and customization options.

The process is straightforward, simply...

• pick a template;
• enter text;
• choose borders and emblems;
• pick colors and then
• click "Go".

Once seal is ready you can save it onto your computer

Try it out at http://www.says-it.com/seal/.

Here is one I made earlier... 

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

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

The Baseline Scenario is a blog created with the intention to give users the chance to have access to detailed explanations about some of the most important issues related to the global economy.

Visitors will find information about this blog in many reputable publications like The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as The Economist, The Financial Times, Time Magazine, in addition to many other interesting and trustable sources around the Internet.

Visitors to the blog will find a number of articles with the latest news on economics as well as different pictures and much more. 

An ideal resource for those engaged in the teaching and learning of economics, visit http://baselinescenario.com/ to find out more. 

VoxEU.org is an interesting blog belonging to the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Designed and developed in order to give visitors the chance to have access to a variety of research-based policy analysis and commentaries made by some of the most important scholars.

Economist and economics practitioners and learners will greatly enjoy this blog. VoxEU is a good source of material for professionals and journalists that are specialized in economics, finance and business. On this blog they will find unpublished original work written at an analytical level and they will be able to learn more about it at http://www.voxeu.org/.

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

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

My English Images, among many other things, is a collection of drawings demonstrating...

• words,
  
• phrases, and
  
• parts of speech.

The drawings are intended to provide visual aids for learners that are beginning to learn English.

The images are organized into collections for...

• conversation,
• grammar,
• pronunciation, and
• vocabulary.

In addition to the images practitioners can find worksheets and games on My English Images.

My English Images could be an excellent resource for anyone that works with ESOL/ESL/ EFL learners. Practitioner could use the images as explanations for words or phrases. They could also use the images as exemplars for learners to create images of English words.

Find out more at http://www.myenglishimages.com/Home.html.

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

• Awareness Raising: Dangers using the Web
  

• Take a look at Jig Saw Doku in the eGame Section,
  
• My English Images in the English - Literature Section and
  
• Think Draw in the Art Section

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

An interactive resource ideal for Family Learning and/or Initial Teacher Training - Take this "Rules of the Road" test for learners to earn their official PBS Kids Web license!

Based on a driving test, dangers of using the web are highlighted, providing opportunities for parents/guardians etc. to discuss why/why not/how etc. If the questions are answered correctly the learner/child/participant etc. gets an Official Kids Web License! Here is mine I passed earlier, without any help!

Go to http://pbskids.org/license/index.html to see if you can get your license and/or if it can be used to enhance current delivery of web safety. 

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

• Draggable Math
  • Take a look at Jig Saw Doku in the eGames Section and
  • My English Images in the English - Literature Section
    
• Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Mr. Nussbaum has improved his interactive math application, Draggable Math.

In his words, Draggable Math now has...

“the ability to correct problems, drag numbers anywhere on the screen, change paper type from graphing, to lined, to blank, and to draw lines anywhere.”

Users now have the option of using it to practice...

• addition,
• multiplication,
• division and
• subtraction.

Users are given several options to customize each selection.

These activities work well with an Interactive white board – you do need to type in the answer, but could use the onscreen keyboard.

To explore Draggable Math head over to http://www.mrnussbaum.com/draggable.htm and check it out.

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

• Artvex
• Curriculum Bits
• Love Textures
• Popular Science 5 Minute Project.
  
  • Why don't you suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Artvex is a free clip art database that provides users with clip art images and graphics for use in...

• office documents,
• blogs,
• designs or
• anywhere.

It currently has over 10,000 original free to download and use clipart images.

Users may either search the database or choose from the respective categories that include...

Anatomy - Animals - Architecture - Art - Clothing - Containers - Documents - Electronics & Technology - Events & Holidays - Fantasy - Flags & Maps - Foods & Drinks - Games & Toys - Hardware & Tools - Household - Icons - Industrial - Medical - Miscellaneous - Money - Music - Nature  - Office & Business - People - Religion - School - Science - Shapes Signs & Symbols - Sports - Transportation - Weapons and Zodiac

No Pop-ups. Download any image for free at http://www.artvex.com/.

Curriculumbits is an excellent online resource offering free access to interactive multimedia elearning resources.

The online resource library contains...

• games,
• quizzes,
• animations and
• videos

...in a variety of subjects for learners. 

The resources are available to access online, completely free of charge in the library. Simply click the PLAY button. You do not need to register to access the resources.  Many of these resources will work well on Interactive White Boards.

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

LoveTextures is a web resource that provides users with 100% free high resolution background textures for download and print.

There are, at the time of writing this, around 193 free textures available and more uploaded every month.

All textures are organized in categories...

• Abstract,
• Architectural,
• Fabric,
• Food,
• Glass,
• Grunge,
• Metal,
• Nature,
• Paper,
• Stone and
• Wood

...they can also sorted by...

• colour or
• tags.

Take a closer look at http://www.lovetextures.com/.

5 Minute Projects from Popular Science!

A collection of visual, cost-effective and eco-friendly 5-Minute Projects (give or take a couple of mins) that are good, well-documented Instructables.

These project video clips could be used for listening/observation/comprehension exercises for learners or as exemplars to encourage learners to produce their own video-clips or for hands-on tasks.

Sadly the PopSci.com 5-Minute Project Video: Floppy Disk Pen Holder, came a tad too late as I'd just thrown away all my floppy discs but the CD Dumbbell Project may well be completed.

View the video clips and/or find out more at http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/5-minute-projects.

Overview of Geography Resources included in this eMagazine...

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

Gone are the days when administrators, practitioners, learners etc., purchase maps. These days we use Google Maps. It displays everything from hotels to places to routes to transport to satellite images. Just one thing, without Internet Access, users were not able Google Maps to work on the go!

Google offers a print option but users can only print what they are able to fit onto the screen; hardly the solution most are looking for. If users want to get a map of, for example, an entire city at a desired zoom level they can save the map as image files and go through the pain of stitching them together in Photoshop or some other graphics tool.

Or  now, users can now spare themselves some trouble and get Google Maps to work offline with Google Map Buddy, which does everything for them in a click.

It doesn’t require any installation, just extract the zip file, run the executable and users are good to go.

Using the Google Map Buddy interface users can...

• browse to the Google Maps site they want.
• Search for or navigate to the location they wish to create the map for.
• zoom in or out so that they can see the entire region for which they want to create the map. Note: Google Map Buddy allows users to zoom out to a level where they can see the entire region on their screen (there is no need to worry if details can't be seen at this level of zoom)
• specify the area they want to create the map for by clicking the draw button, and drawing a rectangle encompassing the entire area required at the current zoom level. Note: Users don’t need to zoom to the desired level of detail because Google Map Buddy lets you specify the zoom level of the map that it will create. So you can zoom out to fit the required region on the screen, and then specify a higher zoom level inside the application’s toolbar to get a more detailed final map.

• Once users have specified the details, they click create map and the application gets to work. It downloads the required tiles and stores them all on your hard disk. Once it has downloaded all the images it then stitches them together to create a complete detailed map according to your needs.

Note: It can take quite some time to download and stitch all the images, so you would have to be patient while it is working.

After all the downloading and stitching together has finished, the map is viewable as a image file. Users can scroll and zoom inside the map image just like any other image file that doesn’t fit completely on your screen.

Put it on...

• a USB drive,
• an iPod,
• a mobile phone (or maybe print it) The tiles that Google Map Buddy used to stitch together the map are also available just in case you need them, you can keep them or delete as you wish.

Download Google Map Buddy at http://www.augmentedrealitysoftware.co.uk/gmb.html.

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

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

Taaz is a virtual online makeover site which adds a number of enhancements to uploaded photos at one click of the mouse.

Users can...

• quickly change the colour of...
  • lipstick,
  • lip liner,
  • hair,
• add new...
  • hairstyles,
  • eyelashes,
• apply foundation on the face,
• use the concealer and the blush option to pamper the face and much more.

It is the ease of use that makes this photo enhancement tool really special.

It’s free but requires registration if users wish to upload their own images.

Try it out and/or find out more at http://www.taaz.com/.

UK Hairdressers is another virtual online makeover site which adds a number of enhancements to uploaded photos at one click of the mouse. A big thank you to David Sugden, who many eGuides will know from their training, for flagging this resource.

Users can select...

• wigs
• hats
• specs
• faces (or upload their own)

Users can alter the overall size of the four elements and adjust...

• width and/or height

Watch the video below for an overview...

and/or go to http://www.ukhairdressers.com/hair_move/index.asp to find out more.

Overview of ICT + Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Free on-line Typing Tutor
  
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

If learners want to learn typing or need to improve it, get them to check out PowerTyping.

It is a website that provides visitors with free lessons (both Dvorak and Qwerty keyboards) and fun games to practice typing skills online. The lessons are presented on clean, easy to interface, simply choose from the list and start practicing.

Users can set wpm goals and listen to the provided 'radio' for rhythmical typing.

Find out more and/or try it out at http://www.powertyping.com/.

Overview of Mathematics Resources included in this eMagazine...

 

• Mister Teacher: Mini Movies
• Mudd Math Fun Facts
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Mini Movies - basically a mini movie is an interactive animation that can be used on interactive whiteboards. 

There are mini movies in the areas of geometry and science– scroll to the bottom of the page to view the options. 

To preview any movie click on the link. To download the mini movie right click on the link and download the movie to your computer.

Find out more at http://www.misterteacher.com/minimovies/minimovies.html. 

Mudd Math Fun Facts is a source of mathematical facts designed to stimulate thought and make learners look at mathematics in a different light.

Each fun fact is accompanied by a...

• problem,
• diagram, and
• short explanation of a fun mathematics concept.

Mudd Math Fun Facts has been designed for use with introductory college maths courses; it can be used to expose learners to some higher order mathematics concepts and spark some curiosity about mathematics. Practitioners could, through a VLE, website and/or blog link to Mudd Math Fun Facts and provide learners with the fun fact of the day that they can explore on their own.

Find out more at http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/.

Note: to view the site content click the List All hyperlink located under the search box on the left hand side...

Overview of Media Resources included in this eMagazine...

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

Camera Simulator helps learners understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. 

Camera Simulator gives users an interactive visual demonstration of the relationship between these three vital camera setting. The simulator has three sliders for the three parameter which users can adjust and see the effects on a test image.

Try it out and/or find out more at http://www.kamerasimulator.se/index_eng.php.

Overview of Music Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Just Colour
• Note Flight
• Salsa Beat Machine
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

Just Colour from Jesper Kirkeby Brevik on Vimeo.

Or view at http://vimeo.com/4979233.

PS The musical track is The Sound of Magic, composed by DJ Dreamlan.

Free Online Music Composer & Note Editor

Tools and Software for composing music and writing musical notes are not cheap and not all musicians can afford them.

Noteflight is a new online music composer and note editor which could serve as a nice alternative for such tools.

Users can...

• create,
• edit,
• display and
• play back music notation online.

The great thing – users don’t need to connect a musical instrument to enter notes. They just do it using keyboard and mouse.

Noteflight allows users to easily share their compositions. If you are a...

• practitioner then your learners can easily access your work from the internet;
• learner then your tutor/trainer/mentor etc., can access your work from the internet.

Visit http://www.noteflight.com/login to find out more...

The Salsa Beat Machine is an online tool for those who are learning the Salsa dance.

It allows users to...

• generate custom salsa dancing rhythms and
• play custom salsa dancing rhythms while practicing.

Users can...

• adjust
  • beats per minute (BPM),
  • sound keys,
  • volume, and
• include/exclude...
  • various instruments or
  • instructor counting.
• Save online the created beats to be played later.

The application also provides video tips showing basic salsa moves.

Find out more, and/or try it out at http://www.salsabeatmachine.org/. 

Overview of Science Resources included in this eMagazine...

• Flash Animations for Physics
• Science Books Online
  
  • Why not suggest a resource, that you use or feel has potential, in our Over2U section

These animations were written by David M. Harrison, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Toronto , harrison@physics.utoronto.ca. They are Copyright © 2002 - 2004 David M. Harrison.

David has been increasingly using Flash animations for illustrating Physics content. His page provides access to those animations which are sorted by category, and the file size of each animation is included in the listing.

The categories are:

• Chaos
• Classical Mechanics
• Electricity and Magnetism
• Fluid Mechanics
• Micrometer Calliper
• Miscellaneous
• Nuclear
• Optics
• Oscilloscope
• Quantum Mechanics
• Relativity
• Sound Waves
• Vectors and
• Waves

To find out more go to http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash/.

Science Books Online is a directory of free science ebooks in different subject categories as shown in the image above.

Users can browse ebooks by category and read them for free online or download in PDF format.

Browse the directory at http://sciencebooksonline.info/.

In their own words...

"MAKE A 3DPHOTO (360º VIEW) FAST AND EASY.
IT'S FREE. GO GET YOUR CAMERA AND MAKE YOUR 3DPHOTO."

I'm sure many of you have seen those fancy 3D pictures on some retail websites which allow users to preview items in 360° view. Wouldn't they provide excellent evidence for ePortfolios in areas such as hairdressing?

Now there is a web service called 3dBin that lets users make 3d pictures of their own.

Created pictures will be interactive and can be easily rotated to any direction. Learners can use this service to nicely present evidence they want to include for assessment and make their ePortfolios interactive and attractive.

The site supports free and paid accounts, the free account lets users have 3 active 3D photos at any given time.

Features:

• Create 3d photos online.
• Easy to use, all you need is digital camera.
• Embed pictures on any web page and/or share by forwarding a URL.
• Supported image formats: .jpg, .bnp, .png, .tif, .jpeg, .jpe, .jiff, .tiff.
• Free account lets you have only 3 active 3D photos at any given time.
• Paid account with more options is also supported.

Find out more and/or sign up at http://3dbin.com/.

Below is an example that could have come from a hairdressing ePortfolio...

Such images also meets some of the Functional Skills evidence of using appropriate ICT for "real-life" needs.

I'm sure there are many other educational uses...

For an introduction, watch the video below or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcNcb695dvk...

If you ever need an audio alert or greeting message for a website/HTML document/eXe File etc., head to straight to AudioPal.

An online utility with which practitioners/learners/managers/administrators can quickly record embeddable audios, and add them wherever they are required. Created audios can be customized to auto-play on every page load or visitor.

There are 4 ways users can record audios...

• By phone –  Call provided number and speak to record (I've not tried this and therefore can't comment on effectiveness).
• Text-to-speech – Type in text, and it will convert it into to audio.
• Microphone – Use your Microphone and record (works well with flexicam microphone).
• File- Upload existing mp3 file (I recorded mine using Audacity).

Once the audio is ready, the link to it will be sent to the users email address. They just follow the provided link to get the embed code.

Free and no registration at http://www.audiopal.com/index.html.

Chir.ps is a way for users to tweet audio clips.

These audio clips can come in a variety of forms - whether it is...

• something you recorded, i.e. your own voice,
• sounds from an event,
• a question you pose to your twitter followers;
• an audio clip you found on the Internet, or
• an audio file you’d like to upload from your computer

The Chir.ps can be embedded as shown here...

or you can listen to my first Chir.ps here http://www.entertonement.com/clips/fkpwqqskwm--Chir-ps-on-twitter-What-do-you-think?fl_link=1_4b46dbfa_3398_11de_a140_0015c5f4d265.

To find out more and/or to try it out go to http://chir.ps/.

Diagrammr is a new online application which offers a really pleasing way to create diagrams, and unlike other diagramming applications, it lets users do it by writing sentences.

The application is easy to use simply...

• type in sentences like “John produces the eMagazine” or “John works with ACL” and Diagrammr will simultaneously convert them into diagrams.

Diagrammr lets users create as many diagrams as they like and allows users to share them by forwarding the URL or embedding them on a website/blog/VLE etc. As can be seen above there is also an option to change diagram layout and size.

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

With Tokbox users can add up to 20 people to a video conference. The best part is they don't have to have a tokbox account.

Simply send them the url of the conference and they can join up.

Tokbox also has a twitter button that will send the link twitter friends so they can join up too.

To find out more visit http://www.tokbox.com/.

If you and/or your learners need to create a resume on the fly, JobSpice might deliver.

The Web site is very user-friendly, I think even the least tech-savvy practitioners/learners could use it with little instruction.

Users can go to the site and create their resume in less than 30 minutes.

• No sign up required for anything if users just want to save a copy of the resume to their computer (ePortfolio etc).
• If users want a copy kept on JobSpice, creating an account only requires they...
  • select a username and password - no email to enter.
  • create a custom link that will provide people with access to their online resume.

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

Mikogo is Cross-Platform!

Mikogo is a cross-platform app that runs natively on both Windows and Macs. Start and participate in meetings from both PC and Mac computers.

If you and/or your learning provider is looking to host an online meeting without paying through the teeth, then Look no further.

Mikogo is a free desktop sharing tool full of features to assist users in conducting the perfect online meeting or web conference or assessment.
Take advantage of the opportunity to share any screen content or applications over the Internet in true colour quality with up to 10 participants simultaneously, while still sitting at your desk.

Mikogo can be employed for a range of professional, academic, or personal uses, including:

* assessments
* online meetings
* web conferences
* product demonstrations
* web presentations
* remote support
* webinars
* and more!

Provide online technical support for learners. Conduct demonstrations for colleagues/learners/administrators/managers etc. Use Mikogo to discuss and edit a current team project. The ideal tool for free online group collaboration.

Register and or find out more at http://www.mikogo.com/en/.

 

P.S. There is also an add-in for Skype users that makes the ‘resulting package’ have even greater potential in teaching/learning/assessment/support.

 

The one thing I like about 'New Browsers' is tabs. Taking cue from web browsers, developers have started embracing the “tab culture” and now we often see tabs in various applications.

For me, I would have liked to have seen them in Microsoft Office. It’s frustrating to be not able to open documents in tabs.

Wait no longer! OfficeTab, a free utility, fills this gap.

OfficeTab enables users to open multiple documents within one office window without cramming up your taskbar.

With OfficeTab users can choose which Office applications they want tabs on -

• Word or
• Excel or
• PowerPoint or
• all of them.

If users right click on the tabs a small menu appears with options like...

• Lock Document (to prevent accidental closing),
• Close and
• Close All, etc.

There are plenty of options in the settings window that allows users to change the behavior and appearance of the tabs...

• tab switching,
• double-click to close,
• hiding tab-bar when a single document is open and so on.

OfficeTab is compatible with...

• Office 2003 and
• Office 2007

...on Windows...

• XP,
• Vista and
• Windows 7.

Note: - The publisher page at http://hi.baidu.com/officecm is in Chinese;

if you have difficulty finding the download button you can use this direct download link <http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/08/24/officetab-adds-tabs-to-word-excel-and-powerpoint/>

Many people feel that, unless they have a really smooth and perfect skin, the only way to get a perfect photograph is with a bit of retouching and smoothing. Yes I know most image editors allow users to do that, however Pictreat saves users the hassle of going through various retouching options and using them one by one.

PicTreat takes an uploaded photograph and treats it in one click.

The retouched picture can then be...

• downloaded,
• shared via social networks and
• bookmarked.

To find out more or to try it out, go to http://www.pictreat.com/.

Quitter looks exactly like the Command Prompt.

It’s a single executable file (105KB) that requires no installation and stores its settings in a small XML file.

For navigating around the application users use the arrow keys, just like the real Command Prompt, and the program makes use of keys like Enter and Escape as well to execute functions.

With Quitter, users can...

• Read, post, reply and retweet.
• Organize the people followed into groups and read tweets by group.
• Filter (or highlight) tweets from specific users or that contain certain #hashtags.
• Use URL shorteners like TinyUrl.com for tweeting URLs.
• Easily open tweeted links from other users in your default browser (no copy/paste needed)
• Send and receive direct messages
• Follow or unfollow other users

Quitter runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista

To find out more or to download visit http://getquitter.com/.

 

Recordr is a way practitioners and/or learners can record themself live using a microphone and web camera; the end product can be shared.

By using their bookmarklet, users can also comment with video/audio to a web page they are viewing.

Many of the recordings on the home page are of people trying Recorder out and are of little value or interest; however this online tool has a lot of potential for evidence gathering for ePortfolios.

Try it out at http://recordr.tv/.

Here is one I made earlier...

Shape Collage – a free program that lets users create a photo collage on their computer out of pictures or folders of pictures.

Users can download the free version from Shapecollage; it lets them do everything but watermark and save high resolution collages but for me the free version is ideal for online images. If you’ve ever wondered how to make a collage on your computer, this software is a straight forward solution.

Go to http://www.shapecollage.com/download.html to download the software.

Below is an image, created in shape collage, that shows all the images I've used, this year, in the eMagazine... 

Enlarging images, especially from lower resolution source images, can be dicey business.

Want to enlarge an image and you don't want it to look like an 8-bit video game sprite? SmillaEnlarger can keep things smooth.

SmillaEnlarger is an open-source and portable application designed to help users intensively massage an image enlargement to keep it from looking jagged and filled with pixels.

Users can...

• select the level of zoom using the zoom slider and the location of the zoom via the selection box.
• begin tinkering with the...
  • sharpness,
  • flatness,
  • dithering,
  • noise levels, and more.

Note: The preview function is quite speedy so don't hesitate to preview often to check how the various settings effect the outcome of your image.

When the enlargement is satisfactory, hit the Calculate button to render it—a process only slightly longer than the preview.

From my testing, the results achieved with SmillaEnlarger are on par with other—much more expensive—methods.

Visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/imageenlarger/ to download.

Use zinepal to create eMagazines and eBooks.

• Users, Managers/Administrators/Practitioners/Learners/etc., can select content from blogs, Atom/RSS feeds and other websites.
• zinepal reformats the content into a printable PDF and an eBook for use with the Amazon Kindle and other eBook readers.

Stakeholders/users/visitors can...

• take content wherever they go.
• read zines during their commute, in the park or their favourite coffee shop.
• also e-mail it to others or let them subscribe to the zine feed on zinepal.com.

I, as usual, have had a play experimented and you can view, and/or download, my first 7 blogs for August 2009 (as a zine) by visiting http://www.zinepal.com/zine/acljohn/12225.

Make your own zine and/or find out more at http://www.zinepal.com/.

One of the good things about Google is that they consistently improve their products. The short video clip below shows how to add a little bit of colour to Google Forms. (Google's Survey Tool) This wasn't around when I produced my eBook on Surveys using Google Docs; available at http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/BookCase/GoogleDocs2.exe.

This can also be viewed by going to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_K1d7ColmM.

"I send emails out to learners and colleagues, using Outlook 2007, and, because of data protection requirements, I want to hide the list of addresses from each recipient. Is there a way I can do this?"

There is indeed...

Do this by using the blind carbon copy field in the message you are creating.

Outlook has this field hidden by default, to unhide the field, follow these steps...

• From the Outlook Ribbon, click New E-mail.
  
   
• A new message window will appear.
   
• Go to the Ribbon and select the Options tab.
  
  
• In the Show Fields section, select Bcc.
  
  
• The Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) field opens
  
• Enter the addresses in that field to hide them from all recipients

It's that straight forward!

"My learners all use digital cameras now to send evidence for their ePortfolios. With the image quality of photos increasing everyday with new digital cameras with higher resolutions, so does the image size.

Many have a 5 Megapixel camera and find their photograph sizes being around 4-6MB each; if they want to email 5 photos to their assessor/tutor, the email will be quite large around 25MB, and that is, to say the least, a bit big for an email. What happens if they have a collection of photos to email, say 25, that will be 125 megabytes – which assessors/tutors won’t be able to receive as it is too large.

So I would like them to reduce the email size, by resizing the images for email. The learners all have Microsoft Outlook 2007 eMail accounts (provided by the Learning Provider); is there an easy way to address this problem?"

There are many software applications, some of which I've mentioned in the eMagazine before, that learners can use to compact the size of their images, but Microsoft Office Outlook provides a handy tool that allows them to reduce the size of the images automatically. They will be able to turn Their 125MB email to little over 1MB with hardly any effort by following the instructions below...

• Open a New email
  
• Complete the email as usual and when ready to attach the Files click the Attach File Icon...
  
• Attach the files as normal
• Although not an obvious icon, click the Attachment Options Icon as shown in the image below...
  
  ...The Attachment Options Dialog Box opens on the right-hand side of the screen...
  
  Note: If the dialog box is blank, click on the blue triangle in the header.
  
• In the Picture Options section open the drop-down menu...
  
  ...in this example Small has been selected.
  
• Although no change is obvious when the email is sent, the attachments will be resized!
   
• If you want the dialog box to open automatically when adding attachments, make sure the check-box at the bottom of the dialogue window is checked as shown here...
  

 

"There are so many video-clips on YouTube that I would like to embed in PowerPoint Presentations to enhance teaching and learning"

"I'm lucky that my learning  provider doesn't block YouTube so, is there a way I can do this? I'm using Office 2007"

There is indeed, just follow the steps below...

• Open PowerPoint as normal and move to the slide in which you want to embed the YouTube Video.
   
• You will need to access the Developer Tab...
  • If it isn't visible...
    Click the Office Button...
    
    At the bottom of the menu that appears click the PowerPoint Options Button...
    
    Make sure that there is a green tick in the check-box against Show Developer tab in the Ribbon
    
    Click the OK Button
  • If it is visible, continue...
    
    
• Select the Developer Tab
   
  
• Click on the More Controls icon...
  
• In the dialog box that appears Scroll down and select Shockwave Flash Object
  
  Click OK
   
• Use the cursor, that will change to cross-wires, to click-n-drag a rectangle in which you want the video to appear...
  
• Right-click the resulting rectangle with the cross and select Properties from the menu that appears...
  
• In the Properties window that appears, locate the Movie Field and paste in the URL of the movie you wish to embed...
  
   
• Carefully remove the watch? text and replace the = with a /
  
  
   
• Close the Properties Window (there isn't an OK button just click the small cross in the Properties window header
• Show the slide as usual
  
• The video will, assuming you are online and YouTube isn't blocked at the venue, will appear and can be played...
  

Note: Some clips (very few) are blocked from playing in PowerPoint (QCA Videos for example)

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.

N.B. Notification of publication also via Twitter (search for #wdlih or go to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23wdlih)

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