Dr. Geoff. Foot, Programme manager, LSN (gfoot@LSNeducation.org.uk) tells us...

"We are running an accessibility and mobile learning project for LSC which requires case studies to illustrate how a mobile learning device has been used with learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. Especially where it has improved their access to learning or has enhanced their lives. These potential case studies will form part of a publication where advice and guidance will be offered in the form of a toolkit. Natually any case studies used will be credited with the name of the author and the organisation and will be shared with the author prior to publishing to check on accuracy."

"If you have such a potential case study for us to follow up please complete the short questionnaire on our moodle site:
http://www.molenetprojects.org.uk/mod/feedback/view.php?id=581 "

"You will have to register into the Wider MoLeNET community and this will give you access to the questionnaire and useful information on mobile learning."

"The headings associated with the questionnaire are:

1. Case Study - contact's name (for interview)
2. Organisation
3. Telephone number
4. Cohort of learners (describe the nature of learningdifficulty and/or disability and their access requirements)
5. Outline the potential case study and why you think it is relevant
6. Mobile/Gaming devices used
7. Case Study recommended by and contact telephone number
8. Any other comments"

"This project covers all aspects of education and training so please feel free to share this e-mail with any relevant colleagues. However we need a speedy response as the timescale is extremely tight as the project has to be completed by the end of July 2008."

"I look forward with interest to your response and naturally if you have any comments or queries please do not hesitate to contact me."

The UK Further Education Blog has news specifically for FE Colleges from the Microsoft UK Education Team...

Find out more by going to http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/default.aspx.

 

Join the UK's largest festival of learning by running an event for Adult Learners' Week 2008 (17-23 May)!

Adult Learners' Week is the UK's largest and longest running learning campaign. Co-ordinated by NIACE (the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education), it is now in its seventeenth year.

Held each May, it encourages thousands of adults, whatever their age and background, to give learning a go: whether it's learning for pleasure, catching up on skills missed out on at school or getting that new job or promotion.

Why get involved?

Adult Learners' Week is an opportunity for you to make a difference by inspiring others to give learning a go. Whether you're an employer, a provider of learning or a potential partner there are many benefits to getting involved.

Every year thousands of events are run across the country - in schools, workplaces, shops, cafes, museums, libraries, prisons, colleges and parks. You can be as creative as you like and there's plenty of materials to help you make it a success!

Campaign publicity can be ordered which motivates people to ring the learndirect advice line (0800 100 900) - providing free advice on learning opportunities and taster events in the callers' local areas.

What to do next

• Get your free sample of campaign posters, postcards and bookmarks
• Order your Event in a Box now - holding an event couldn't be easier!
• Hold an event for Cultural Diversity Weekend or get involved in Dance Off 2008
• Add your event to our online calendar
• Register on the campaign's website for exclusive access to the Ideas Forum and branding suite of publicity materials
• Download our popular podcasts
• Order copies of the free learners' magazine, New Horizons

Join us to celebrate learning and help transform lives.

Have you ever made scrapbooks, where you cut out articles or pictures from magazines and newspapers and paste them into a book?

Basically Clipclip is an online version of that: when you find something on the web, you can cut out only the most interesting part preserving the look and feel rather than bookmarking bunch of links. Check it out at http://www.clipclip.org/ to learn more in details.

• Clip - Surf the web, clip the part of any page you want to save.
• Collect - Collect clips instead of links.
• Share - Join groups and share clips with new people.

So why would you choose to collaborate via email?

Colour Palette Generator

Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image. This is useful for coming up with a website color palette that matches a key image you and/or a client wants to work with.

I tried it out with a picture I took in Wigan during April, with these results...

Try it out at http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/index.php. 

The development of elearning content, like the development of all courses content, is covered by the usual legislation concerned with copyright, data protection etc., but the etutor must be aware that many elearners may be operating in contexts very different from your own. They may have a disability, or be using an different operating system or have a slow Internet connection.

Read more at http://www.le.ac.uk/cc/rjm1/etutor/introduction/elearninglegal.html. 

Also on the same page there are links to...

• What will make eLearning a success?
• A successful eLearning Approach
• How do we learn

and...

• How adults learn 

As an eLearning Adviser I am some what "nomadic", as are the rest of the RSC-family across the UK. We only get home to base every so often. Work-based learners and their Assessors etc. must feel the same for much of the time.

Thankfully we live in the age of the internet with email, Skype, webcams and mobile phones. (I know many of you would disagree with that last comment!)

These days, there is no need to feel so far away from peers, colleagues, families etc.

Eyejot has made that distance even shorter by providing us with the ability to send anybody a video email. All you need is a webcam, microphone and of course yourself.

It is so much quicker than typing and video always allows you to 'display the emotions' which text doesn't.

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

The FREE Account allows registered users to produce a profile page; I've had a 'play' with this end result... http://www.eyejot.com/users/aclJohn Do feel free to reply using conventional email or by registering with eyejot for your own account and sending a video mail reply.

Note: our heads, RSC-Northwest, are aching with all the ideas for using Eyejot...

WOW! Thank you Jane! (I came across this in Jane Harts Blog http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/) If you want to read the specific entry go to http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2008/04/call-graph.html.

To find out more and/or to download your copy go to http://callgraph.in/index.php.

This has huge implications for collecting evidence for eAssessment Portfolios, eRARPA Portfolios and ePDP Portfolios.

• Record (as an mp3 file),
• manage (files are caller named, time and date stamped; providing an audit trail),
• organize (files saved are indexed and searchable),
• and do more with your calls

Record...

• Skype to Skype,
• SkypeIn,
• SkypeOut calls.

Practitioners and/or learners can manage their tasks (to-do), share their ideas with peers/colleagues, collect photos from everyone who attended a workshop/visit/field trip/etc, and whatever else they want to do!

Another free tool for collaboration. Find out more at http://linoit.com/.

Want a new project or other logo?

LogoEase is a web-based logo creator where users can make custom logos with minimum effort. It offer a drag-n-drop supported online logo editor that comes with...

• a wide selection of default logo images and templates,
• integrated text/font editor,
• object resizer and
• a number of other features that may be needed.

Upon completion, users have an option to save it online or request it by email in eps, png, jpg and tiff formats. 

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

If you ever wanted to create a mobile version of your website or blog, MoFuse is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

Using MoFuse’s grow page (http://mofuse.com/grow/), you can easily create a mobile version of any website in a matter of seconds. And I mean literally seconds.

If you want to, you can now view my blog, MaghullMeanders, on your mobile at http://glcsdk.mofuse.mobi/ this is what it looks like...

Hundreds of papers you can download and print for free.

"We've got graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, and more."

Find out more at http://www.printablepaper.net/.

Watch this space! Kidderminster College have run out of the first 1000 Sticky Moodle USB sticks! However, they're working on the new version, which will include enhanced materials and a number of new Moodle add-ons - so watch this space http://www.vlemiddleware.com/index.php!

Xurrency provides developers with direct access to exchange rate information. Now you can integrate the data into your site directly from Xurrency or allow people to query the exchange rate.

Try it out at http://xurrency.com/. 

Swotti is a useful search tool that allows you to quickly find product reviews and opinions for almost everything. Whether you want to get consumer feedback on Apple’s iPhone or one of Dell’s new monitors, Swotti can help you find this information fast. It searches over 3 million reviews, ranging from 1-2 sentence opinions to several page long articles.

One of Swotti's features is that it pulls information from external sources and not from one centralized database.

Try it for yourself at http://www.swotti.com/.

Note: Clicking the Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down or Most relevant icons sorts the reviews and opinions.

So what do you want to convert?

• Convert any media file format (Documents, Images, Audio, Video & Archives) without buying or installing anything on your PC.
• Convert any Youtube and other Online Video to popular formats or download the video without buying or installing anything on your PC
• Send file(s) up to 1000 MB to friends or post it on any forum for 7 days
• Convert any type of units (Acceleration, Area, Torque and others)

Go to http://youconvertit.com/ to find out more.

Many thanks to Mashable for these 9 Must See Sites For Coffee Addicts go see for yourself at http://mashable.com/2008/04/17/9-sites-coffee/

Spotted on zerohoursleep (I had to animate it, sorry!)

Just for those of you who have Google’s Picasa...

• Open and hold down Ctrl + Shift + Y on your keyboard.
• A teddy bear wearing a red bowtie will pop up – his name apparently is Thomas.
• Keep pressing the key combination to cover your screen with the little bear!

Thomas not your average bear - read more at http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/04/thomas-not-your-average-bear.html.

Atomic Learning are giving away their premium how-to videos on using Google Docs for learning, until May 1.

Go to: - http://movies.atomiclearning.com/uk/google_docs/.

Atomic Learning also have plenty of Creative Commons how-to guides, quality step-by-step guides to using Microsoft office, design, graphics and web applications, making it worth a dig around if you want to learn new ICT skills fast.

Go to: - http://movies.atomiclearning.com/uk/tutorials.

How To Make Stop Motion Animations - This video shows the basics of creating stop-motion animations. A digital camera, a computer, and a video editing program such as Windows^® Movie Maker are needed.

See the video at http://www.tinkernut.com/archives/74. 

"And now, we're unveiling the Google Docs Community Channel on YouTube to showcase all the great videos you create about how to use Google Docs. What you'll see here is skill and passion expressed in video." Quote from the Official Google Docs Blog

Go to http://youtube.com/googledocscommunity and see for yourself.

The ICT4LT website is a free collection of training modules in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Language Teachers, the outcome of a project originally funded by the European Commission. All the training modules are continually revised and updated.

Find out more at http://www.ict4lt.org/en/index.htm. 

Take a look at some of the methods that leading eLearning course developers in the USA are putting into learner-paced instruction in order to more actively engage the learner in the process (not to mention helping reinforce important teaching points):

Take a look at this http://www.redvector.com/extra/misc/projectmanagement/index.html.

 

Capital Motivating e-Learning (CaMeL)

Simon Sheldrake tells us that last Friday (4th April 2008),

"I sent details of the above funding programme to all 159 Heads of Local Authorities ACL providers and regions of the WEA plus 129 Voluntary and Community Organisation directors. The website has now gone 'live' and can be found at: www.niace.org.uk/ictcapital."

"The most important change for this year is that the funding is now a 'shared cost' programme. This means successful bidders must send NIACE 10% of their capital request which will fund the support programme, and this must be with NIACE by 15th August. This is similar to the MoleNET programme run by LSN."

NIACE are holding two briefing events - in London on 7th May and Leicester on 14th May. These are half-day events and people should contact Simon if they wish to come; Simon.Sheldrake@niace.org.uk.

Unlock funding by helping your college achieve the ‘Training Quality Standard'

Colleges are having to adapt to changes in the way workforce training is funded by the Government, to ensure that they get certified in the Training Quality Standard (TQS). The TQS will have a major impact on colleges, as you could be in direct competition for funding with private sector training organisations, with funding decided by how well you are perceived to serve the employer community.

Find out more at http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/archive/2008/04/10/unlock-funding-by-helping-your-college-achieve-the-training-quality-standard.aspx.

Find out more from http://www.newstandard.co.uk/.

Or download the introductory New Standard pdf (353KB)

The flagship national body set up to enhance university teaching "lacks credibility" with many university heads, according to a review of its impact.

Although the majority of academics see the three-year-old Higher Education Academy as a necessary agency with an important role to perform, some vice-chancellors feel it has "yet to demonstrate the case" for its continued existence.

Read the full article at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=400514&c=1.

The report in full (119 pages) is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2008/rd02_08/

 

JISC's Development group - the team that directs and manages programmes across a wide range of key JISC activities, such as e-learning, the Information Environment, e-Research and others - is now called the Innovation group.

The change comes as JISC's work in these areas is increasingly recognised at the Government departmental level as being central to national...

• e-learning,
• e-infrastructure and
• research agendas

...which see the support and encouragement of innovation as being vital to UK education and research and to its attempts to enhance its global standing.

Sarah Porter, JISC's Head of Innovation, said:

'While the change doesn't affect the substance of what we do, it's also more than simply a name change. Innovation better reflects what is central to JISC's mission and what it is that we do to support UK education and research.'

'It also indicates a renewed commitment on our part to ensuring that we support institutions in their mission to remain among the best and most innovative in the world. JISC's activities in these areas have achieved a great deal over more than ten years and we look forward to continuing our work to support innovation in UK further and higher education.'

For more information go to http://www.jisc.ac.uk/aboutus/whoweare/structure/innovationgroup.aspx.

Gemma Hammond, Communications Officer ICT & Learning Team Telephone: 0116 204 6432 mailto:gemma.hammond@niace.org.uk, tells us...

As some of you have noticed www.aclearn.net is now in its final stages of life and will be disappearing shortly. The materials have been integrated into the Excellence Gateway and can be accessed at http://excellence.qia.org.uk

At the moment http://www.offenderlearning.net is still active and will have a re-direct when the site is also integrated.

 

JISC launched a new campaign called "Libraries of the Future" at their 2008 JISC Conference last month - inviting involvement from the higher and further education community- both online and in person - in events, and in responses to publications and podcasts over the coming months.

JISC campaigns aim to initiate conversations and debate about issues that are emerging as central to the sector, and will provide Web 2.0 tools for community participation, and links to resources and research that can inform the debate.

You can follow the campaign via...

• the Libraries of the Future blog - http://librariesofthefuture.jiscinvolve.org/ or
• the Libraries of the Future website - http://www.jisc.ac.uk/librariesofthefuture.

 

Salary

£26,666 - £32,796 p.a.

Informal enquiries

Laura Shaw, Senior Development Officer (Teaching and Learning) Tel: + 44 (0) 161 275 6079 Email: laura.shaw@manchester.ac.uk,

Closing date: 13/05/2008
Reference: ACS/80405

"The Jorum Service is a web based repository service, supporting the deposit and access of learning and teaching content for the UK Further and Higher Education communities. We require a suitably qualified and pro-active individual to promote the service with existing and new contributors and users."

More details at http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/technical/vacancy/index.htm?ref=135595

Including...

• Further particulars
• Application form (pdf and rtf)
• Guidance Notes

 

• Female apprentices 'earning less'
• Firms to fund university places

Female apprentices earn significantly less than their male counterparts, new research shows.

The average pay for a male apprentice in 2007 was £186 per week compared with £147 per week for a female apprentice. The overall average is £170 per week.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7341280.stm. 

Businesses are to contribute funds for 20,000 new university places in plans to promote stronger links between higher education and industry.

Many of the places will go to people in work rather than teenagers studying for a three-year undergraduate degree.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7346228.stm.

• Form-filling could kill off adult learning
• Government outlines funding options for universities
• Returning to learning
• Remembering 1993 and all that
• Tuition fees could double, study warns
• Universities receive £8.3m to work with business
• What did adults do to deserve this?

Mike Baker writes...

"Is the government slowly suffocating adult education? It is already clear that the post-Leitch focus on "economically valuable skills" has cost adult education over 1.4 million learners over the past two years. But there is perhaps a more insidious threat than the re-direction of funding away from informal adult education. It lies in the obsessive push for accountability, driven by the government and enforced by the Learning and Skills Council and Ofsted." 

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/opinion/story/0,,2273591,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

A government document that encourages new ways of training our workforce could bring major dividends, argues Richard A Brown

"Here at the Council for Industry and Higher Education we welcome the government's high-level skills consultation document, because it recognises that credits towards larger awards or diplomas and bite-sized bits of learning are very valuable when it comes to involving individuals and businesses." 

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,2273574,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

• £8.3 million to boost workforce development
• Did 'Sir'/'Ms' sign the register in time?
• FE Colleges: the frontline under pressure?
• More employers gain awarding body status
• Ofqual

The Universities of Teesside, Staffordshire and Cumbria*, and Worcester College of Technology are developing new relationships with employers to support business growth and employee development, supported by more than £8 million of HEFCE funding.

Read more at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7DACU9.

The deadline has passed for all further education college teachers to register as members of the Institute for Learning (IfL); the professional body for teachers and trainers in the learning & skills sector has announced that over 100,000 teachers are now registered as members.

Existing FE teachers in England were required to register by 31 March 2008, and to abide by the IfL code of professional practice (launched last month, April 2008).  They will also have to undertake at least 30 hours' continuing professional development (CPD) each year.

By virtue of changes to Learning and Skills Council (LSC) provider contracts, these requirements will be extended to teachers and trainers throughout the wider sector, who will have to register by September 2008, or within six months of starting to teach.

Read the full article at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/0/67A2994E59F67582802574170059E1B3?OpenDocument. 

More information is available from http://www.ifl.ac.uk/services/p_wwv_page?id=140. 

This timely research report reveals the general level of staff dissatisfaction within FE Colleges in the UK.

Over 3000 FE staff completed a questionnaire that revealed their overwhelming sense of being undervalued and underpaid while in contrast the findings did highlight how staff are happy with the job itself as they feel they are making a difference to society.

Download the report at https://www.lsneducation.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=080046.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority (QCDA) has today announced the second wave of employers to achieve awarding body status and that more than 30 employers have now taken advantage of new opportunities to have their training accredited nationally.
Read more at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7DBCEW.

Report on recognising organisations as awarding bodies: The recognition process can be downloaded at http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_14937.aspx

Ed Balls announced, on 2 April 2008, the appointment of Kathleen Tattersall OBE as the first Chair of the regulator of qualifications and examinations (Ofqual).

Ofqual will act as the independent guardian of standards across the qualifications, tests and exam system in England.

Ed Balls also announced that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), is to be known as the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), will develop into an agency for developing curriculum, assessment and qualifications.

Read more at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/159702 or go to the Ofqual site at http://www.ofqual.org.uk/.

 

Adobe TV is an online source for expert insight and ideas. Possible PD (Professional Development) for those using, or considering using, Adobe products with...

• insider tips,
• innovative techniques, and
• behind-the-scenes tours

...delivered on video, on demand.

The website tells us that users...

"Get to know Adobe personalities by tuning in to

• Russell Brown revealing Adobe® Photoshop® secrets,
• Greg Rewis taming the web, or
  
• Jason Levine editing video".
  

"See the favorite tricks of design luminaries, take tours of cutting-edge creative shops, and find out what Adobe employees do with technology in their spare time".

Watch when you want and where you want, save episodes, subscribe to your favorite channel, and post shows on your blog. And it’s not only the talent that’s in action — Adobe TV itself is produced and delivered using Adobe products and technologies. From planning to playback, Adobe TV is brought to you by Adobe. 

Find out more at http://tv.adobe.com/?trackingid=CDYVK#.

Leslie's Art Gallery...

Nice morphing video that shows the changing face of women in artwork...

View at http://www.artgallery.lu/digitalart/women_in_art.html.

...offers a quicker way to search and preview Youtube videos. Users are able to preview any search result by simply dragging it on top of the video player located on the side. The best part about it is how easy it is to create video playlists.

Features

• Drag-n-drop videos to the player box to get instant preview.
• Create video play lists with minimal effort
• Use the Slider to Jump to any point in the video.
• You can get related videos on one page with the video player in the middle but you have to take what you are given.
• Option to make video window slightly larger.

Visit http://www.yvoschaap.com/youtube/ to find out more for yourself.

Mashable Social Networking News have compiled a list with over 20 eBooks and white papers that you can download to improve web design. 

Go to http://mashable.com/2008/03/12/ebooks-web-design/. 

Microsoft tells us...

"We have recently published a worldwide guide which provides information about accessibility and accessible technology resources, to help teachers ensure that all students have equal access to learning with technology."

"For teachers new to accessibility and working with students with disabilities, accessibility can seem overwhelming. To help teach students with all types of abilities, this guide includes information about accessibility and how to successfully and more simply bring it into the classroom."

"This guide provides

• An understanding of accessibility and how it impacts the classroom
• Definitions of impairment types and technology solutions for each type of impairment
• Guidance on choosing accessible technology solutions
• Resources for more information"

To find out more and to download the publication go to... http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/archive/2008/02/12/accessible-technology-a-guide-for-education.aspx.

The latest eBook from the eLearning Guild is Tips for Producing and Managing Flash-based e-Learning Content. There seems to be eight ebooks there dating back from 2005 and they are all free to download.

Each book is a collection of tips and they cover topics from choosing the best LMS (learning management system) to tips on being an online tutor.

Take a look for yourself at http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.545.

The free Top 100 Tools Spring 2008 Summary PDF - is now available to download: (329 KB; 15 pages)

Go to http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/pdf.html to find out more and to download the pdf.

WikiFM - not the most beautiful site to look at, but I already love it.

The premise for this Mashup is very simple: divide the page into two frames,

• load a Last.FM player in one and
• show the related Wikipedia page in the other,

...according to whatever is playing at the moment.

You can search by artists, tag, user name, group; alternatively you can simply enter a Last.FM URL. Last.FM is by itself a fantastic place to read about music while you’re listening to it, due to their detailed info pages for each artist. Go to http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/wikifm/ to listen and find out for yourself.

"Librarians, teachers and parents have told us how hard it is for students to understand web searching.

Boolify makes it easier to for learners to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results."

"It's simple, immediate and is easy and flexible to use with your learners, no matter the subject matter."

"Search results are presented through Google's "Safe Search STRICT" technology, ideal for family Learning, so we're confident that the results your students receive are safe."

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

 

Video made for the UK launch of the Windows Server 2008 launch. Cambridge University researchers talk about how the database helps with their Darwinian research. Go to http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-gb&vid=f5ddbab9-3570-4d85-915a-dc825086a9e1 and see/hear for yourself.

Video: Microsoft Cambridge University SQL Server 2008

 

FindSounds is a useful search tool for short sounds and sound effects.

Search, listen and download almost any animal, nature or industrial sound you need.

• To find a specific sound simply enter the term descrbing it (aerosol, blender, cuckoo clock, dryer, egg, fan, gate, ice cubes, lock, match, oven, pour liquid, razor, switch, timer, vacuum cleaner, washing machine, zipper etc.) and click search.
• You will be presented with the search results page from where you can both play the sounds and see their waveform.
• Other useful feature is the ability to narrow search results down to sounds that meet certain criteria. 

Features:

• Find and play a wide range of sounds (animal, nature etc.) online.
• Download the audio files in AIFF, AU, MP3, and WAVE formats.
• Filter search results by file size, sound quality, number of channels, type and so on.
• Download the sounds to your computer.

Find out for your self at http://www.findsounds.com/.

Mutapic is a simple to use tool that generates original artworks. A tool for designers, artists etc. It can be used to create...

• logos,
• icons,
• patterns,
• illustrations, etc.

Mutapic combines two pictures to create a set of new images. The two pictures are high quality vector graphics downloaded from the Mutapic server. New images are generated locally on your computer screen in bitmap format. Mutapic generates and infinite number of original images using randomness , rules, recipes and elements that are graphically appealing and interesting.

Try it out at http://www.mutapic.com/Index.html.

It would be nice to see some end products, produced by any of your learners; so feel free to send us any samples.

Here is one I made earlier...

Forvo: - a Wikipedia for pronunciation.

As a social site Forvo has advantages over other 'pronunciation' sites (I've included other in previous eMagazines).

Here...

• anyone can request a word be pronounced
• anyone can go ahead and pronounce it.

Registered users of the site can then vote on the best pronunciations for each word.

A Forvo search shows all the pronunciations; there is only one "standard pronunciation" - the one with the most votes.

• You can vote down a pronunciation if...
  
  • you think it's wrong,
  • the sound quality is bad or
  • the pronouncer is not a native English speaker (requests are that you only pronounce words in your native tongue, this doesn't seem to prevent some people)

Downside: -

• If a word that's new to the dictionary you can't judge, by votes, whether the pronunciation is accurate.
• Inconsistent sound quality.
• Currently a Small number of words in the dictionary (6,967 words 7,243 pronunciations 178 languages at time of writing)
• Potential for abuse

Advantages: -

• Anyone can request a word be pronounced (http://www.forvo.com/word-add/)
• People with different accents can record a pronunciation (greater diversity)
• Contains many languages (http://www.forvo.com/languages/)
• Voting mechanism means it should become more reliable
• Tagging means users can search or browse by tag
• Browsable categories (http://www.forvo.com/tag-list/)
• Listen to how other people say things.
• Contribute
• Easy web-based recording (you just need is a microphone).

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

At the Choosing and Using an ePortfolio event last month, delegates didn't know that there were resources available on our website that they could use on their VLEs; my two workshops, at this event, and the workshop I did at the National eGuide Conference have been added to these

Zipped files; they are ready to upload and use on your Learning Platform and available on our website via...

1. Web Tools>File Repository>VLE Zipped files http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,122/func,select/id,21/)
   or...
2. from the Zipped eXe Library at http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/ZippedeXeLibrary/zippedeXelibrary.htm.

Note: If using the first link above, where available, SCORM versions are downloadable (Allowing Learner tracking).

Searchme lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search; a slick, cover flow view. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you’re looking for, before you click through.

Introduction to searchme...

Searchme demo...

Find out for yourself at http://www.searchme.com/

Attention all IT, Computing & multimedia learners and practitioners, I'm informed that this site may prove to be very useful to you...

Everything from sorting lines to advanced encryption and hashing! Available at http://textop.us/.

TwitPic - an application that allows users to post images on Twitter using mobile phones or through the twitpic website; this in turn allows the addition of image captioning/commenting by learners and assessors/verifiers/peers etc.

Note: If you want to use this you and/or learners will have to 'join' twitter as well!

See for yourself at http://twitpic.com/. 

Or take a look at an image I uploaded at http://twitpic.com/juu

Do you constantly find yourself explaining how to complete a task on the computer?

Is it sometimes hard to put those instructions into words?

The Jing Project allows you to demonstrate a task by snapping a picture of your screen or recording a video (with audio) of what you do and see.

Jing is completely FREE and is available for download at the Jing Project website. Here you can download Jing for Windows as well as Mac. If you would still like more information on the Jing Project, check out their FAQ page as well as their blog. 

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

Learners and practitioners can add speech and thought bubbles to their photos and share them with peers/colleagues and/or use them in learning objects/ePortfolios etc.

No sign-up is necessary, simply upload the photo, add speech bubbles and save it.

You have the option to keep it private or share it with others.

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

Need to quickly resize an image?

Bookmark My-I-Size, this simple online tool lets you resize

• GIF,
• PNG and
• JPG Images

...online in no time.

Simply upload desired image, select the width you need and Click “GO”. Once the image is ready, right click on it and select “Save Image As…” to download and save it to your computer. 

Go to http://www.my-i-size.com/ to find out more. 

Create profile pictures that are just the right size for a huge range of sites.

Go to http://mypictr.com/.

Features:

• Upload and edit your images online.
  Upload images from hard-drive or from web URL.
• Option to undo and redo your actions at any time during the session.
• Basics: Resize, Crop, Rotate, and Flip photos.
• Paint tools: draw lines, add circles and rectangles, add text etc.
• Advanced: Adjust levels, color balance, sharpen, determine the color saturation and contrast, apply filters, change the canvas and more.
• Save processed images to your PC.
• Browser Bookmarklet: Import any image to photo editor directly from the webpage.

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

Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source. Find out more at http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/index.php?id=Home.

Podcast any electronic text to yourself with free high-quality text to speech!

"Listen to important documents, PowerPoint presentations, emails, RSS feeds, blogs and novels while you commute or exercise. YAKiToMe! is multi-lingual (English, Spanish, French ...) and brings you the world's best text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis technologies."

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

Yanobs is a simple hassle-free online notepad replacement. You can use this tool to quickly store text notes online and access them from any PC with internet connection. One of the noteworthy features is ability to search text within your text notes. 

Features

• Create and store as many text notes as you need.
• All notes are private and can be permanently deleted at any time.
• Option to search within text content of your notes.
• Works both with Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Find out more at http://yanobs.com/notepad/.

Learn...
Teachers/trainers/tutors/etc., use PowerPoint presentations during classes/workshops/tutorials/etc. Often they generate nothing more than collective Zzz’s from the learners. Thankfully, not all presentations are created equal. Many of the educational presentations on Slideshare have sharp graphics, a good text-to-image ratio, and deliver a clear message.

If you’re looking for a crash course in branding, design, marketing, or social media, Slideshare is a great place to start learning.

Improve presentation skills...
If you want to see what makes a winning presentation, all you have to do is look at the...

• Most Viewed,
• Most Favourited, or
• Most Downloaded tabs.

Find out what makes these presentations work and apply what you learn.

While you’re going through the archive, don’t forget to watch out for Death by PowerPoint and Presentation Zen. Both of them are guides on how to create visually compelling presentations.

 

 

KeyXL online keyboard shortcuts database - Including keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Macintosh and Linux

• A keyboard short cut is a key (or combination of keys) that performs a function within a software program.
• Usually this same function can be performed using the mouse but the advantage of keyboard shortcuts is that the hand does not need to leave the keyboard.

Note: Other names for a keyboard shortcut are...

• shortcut key,
• accelerator key,
• hotkey,
• key binding,
• key combo, etc.

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

My PowerPoint presentation seem very large is there a way of reducing the size of the resulting files?

Files which include one or more of the following...

• Graphic files,
• music,
• video clips
• flash objects

...and all those custom instructions added in PowerPoint, result in bloated files.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the file's size:

• Reduce all graphic files to 96 dpi if you don't need to print them directly from the presentation.
  For screen viewing, 96 dpi is the best you can get. To include files with a higher resolution is a waste.
• Bitmap (.bmp) files are usually larger than other formats. If you're using bitmap files, try converting them to .jpeg or .png. Even .gif is better than .bmp, but not quite as efficient as .jpeg and .png.
• If the file suddenly grows in size for no apparent reason,
  
  • save the presentation using Save As and give it a new name.

This can reduce the file's size considerably, but won't always work. It does work with normal bloat.