tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38245286300588085402024-03-05T04:04:47.100+00:00...from the elab...elearning blog from City College NorwichPhil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-59794760429364120972012-09-26T14:36:00.000+01:002012-09-26T15:50:59.441+01:00timeline verite<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6vQaMqpcr5PkgM779PtSLim-dZxlnesUsUnNx-w31kSzkOX23HJ-gFwkiYcHceAXpnppAoutLBRDyzbKyyy3BZiIKEGC-ReUcleL3dTHrNqIWLP1bfrfKz603FxRr7XVQ8Jy_eq5jdw/s1600/timeline.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6vQaMqpcr5PkgM779PtSLim-dZxlnesUsUnNx-w31kSzkOX23HJ-gFwkiYcHceAXpnppAoutLBRDyzbKyyy3BZiIKEGC-ReUcleL3dTHrNqIWLP1bfrfKz603FxRr7XVQ8Jy_eq5jdw/s320/timeline.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
I have previously experimented with timeline webtools before, but what attracted me to <a href="http://timeline.verite.co/">timeline verite</a> was the attractive layout, and the way in which it pulls in data from a Google spreadsheet to create the timeline. This opens up opportunities for collaborative working. Basically you put the data into a <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/digitalartwork.net/previewtemplate?id=0AppSVxABhnltdEhzQjQ4MlpOaldjTmZLclQxQWFTOUE&mode=public">Google spreadsheet template</a>, following the examples for pulling in images, videos, wikipedia entries etc, and publish it. Then revisit the timeline verite website and there generate the embed code. Probably easier to visit <a href="http://timeline.verite.co/">their website</a> for a full explanation and some excellent examples.
Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-79617607439889690872012-09-17T08:00:00.000+01:002012-09-19T11:21:45.044+01:00Twiddla<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7oSYKHHKk-dLZebdbd91OnmIlgCRLzUFaWXFXBZOBXLtVAWDbSzBVsTcLFBclImf6nNkQYn2p5dPCea05ZRso3jOg_dilMLHekdT9XfugTFs-AqrC72_whzBB4Mn59gmlG21jRU9BezU/s1600/twiddla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7oSYKHHKk-dLZebdbd91OnmIlgCRLzUFaWXFXBZOBXLtVAWDbSzBVsTcLFBclImf6nNkQYn2p5dPCea05ZRso3jOg_dilMLHekdT9XfugTFs-AqrC72_whzBB4Mn59gmlG21jRU9BezU/s320/twiddla.jpg" width="320" /></a>Working at an institution with a number of interactive whiteboard brands with incompatible software, the idea of a universal web based package is attractive. Indeed the manufacturers are themselves moving towards the web; see Smartboard's notebook express. I am grateful to Kenji Lamb (on the ILT champions mailing list) for bringing a sophisticated package <a href="http://www.twiddla.com/">Twiddla</a> to my attention. Besides simple drawing and shapes it incorporates collaborative text editing (a la etherpad) co browsing and maths content. Plus you can start it up immediately, without signing in. Well worth a look. (Where this leaves interactive whiteboards generally in the age of wireless tablets and software like this is worthy of another post altogether.) </div>
Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-89543963729007228242012-09-03T08:00:00.000+01:002012-09-03T08:00:05.631+01:00Collaborize Classroom <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwMOAM7YLlWM_Qjq4Rp2fE5L076QX6LpAi6y8yYgwYgO4zrxxABs2ldsO_LgZPYzeO7OEqWv9zs1pH8QMmgEZ9gf3mCqDcrbnNFkLbiGQnaTsqMnHiAgjvk276F9DhF4VoFSqfgNlQ7f4/s320/collaborizeclassroom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The built in discussion forum in Blackboard has always been one of my least favourite interfaces, so it is good to find <a href="http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/"><i>Collaborize Classroom</i></a>. This is a free, neat discussion tool, that allows you to tie in multi-choice, yes/no questions and voting in order to help stimulate discussion. It also just looks a more attractive discussion interface. There is also an app for iPad. Thanks to Russell Stannard for bringing this to my attention, and for making a <a href="http://teachertrainingvideos.com/collaborize/index.html">thorough introductory tutorial here</a></h1>
Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-7967257761443768842012-08-28T15:54:00.000+01:002012-08-28T15:54:43.481+01:00The rise of the MOOCs<b>New acronym of the week: MOOC</b><br />
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A MOOC is a <i>Massive Open Online Course</i>. In the words of Wikipedia an "online course where the participants are distributed and course materials also are dispersed across the web". Usually for free. Some commentators predict this means the end of conventional face to face models of education, but I am not convinced. As I have always said, if this argument held water, teaching as an art and science would have disappeared round about the time of the invention of books. Also as you would expect the institutions keep a grip on the accreditation process. What MOOCs undoubtedly do offer is access to some outstanding lectures and other content from top notch institutions, including the OU, Oxbridge, Harvard and MIT, so I strongly recommend taking a look, at iTunesU, <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a> and <a href="http://mitx.mit.edu/">MITx</a> to name but a few options. Personally I am really enjoying Harvard's Michael Sandel on Justice at the moment via <i>iTunesU</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Creative commons image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon-1123581321/4410399258/</span><br />
<br />Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-33683350235807423472012-07-26T09:49:00.000+01:002012-07-26T09:49:18.545+01:00Google map makerA bit quick off the mark here, as it is not available in the UK yet, but I can see lots of educational use for this Google map maker. I have previously blogged about using Google maps in Maths, and personally have made some maps of my own, which I found a bit fiddly. This promises a better approach, and looks very easy. Hurry up Google and launch the UK version!<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n8XVk1hWWok" width="560"></iframe>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-61600451376291237082012-07-16T11:18:00.001+01:002012-07-16T11:18:05.757+01:00Is Bloom's taxonomy upside down?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Slightly different topic for me to usual, but an interesting take on Bloom's taxonomy I picked up from a link on Larry Ferlazzo's blog. It has always seemed to me that it is the creativity of many web tools that leads to so much informal learning, for most people. Yet in the formal learning model, creativity is way up the mountain, only for those who have made their way through the blooming foothills and lower slopes. Flipping has become fashionable, so perhaps we should flip Bloom's taxonomy?<br />
<a href="http://plpnetwork.com/2012/05/15/flipping-blooms-taxonomy">http://plpnetwork.com/2012/05/15/flipping-blooms-taxonomy</a>/ <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">cclicensed photo taken from</span><br />
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<br />Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-80097348095220031322012-07-09T11:58:00.000+01:002012-07-26T10:07:53.284+01:00SwivlFrom networking at the excellent Eastern Region elearning fair Thursday, thanks to Mandy and Nickki<br />
<a href="http://www.swivl.com/">Swivl</a>: an app and a neat piece of hardware turns your iphone or ipod touch into your personal cameraman. The camera follows you as you walk about! Will also work to a large extent with a standard lightweight camera. Teachers can walk around the classroom and be followed, making a better quality video of their practice for reflection and analysis. Lots of other uses too...
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</div>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-35049463454236171952012-06-25T08:00:00.000+01:002012-06-25T08:00:14.605+01:00Peerwise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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-Sometimes it takes a while for ideas to get traction. I first blogged about <a href="http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/">Peerwise</a> almost a year ago, so although it has been a slow burn it is good to report enough interest in this for a face to face training session here next month. Just to remind you of its thrust, it is a multi-choice question authoring tool. The twist is that students create the questions themselves, rate them, and generally network around them, rather than it becoming just marks stored in a gradebook. Teachers know that creating good questions is one of the best ways of learning!Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-53207089331738309172012-06-18T08:00:00.000+01:002012-06-18T08:00:10.404+01:00A Google a DayGood search skills are essential for improving the information literacy of students. However teaching them can be rather a dry process. <em>Google</em> has come up with <strong><em>A Google a Day</em></strong>, to put the competitive element into the process, so that individuals can compete against friends to see who can come up with the correct answer the quickest. It uses <em>Google</em> plus, so this may or may not work in the college environment, but you could probably adapt the idea in the classroom/IT lab. Take a look at their (as usual) polished promo video<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mpPK0aktC-Y" width="560"></iframe>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-45103381809838929022012-06-11T14:00:00.000+01:002012-06-11T14:00:18.092+01:00Collaborative browsing: channel.me<a href="http://www.channel.me/">http://www.channel.me/</a> is a very simple collaborative tool, that offers collaborative browsing, or just allows you to post a note over the top of a web page. No sign up, no download required, just adjust the url by putting <em><strong>channel.me/</strong></em> at the front. Perhaps useful for posting a web quest task for your students? Easiest to understand if you watch their short video:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JAVlZHQ27qI" width="560"></iframe>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-57902778049581325242012-05-21T08:00:00.000+01:002012-05-21T08:00:07.417+01:00RoboBraille: audio, ebook, and of course braille conversion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzJRlvK6KYV4Al6obZlpC-GVn4ok4bKiBnvFrXIvvk9fDPvqOe3K9cNsOHaatHU9dbDJQnGiRFunA8YxbBPOcwyJ99600UXbm_PJ0GhWOSVXDzrZXrYwTSMdlcc45kMS6sX0PaXheMTc/s1600/robobraille.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="robobraille logo" border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzJRlvK6KYV4Al6obZlpC-GVn4ok4bKiBnvFrXIvvk9fDPvqOe3K9cNsOHaatHU9dbDJQnGiRFunA8YxbBPOcwyJ99600UXbm_PJ0GhWOSVXDzrZXrYwTSMdlcc45kMS6sX0PaXheMTc/s320/robobraille.gif" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
Thanks to Alistair McNaught and David Foord for bringing<a href="http://robobraille.org/"> RoboBraille</a> to my attention. Not only does this free ( for individual study, employment or daily life use) tool convert electronic text to braille, it will also convert to mp3 audio , or to ebook format. You can access the service through the web or email, so you could email a document from your mobile device, and receive an email containing an mp3 audio file to listen to on your headphones. Simple but excellent idea. <a href="http://robobraille.org/">http://robobraille.org</a>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-21086631529890737392012-05-14T08:00:00.000+01:002012-05-14T08:00:10.476+01:00TEDEd, TED X, and flipping videos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI7frl6oonO05OX14Oe_nLhwj1J1x2_HMoVQ-RyBp8TFYrhUKWSdMuH64dif4nHXDF6SeWukUQoV2_8sD38CVQCrONPpNIOpOVvjzd7hbNqFKgJsNfq_wtvg-KxqqAGl5kMrqGLVt5uY/s1600/teded.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI7frl6oonO05OX14Oe_nLhwj1J1x2_HMoVQ-RyBp8TFYrhUKWSdMuH64dif4nHXDF6SeWukUQoV2_8sD38CVQCrONPpNIOpOVvjzd7hbNqFKgJsNfq_wtvg-KxqqAGl5kMrqGLVt5uY/s320/teded.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
Many people have been inspired by the TED talks on the web. My own favourites include the <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html">Ken Robinson</a> and <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html">Hans Rosling</a> ones. The brand now seems to be extending its reach with more localised TEDX events e.g. <a href="http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/2288">TEDxCCN recently in Norwich</a>.<br />
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The real focus of this post though is <a href="http://ed.ted.com/">TEDEd</a>, a service which gives you the opportunity to make watching a <em>YouTube</em> video into a customised lesson, with your own added context, and questions. This flip-a-video feature means you can add structure, by including links and other material to provoke thought and make the experience more reflective and meaningful.. Visit <a href="http://ed.ted.com/">http://ed.ted.com/</a> to find out more.Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-10826411752305239342012-05-08T08:00:00.000+01:002012-05-08T08:00:10.843+01:00Meetings and appointments sign up: Doodle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.doodle.com/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoGJJ7NIIJzpXJvahoPcD56bK8i_a4CQx4lAbt8mPK5UF5VLnSs1vctgl81RoQOgNh7t1SBwvnXXo4bWkAkCUkY-7DquC-v8U8g4J88RHXiYNO5YoiqC9gd2FQaQYbOgxHILp6v7bVdhg/s320/doodle.gif" width="320" /></a>I have been searching for a while for an easy to use online appointment system. This would have multifarious uses, including staff (and tutees) signing up to 1to1 sessions, or small group workshops. After investigating <em>Google</em> calendars and forms, <em>Eventbrite</em> and others I have come to the conclusion that <em>Doodle</em> is probably the quickest and easiest way of doing this on a small scale. Its primary function is as a meetings organiser tool, which it does very well too. However, if in the settings, you make it a <em>hidden poll</em>, <em>only allow each participant to choose one option</em> and <em>limit the number of participants per timeslot to 1 </em>it becomes a nifty online 1to1 sign up sheet. Well worth a look.</div>
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It should look something like this:</div>
<a href="http://www.doodle.com/wnu4baan3psa2ru5">http://www.doodle.com/wnu4baan3psa2ru5</a>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-26107205976434296512012-04-30T08:00:00.000+01:002012-04-30T08:00:03.141+01:00Music maestroA recent online discussion regarding the use of popular music, and the complex copyright difficulties this can cause staff and students prompts me to remind readers about places to obtain royalty free music, and a plug for a blog I strongly recommend. I first wrote about some sources for royalty free and creative commons sourced music in this blog in 2009, including Kevin Macleod's <a href="http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/">http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/</a> .<br />
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Recently the US edublogger Larry Ferlazzo reviewed his most popular posts over the years, and in there amongst them was this post <a href="http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/12/08/the-best-places-to-get-royalty-free-music-sound-effects/">"The Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music & Sound Effects</a>" from way back in 2008, but obviously still found very useful by educators across the world. I have also added Larry's blog to my recommended blog listing, below and to the right of this posting.Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-89857128007341097052012-04-23T08:00:00.001+01:002012-04-23T08:00:05.385+01:00Prezify your PowerpointI am just doing a live broadcast <em>Prezi for beginners</em> tutorial in college today, so a post about about how you can now turn your <em>PowerPoint</em> presentations into <em>Prezi</em> presentations is probably timely. I am less of a fan of <em>Prezi</em> than some people, mainly because for me the quality of a presentation has less to do with software choice and more to do with presentation skills. If you have a bad <em>PowerPoint</em> show, it will export to a bad <em>Prezi</em> show. However I also have to say that <em>Prezi</em> does not force you down the linear route that <em>PowerPoint</em> does, and <em>Prezi</em> is also very effective in allowing you to look at the big picture before zooming in to the fine detail. If you have not tried or experienced a <em>Prezi</em>, (it's online and free in its basic form) it is well worth a look, there are excellent tutorials on <a href="http://prezi.com/">the Prezi website.</a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Thanks to James Clay for info on this, his blog is always worth, reading, link below on the right)</span><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/WZ5iWFYowI0">http://youtu.be/WZ5iWFYowI0</a>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-27477323297878050822012-04-16T08:00:00.001+01:002012-04-16T08:00:04.193+01:00Visual Google image search<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtW5l2JIsYAep1cdxOKjf54Xbmp5oX4WJ5vpzpWlnMF5l-gGxp2QotQ7VaV0o15GizxrCkaVSd5KJeXl-h1n11fZX_9hVCWcu0jEmwO6X8zM_Ootpz5YUuT8zK9zpQonAmkl6tdXEMFA4/s1600/google+image+drag.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtW5l2JIsYAep1cdxOKjf54Xbmp5oX4WJ5vpzpWlnMF5l-gGxp2QotQ7VaV0o15GizxrCkaVSd5KJeXl-h1n11fZX_9hVCWcu0jEmwO6X8zM_Ootpz5YUuT8zK9zpQonAmkl6tdXEMFA4/s320/google+image+drag.gif" width="320" /></a></div>Do a Google image search, for say, "pingpong". Nothing new so far. But did you know you can drag one of the images you are presented with into the Google search box? This then searches for places on the web where this image occurs! You can also then search for visually similar images. Once more I need to say that for me, in the college environment, this does not work in <em>Internet Explorer</em>, you need to use <em>Firefox</em> or <em>Chrome</em>.Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-14887245078305716702012-04-02T08:00:00.003+01:002012-04-09T13:50:26.227+01:00infocus<div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://infocus.cc/"><img alt="" border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2odQ9QTDzTpuAzenPk8hYTXDrXvIjV6RJUvPZElzAchIx2E4yFE57M8nAAZOQB06maGw-vBkoRN7ijBifIbrN6lyVrCdkK_UWzs3zHtscl05GqBop0yYrtosKomSbK2lBbWL5o-6iS5g/s320/infocus.gif" title="" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Too much information?</strong><br />
Highlight the bit of a web page you want, and share it!<br />
<a href="http://infocus.cc/">Infocus</a> is an interesting tool that I can see having uses in education, for teachers and students. I suppose it is another way of cutting through the blizzard of information to highlight what is important on a webpage. So... teachers can highlight the essential message, but also students could be tasked with extracting the important part of a web pages message. Drag it as a bookmark to your bookmark bar and it is quick and easy to create a highlighted page. Try it, it's easier to do than explain!Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-47690189268319609902012-03-26T08:00:00.003+01:002012-03-26T08:00:14.119+01:00Geogebra is wonderful<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3roiWfol3_SuTp3HubyUYCr_qgnTUSrkRpnbjbUzfGZfOIwHIFbNckd6gB1NdrT00pzsUB0nwUfl-H5PbWMMeD-ZcqqC9pXG52Eep0tMnb7J2NAU1gH_RBUM3-1v-dIu4sioxjpAWGo/s1600/geogebra3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3roiWfol3_SuTp3HubyUYCr_qgnTUSrkRpnbjbUzfGZfOIwHIFbNckd6gB1NdrT00pzsUB0nwUfl-H5PbWMMeD-ZcqqC9pXG52Eep0tMnb7J2NAU1gH_RBUM3-1v-dIu4sioxjpAWGo/s1600/geogebra3.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">non dynamic screengrab</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I have mentioned<a href="http://www.geogebra.org/cms/"> Geogebra</a> previously in this blog, and we are now beginning to use this <strong>free</strong> Maths software more extensively here at college. I love the dynamic nature of the diagrams you can produce, but due to technical problems at present you will need to use your imagination. To to the right is a static screengrab of a Geogebra diagram. In the software you can grab hold of point A and move it over the curve, observing how the gradient of the moving tangent changes! I am continuing working on getting a working dynamic drawing embedded, but at present it only seems to work with some browsers offsite. Watch this space, but don't let it put you off experimenting as it works a treat within the software.Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-9122323515277106292012-03-19T08:00:00.001+00:002012-03-19T08:00:13.371+00:00photopin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ49XtUWg2mxJVghhmmL7sqEOFb05wFo5u_lZivShUUoYTr_80MBw6wSHcVFRO-pvo05Rs57b5BThyphenhypheneoMIsMU9ZcXbhZKRXStyPeIsbr_Y8USfGqziGs9_2ATrWPYlBk77oyO43yjBJAE/s1600/Baildon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ49XtUWg2mxJVghhmmL7sqEOFb05wFo5u_lZivShUUoYTr_80MBw6wSHcVFRO-pvo05Rs57b5BThyphenhypheneoMIsMU9ZcXbhZKRXStyPeIsbr_Y8USfGqziGs9_2ATrWPYlBk77oyO43yjBJAE/s400/Baildon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>For a teacher in a rush, copyright can be an irritation. However how would you feel if someone was using your own creative work without acknowledment? So, if you want to <em>quickly</em> find photos you can use for your learning materials, with a copy and paste copyright acknowledgement, a useful site to find them is <em><a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a></em>. It searches the <em>Flickr</em> database of images and quickly gives you images and the author credit for your chosen image to copy and paste into your VLE/blog/worksheet. So as an example a search for <em>Baildon</em> ( in West Yorkshire) found me this image, and the text credit (html) to paste below. It is a Creative Commons licence here. If you want to investigate what this means click on the cc link below.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">photo credit: </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandmikeprobably/3156784908/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Michael of Scott</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> via </span><a href="http://photopin.com/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">photopin</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">cc</span></a>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-60495001919312170532012-03-12T08:00:00.001+00:002012-03-12T08:00:11.933+00:00veengle YouTube compiler<em><a href="http://www.veengle.com/">Veengle</a></em> is a <em>YouTube</em> playlist editor, that allows you to put together clips into a coherent collection, and also gives you the opportunity to just pick the parts of each video you want. It will then give you embed code for the resultant "mingled" video. Just to illustrate the concept here is a couple of glossy <em>Google</em> promos, one for search features, and one for <em>Sketch-up</em>, put together into a single compilation, and then embedded in this blog. Despite their relentless cheerfulness and glossiness you may also learn some stuff too!<br />
<object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.veengle.com/veengleplayer.swf?vid=125845"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.veengle.com/veengleplayer.swf?vid=vLJ6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-41845044914031113962012-03-05T08:00:00.001+00:002012-03-05T08:00:07.711+00:00Grockit Answers: a discussion tool around online videos.<a href="https://grockit.com/answers">Grockit Answers</a> is only in beta, but is an interesting (html5?) idea. It's a <i>YouTube</i> (and <i>Vimeo</i>)mashup, that makes watching online videos a more interactive experience. That question that you want to ask a minute after you start watching the video? Pause the video and ask it. Others watching the video will also see the question appear <i>at that point in the video</i> too, and hopefully some of them may have the answer. Anyone watching can answer the question! The embedded video below explains in more detail.You may well need to use Firefox rather than IE ( I find myself saying this more and more these days)<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0gcq4fkRMxY" width="420"></iframe>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-81463479333169102292012-02-20T08:00:00.002+00:002012-02-20T08:00:02.126+00:00Microsoft Live MoviemakerHere in college the <em>Microsoft</em> video editing tool <em>MovieMaker</em> disappeared briefly from the network in the upgrade to <em>Windows 7</em>, and has only now become available again. The new <em>Live MovieMake</em>r incarnation is easier to use than the old one, and also can deal with files from the later Flip videocams again! Well worth a look. College colleagues can find it in the <em>Audio, image and video editing tools</em> within <em>All programs</em>. For Windows users it is also available for free download at home. But hey, I should be practising what I preach...<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nztUGhjJLUM" width="420"></iframe>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-27294431374828768312012-02-13T08:00:00.002+00:002012-02-13T08:09:20.856+00:00Pronouncing words with real life examplesIf you are teaching English you may be interested in this interesting mashup put together by embedplus, of a kind of dictionary and <em>YouTube</em> put together:<br />
<a href="http://www.embedplus.com/dictionary/how-to-pronounce-words-and-use-them.aspx">http://www.embedplus.com/dictionary/how-to-pronounce-words-and-use-them.aspx</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.embedplus.com/dictionary/how-to-pronounce-words-and-use-them.aspx" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9xUlnbmS9n6sP1cBHObmbkrh5eKzTHVR00EzJHTu-i-xbfzFFnktEXeBDFwRO1V0ezyg8W8UKBt07_-pUQGjfVdsvsN1ScjVL4mnk7C7Q1FqnoazzM9T0-_gt8GezJSTaFSQlVfNN5JY/s1600/embedplus+mashup.gif" /></a></div>Search for a word, and you will get pronunciation, but also <em>YouTube</em> video exemplars of real usage of the word. What's really clever is that the video will jump to the bit of the video with the word being used. It's not always just what you want, (I get an icehockey clip for the word "offside" rather than UK football) and sometimes you have to wait a little bit for the videos to appear, but excellent for students wanting to see and hear real life usage of vocabulary.Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-52609375882838164552012-02-06T08:00:00.002+00:002012-02-06T08:00:11.319+00:00Curating the web: flipboard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://flipboard.com/img/home/flipboard-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" kba="true" src="http://flipboard.com/img/home/flipboard-logo.png" /></a></div>Curation is one of those words that have morphed from having a layer of dust on them, barely used apart from in very dry academic sense, into a fashionable trend . It is a recognition of the fact that in order to make sense of the avalanche of information we now have to deal with we need to be selective in the sources we pay attention to , and do some work to assemble them. So it's a way of putting together information from your chosen feeds, social media, blogs etc into in attractive readable format, that at least on tablet devices often resembles a good old paper magazine! Having been inspired by <a href="http://elearningstuff.net/2012/01/03/flipboard-iphone-app-of-the-week/">James Clay's review of Flipboard</a> (that had started purely as an iPad app) I put the free Flipboard app onto my humble old iPod touch, and was really impressed with the usability and visual quality it produces. I particularly like the errr... flip functionality! (You might also like to experiment with <a href="http://www.scoop.it/">Scoop.it</a>, that has pc and mobile apps)Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3824528630058808540.post-20861002833885823962012-01-30T08:00:00.005+00:002012-01-30T08:00:14.837+00:00Speech recognition in Windows and Apple<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9344AAD9l2c3RnREoy8lW5qaTbmuTNErcB7ezo8N2GliYaUXvpLO6z0Dk8gX_vBi4wUSLe6PyR3Y3ROuuudJh1Fw2AWPvjwXD4aEKvB_Qodjp7nUXkYSGk0jrwKpsAx9NSOdmrj9qz8/s1600/philheadset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9344AAD9l2c3RnREoy8lW5qaTbmuTNErcB7ezo8N2GliYaUXvpLO6z0Dk8gX_vBi4wUSLe6PyR3Y3ROuuudJh1Fw2AWPvjwXD4aEKvB_Qodjp7nUXkYSGk0jrwKpsAx9NSOdmrj9qz8/s1600/philheadset.jpg" /></a></div>Is speech recognition software finally coming of age? <em>Apple's Siri</em> listens and responds to you, and the <em>Dragon Dictation</em> Apple app seems to work quite well too. There is also now speech recognition built into <em>Windows 7</em>, so staff and students can now access this at any <em>Windows 7</em> machine, through the <em>Start</em> button and <em>Control Panel</em>. Watch this <a href="http://mediasite.ccn.ac.uk/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=45d9e7e9ced545a7bc31c96326b162bf1d">simple voice recognition example</a>, or follow the excellent built in tutorial. As with any software there is a learning curve, and it is still no magic solution; you do need to have a certain discipline in speaking. However if for you a keyboard has always been an obstacle, it may be just what you have been waiting for!<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div>Phil in the elabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00336862841968013431noreply@blogger.com0