Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding

This is a "19-minute award-winning short-film about teaching at University", which could equally apply to Further Education. How many Susans and Roberts do you teach?

I particulary liked the concrete example of linking new knowledge to existing knowledge. You are asked to memorise symbols which represent the numbers 1 - 9 (see figure 1 below).

It is very hard to do until you are told just where the symbols come from (see figure 2 below). Then it becomes very easy!!!

A very interesting and thought provoking video, which I am not surprised won an award. Well worth spending the 19minutes on it!

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Technorati Tags: learning, teaching, understanding

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Language Learning with bab.la

bab.la is a portal where "language lovers can meet and exchange their ideas and learn languages from each other". A real community effort.

bab.la provides dictionaries for translation between english and spanish, german, chinese, french, portuguese, russian, turkish. There is also a german to french dictionary.

The dictionary provides direct translations for words, both in text and audio (in english), and also provides suggested similar expressions.

As a user you can add your own translation suggestions or verify the suggestions of other users as well as making quizzes. The quizzes can even be embedded into websites as shown below.

First read about bab.la on Richard's post.

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Technorati Tags: babla, language learning, translation, quiz

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Goodbye Adobe Reader, Hello PDF-XChange

PDF-XChange is a great little PDF reader that does everything Adobe Reader does and much more!

With PDF-XChange you can:
* add comments/annotations, subject to security settings
* type directly on any page
* add & apply custom stamps from any Image
* mark-up pages with text and objects
* export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported image formats
* extract text from the file
* navigate using 'Loupe' and the 'Pan' window tools
* fill and save Adobe Forms to disk as well as email
* use plug-ins for both MS IE or Firefox

Best of all, PDF-XChange also has a portable version - no installation required!

By using PDF-XChange your students can easily make their own personal additions/notes to your PDF files and save their own copy. They can then go back and change their amendments as many times as they wish.

What a great classroom tool if only all teachers and students were using laptops - no need to spend hours at the photocopier, just switch to PDF-XChange and save the trees :-)

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Technorati Tags: pdf files, PDF-XChange
 

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Make Jigsaw Puzzles Offline or Online

Tibo Software provides the Jigs@w Puzzle Promo Creator, which allows you to create jigsaw puzzles using your own photographs. With this Promo verison you can create puzzles of up to 40 pieces.

But, if you don't want to download anything then visit the Jigsaw Planet where you can simply upload your photo and create the puzzle online. Jigsaw Planet also uses the Tibo Software.

You can link to the puzzle from your own website using the code provided by Jigsaw Planet as shown below! You are shown the time taken to finish the puzzle when it is successfully completed and you can set the Exit button to link back to your original page. Click on either picture to try out a puzzle :-)

 

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Technorati Tags: jigsaw promo creator, jigsaw puzzle, tibo sofware

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Create your own Crossword Puzzles

EclipseCrossword is a great piece of software that lets you create your own crosswords in minutes, literally!

EclipseCrossword is very easy to install and use. You can create a printable version for the old pen and paper solution or an interactive version that can be included on your web site.

EclipseCrossword's interactive version is a combination of CSS and Javascript so you can customise it if you want to change the default appearance! This is a handy feature if you want embed it in a web page and retain the look and feel of your own site.

This hardware and Software puzzle, my first creation, will be used with my 'beginners ICT' class next term. Hopefully, this will be one of many that I put together as the days go by - it really is that easy!

Many thanks Rashmi and the Passionate Teachers for this discovery :-)

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Technorati Tags: crossword, css, javascript, eclipsecrossword

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Yacapaca 2008 Author of the Year Awards

Chalkface have just announced the winner of the 'Yacapaca 2008 Author of the Year Award'.

Yacapaca, reviewed in an earlier post, is an excellent online assessment resource where you can create and access quizzes, surveys, tests and eportfolios. Yacapaca provides an easy way to discover, modify and share assessments.

This year, for the first time, Chalkface have honoured the best authors through the Author Awards. Seven nominees were selected from the most popular subjects in Yacapaca. Each being very different, but they have all shown excellence in creating assessment resources.

And the winner is .......... Ralph Holmes of Langley School, Norfolk with runner up Hannah Mohon of Huntcliff School in Saltburn-by-Sea. Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees.

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Technorati Tags: , assessment, eportfolio, yacapaca

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Create Mobile Phone Quizzes

Mobile Study enables you to create multiple choice quizzes that can be downloaded to mobile phones.

With Mobile Study, you can take the quiz online, in facebook or download it to your phone - something that might appeal to our social networking, 'txting' generation :-)

In the feedback section, after each question, you can add extra interesting information as well as indicating if the question was answered correctly or not.



I'm looking forward to trying out Mobile Study with unsuspecting students next term!!

Update - 27/12/08
You can now embed your quiz in any blog or website!!

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Technorati Tags: mobile phone, mobile study, quizzes

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Science, Mathematics and Computer Resources

LearnersTV.com is an excellent resource site providing FREE video lectures, animations, liveOnline tests, audio lectures and ebook download links in the fields of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering and Medicine. All subjects are covered at University level.

Many 'free' ebook links are given, but these are all external links to a file sharing site and it quite clear that these books are all covered by copyright, something acknowledged by LearnersTV.com. The computer science section alone offers 224 ebook links.

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Technorati Tags: computer science, learnerstv, mathematics, science

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Create Flash Content Online

The Effect Generator is a site where you can you can author and publish Flash content.

In the Effect Generator, you can add text, images (upload or URL), shapes and videos. All added content can be resized.

The Effect Genrerator includes a library of transitions and animations, which can be applied to any of the added objects. You can create a single screen or a complete slideshow comprising of multiple screens.

The Effect Generator also comes with a range of templates that can be easily edited such as various different slideshows that can be configured individually with images uploaded from your own computer.

This is a great little flash content creator, which I discovered thanks to Joe Dale. If you missed the action in this example just refresh the page!

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Technorati Tags: effect generator, flash

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Mind Mapping with Mindomo

On the recommendation of my fellow edubloger Horst, I have tried out Mindomo for creating mind maps. Now, having just completed my first one I can see why he likes it.

Mindomo is very easy to use and has many features that can be used to enhance the appearance of the mind map including: text formatting, inserting notes and relationships, adding symbols, using boundaries, placing graphics from an inbuilt library, adding hyperlinks and inserting multimedia from the Internet.

Mindomo lets you to export your work and import existing mind maps as well as collaborating with others. Interestingly, Mindomo also provides an RSS feed so that you can keep up do date with changes to the original map, which is quite handy if lots of people are all working on the same map!

I also like Mindmeister, which I mentioned earlier, but on balance, I think Mindomo has better features and allows for a more creative mind map!

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Technorati Tags: mind mapping, mindmeister, mindomo

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Another Touch Typing Tutorial

This is yet another free online typing tutor, but if you (or your students) have a competitive streak then 10 Fast Fingers is the one for you!

10 Fast Fingers provides lessons covering all the letters on the keyboard as well as numbers and characters.

In addition, 10 Fast Fingers provides a speed test that takes just a minute and produces immediate feedback.

I'm not sure just how accurate the actual result is, but it is great fun taking the test and trying to improve on your score. Your rank position, out of all tests taken, is also indicated. 

This was my first attempt!

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Technorati Tags: keyboarding, touch typing, typing

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Make your Webpages Come Alive

Apture provides "the first rich communication platform allowing publishers and bloggers to easily turn flat pages of text into multimedia experiences".

With Apture, it is really easy to add images, videos, audio files and wikipedia articles to your page.

Allow your readers/students to engage with all this multimedia without having to leave your webpage.

Apture does indeed "turn flat pages of text into a compelling multimedia experience". Just have a look at the next section, about Dublin, which contains links to all four types of media mentioned. First found reference to Apture on Kathy's blog.

Dublin or Baile Átha Cliath is the capital of Ireland and is situated on the East coast.

The city has a world-famous literary history, having produced many prominent literary figures, including Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett plus Oscar Wilde and Jonathan Swift all come from Dublin. The city is also home to the creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker.

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Technorati Tags: apture, audio, multimedia, video, wikipedia

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Flickr Image Viewing Application

PictoBrowser provides a lovely Flickr slide show for your blog or website.

PictoBrowser's Builder lets you see customise the final appearance of the slide show by changing the following items:
* Width and Height
* Image File (medium or large)
* Image Vertical Alignment
* Image Titles (on/off)
* Image Notes (on/off)
* Thumbnails AutoHide (on/off)
* Image Zoom (on/off)
* background color
* Navigation Background color

This is a sample showing some of the places I have visited.

Check out Kathy's blog for a details of more slide shows that can be used in blogs and websites.

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Technorati Tags: flickr, pictobrowser, slideshow

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