Visualizing Measurements

Sensible Units converts normal units of measurement into equivalent real life objects. Don't know how accurate it is but it could be interesting to test out some of the smaller units to see just how 'real' the actual conversions are.

Interestingly, each time you choose a measurement Sensible Units presents you with a random selection from their set of answers. You can also view all of the answers if the ones presented don't help - just select the 'Show all' tab.





I like this one. Thanks Amit.

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Technorati Tags: measurements, sensibleunits

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View Flickr Photos in a 3D World

Tag Galaxy provides a lovely visual interface to search for and view photos from Flickr. In this example, I initially searched for 'badminton' and then added 'sports'. This found 1,846 photos!

When you select your initial tag you will be presented with a 'tag galaxy' (see figure 1). You can then refine your search by selecting one of the 'planets'. This produces the 'world', which you can rotate and zoom in/out (see figure 2).



Finally, you can select an image of interest and view it in crisp, clear detail (see figure 3).  The link for the originating Flickr page is also given. Would be perfect if Creative Commons search was added!

Simply beautiful!


Figure 3 - source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlagonera/84323154/

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Technorati Tags: flickr, tag galaxy

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Dyslexia Friendly Spellchecker

Ghotit offer a unique spellchecker for anyone who has dyslexia, dysgraphia or who is not a native-English speaker. Ghotit also offer a text to speech plugin for Internet Explorer.

Ghotit have designed a specific spellchecker because the "standard spell and grammar checkers address the needs of the general population, who demonstrates average spelling and whose spelling mistakes are typing errors resulting in a spelling that shows high resemblance to the requested word. These spell checkers produce low results for users who demonstrate poor English spelling".

The reasons for poor results being:
* The written word is ‘too far’ from the correct spelling
* There is no support for misused/out-of-context words - e.g. let’s meat later
* There is no assistance provided in selecting the correct substitute word

Thus, Ghotit have developed unique spelling algorithms which are at the core of the online spellchecker.

I like the way you can change the font style, size and colour as well as the background colour - another way to assist entering and reading text.

Found Ghotit through the LD Resources blog. Haven't been able to to test this 'live' yet but would be very interested to see if it does indeed make a difference. Has anyone else tried it??

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Technorati Tags: dysgraphia, dyslexia, ghotit, spellchecker

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Computer Applications Tips and Tricks

Microsoft provide some interesting how-to articles on using their standard office products. These may provide you with a new angle on introducing or using some of the functions in each package.

What is more, the tips can also be adapted for OpenOffice if you have made the change!

Some interesting lesson plans, for traditional subjects, are also provided as part of the Microsoft Education section.

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Technorati Tags: lesson plans, microsoft education, openoffice 

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Work Online with Acrobat.com

Acrobat.com provides several online services including file sharing, storage, PDF conversion, word processing and web conferencing.

Using Acrobat.com you can easily create and share documents and communicate in real time.

Adobe ConnectNow, the web conferencing part, contains all the standard required features including whiteboard, screen sharing, audio, video, chat and file sharing. However, you can only connect with a maximum of two other users in the free version.

Also, the Adobe AIR version enables you to transfer files and folders by simply dragging and dropping them from your computer directly into your Acrobat.com account. You can browse, preview, share or publish files easily from your computer.

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Technorati Tags: acrobat.com, adobe air, word processing, web conferencing

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Access Different Websites in a Single Page

Zoho Notebook allows you to add different web pages to a single notebook. Each web page appears as a vertical tab in the right hand sidebar.

This is a handy way to collate several related web pages that can be viewed without having to open new tabs or new windows. Probably works best with a wide screen monitor and large resolution in order to avoid excessive scrolling.

This example shows the several related resource sites of the International Edubloggers Directory all accessible in the one page! This second example provides an interactive introduction for my 'practical ICT' classes.

Zoho Notebook also allows you to embed content of any type from multiple applications (as in the second example) and provides many other interesting features. Well worth checking out.

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Technorati Tags: ict, zoho notebook

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Portable Skype via USB

Although Skype have not created an official portable version, it is fairly simple to create your own version by following the steps given below.

Of course if you have a skype phone - you don't need a portable version!

However, I can see this being quite useful for a college situation where students regularly move from machine to machine and computer lab to computer lab.

Step 1: Create a folder on your USB drive. E.g. 'skype-portable'.

Step 2: Copy the 'skype.exe' file from the installed Skype folder on your PC (make sure you have downloaded and run the 'skypeSetup.exe' first) and paste it into your 'skype-portable' folder on your USB drive. The Skype folder should be found in 'program files' if you carried out a standard installation.

Step 3: Create a subfolder, called 'data' inside the 'skype-portable' folder.

Step 4: Create a new text file (use Notepad or Wordpad) and type in the following line - skype.exe /datapath:data /removable. Save the file, inside the 'skype-portable' folder, as 'skype.bat'

Step 5: Luanch the portable Skype by selecting the 'skype.bat' file.

It works a treat, no messy installation, no need to log in and out of different skype accounts on different machines!

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Technorati Tags: skype, skypephone

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Create Stunning Websites with Roxer

Roxer provides a very easy way to create web pages simply by "clicking and dragging, layering content, adding text, and placing things exactly where you want them". Amazingly, this is all done right inside your web browser.

With Roxer you can start with a blank page or use one of the five inbuilt templates. It is extremely easy to customise both individual objects and whole pages.

Compare this Roxer created 'ICFE About' page with the real 'ICFE About' page. Not a bad likeness, I think, and it only took a couple of minutes. Admittedly, I have not tried to add all the functionality of the 'real' page with drop down menus etc - which Roxer might struggle to deliver.

However, depending on type of site you wish to create, Roxer is a great tool especially for beginners. My thanks to Bob Harding for finding this little gem!

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Technorati Tags: roxer, web design

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