Wikipedia For Schools

Just came across Wikipedia for Schools thanks to Alec Couros.  This 2008/09 selection of Wikipedia is a "free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and useful for much of the English speaking world". 

Wikipedia for Schools is also available for download and will fit on a standard DVD. Great resource for those that do not have access to the Internet either at school and/or at home.

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Technorati Tags: sos children, wikipedia
 

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Need to Know the Current Time?

If you ever need to know the current time, GMT that is, (also known as UTC) then just have a look at the NIST clock.

This public service is provided by the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It uses the national time scale UTC(NIST) as its time reference.

The NIST Clock is intended as a time-of-day service only and should not be used to measure frequency or time interval.

Interestingly, you can also download software from NIST to use the Internet to automatically set your computer clock to the correct time using the Internet Time Service.

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Technorati Tags: gmt, internet time

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21st Century Learning System

In light of Stephen Heppell's keynote presentation to the K12 Online Conference this post by Scott McLeod is particually relevant at this time!

I kike his opening, very 007!

"Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to outline what it takes to get your state or province from ‘here’ to ‘there.’ In other words, what would it take to get from our current system of schooling to a robust, province- or statewide system of 21st century learning?"

His post and the accompanying comments are well worth a read. Would this scheme work for the Irish education system or your country's education system?

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Technorati Tags: 21st century learning, k12online

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The Death of Education.....

I enjoyed listening to Stephen Heppell's keynote presentation, this week, for the opening of the K12 Online Conference 2008. I, particularly, liked his analogy with the crisis that is currently affecting the financial system and his warning that this too could happen to the education system, if we do not act now!

Professor Heppell talks about a new model of learning that involves "schools built around mutuality and usness and sharing and democracy". He warns us that "if we don’t adopt it then the old model of learning will disintegrate and will bite us in the face".

However, Professor Heppell believes we can meet the challenge saying "For me, this is the most exciting time ever. This is absolutely the death of education but, you know, it is wonderfully the dawn of learning".



This year, the Conference convenors are adding all the video content to the DotSub website, which enables any account member to add to the video's transcription or translate the original text into another language. What a great idea!

It is, however, a very slow task requiring the help of many volunteers, but after all "many hands make light work". Why not join in and add your bit or better yet encourage your students to also lend a hand.

What a wonderful opportunity for language students to participate in a 'live' and meaningful exercise. A global flat classroom project open to all :-)

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Technorati Tags: dotsub, flat classroom, k12online, learning

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Need some Lorem Ipsum?

Ever needed that bit of 'sample text' to use for a word processing or desk top publishing demonstration? Well, look no further than Lorem Ipsum.

What exactly is Lorem Ipsum? Well, it comes from "sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC", making it over 2000 years old!

Lorem Ipsum provides you with as much 'dummy text' as required in a range of different formats including words, paragraphs and lists. Once generated, just copy and paste the text to where you need it.

Lorem Ipsum is a very versatile text generator and is available in many different languages!

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Technorati Tags: text generator

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Building Widgets with Sprout

With Sprout you can easily build your very own widgets.

Sprout lets you build, publish, and manage your widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more. You can set any size and add any number of pages.

Sprout enables you to include video, audio, images and newsfeeds and choose from dozens of pre-built components and web services.

If you are not sure how Sprouts can be used in education then have a look at Edusprouts for some inspiration!

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Technorati Tags: edusprout, sprout builder, widget

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Introduction to Screencasting

Screencast.com have produced a very useful set of video tutorials describing how to successfully create and use screencasts. Came across these tutorials thanks to Mike Qaissaunee's blog.

 

The techniques described can be applied to any screencasting software such as:
* Jing
* Camstudio
* Copernicus
* Community Clips
* TipCam
* Screencast-O-Matic
* Wink
* Webinaria
* Capture Fox
* Windows Media Encoder

Can you recommend any other free screencasting software?

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Technorati Tags: screencast, screencasting,

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Create Collaborative ToDo Lists

Just came across a lovely simple, yet powerful, ToDo list creator thanks to Lee Kolbert.

Ta-da List is the "web's easiest to-do list tool". With it you can make lists for yourself or to share with others. It is very easy to set up and use. Ta-da List can be accessed from any Internet connected PC or Mac and also from the iPhone for when you are on the move. 

If you need a bit of inspiration have a look at the video below where Lee demonstrates just how and where you can use Ta-da List.

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Technorati Tags: to do list, tada list

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