Using ICT in Further Education

Sanjaya Mishra is undertaking a study entitled “Bloggers in Education: their beliefs, motivation, and perceived impact” and is seeking the help of fellow edubloggers.

The purpose of the study is to “understand who are the educational bloggers, and what are their beliefs and motivation to blog“.

Sanjaya is asking other edubloggers to fill in an online survey, which should only take 10-15 minutes of you time. If you haven’t done so, there is still time to submit your answers!

Should be interesting to see the results of the survey which Sanjaya promises to share.

Using Google Spreadsheet , you can easily import any RSS feed into your blog or website.

Using the attached spreadsheet example, the steps are as follows:

1. Enter the RSS URL in cell A3. 
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreeResourcesForEducation
2. Enter the following formula in cell D3.
=importfeed(A3, “Items title”, False, 4)
3. Enter the following formula in cell E3.
=importfeed(A3, “Items URL”, False, 4)
4. Enter the following formula in cell C3 and replicate it in the next 3 cells.
=D3
5. Enter the following formula in cell B3 and replicate it in the next 3 cells.
=HyperLink(E3, C3)
6. Select Share, Publish as a web page, Start publishing
7. Select HTML to embed in a page
8. Select Sheet1
9. Enter the cell range.
B2:B6
10. Copy the <iframe> code and select Close
11. Paste the <iframe> code into your blog or website

NB: Set widget=false and add gridlines=false to remove extra unwanted features. Adjust the height and width to suit your site.

Original Spreadsheet:

Resulting RSS feed:

The whole collaborative nature of Google Docs provides a great way for students to keep track of their own progress in completing tasks for any subject area.

It is fairly straightforward to set up a colour coded spreadsheet that will allow students to change the appearance of the document by simply pressing one key.

Just select ‘Format, Change colors with rules…’ and decide on the rules you want to use. If you are not sure how this works then have a look at the settings on this shared document or just select a cell and ‘press the delete key’ to see how easily it works!

I am using the above template with my classes this year and the students have been enthusiastically updating their progress as they go along, without having to be constantly reminded to do so!!

This is also a great way of enabling parents to keep track of their own child’s progress as a non-editable version of the document can be published to the web, as shown below.

First came across this idea looking at Dan Stucke’s own version for his Y11 GCSE class. Many thanks Dan

You can start planning your K12 Online 2009 conference schedule now as the Presenters and Keynote Speakers were announced last week. A virtual feast of professional development will be provided over two weeks in December. With over 50 presenters contributing there is bound to be something for everyone. The keynote speakers include: * Kim Cofino, Thailand * Joyce Kasman Valenza, Erdenheim, PA, USA * Konrad Glogowski, Ontario, Canada * Rachel Boyd, Nelson, New Zealand * Diego Leal, Columbia

If you haven’t added the conference to your diary then do it now!!

Dates:
Opening Keynote w/o 30th November 2009
Presentations from 7th to 17th December 2009

Venue: Online

Also, watch out for the  ’teaser trailers‘, which will be released in the weeks preceding the conference.

In the meantime, you can join in the 2nd live LAN party from 6:00PM to 8:00PM EDT (10pm GMT) on 20th October 2009. Gather in the EdTechTalk chatroom with colleagues to view two past conference presentations and engage in lively discussion.

ProProfs provides free knowledge sharing tools in the form of quizzes, flashcards, games and polls.

Create your own examples or simply explore and use the shared content. You can, also, easily embed any of the content on your blog, website, social network or e-learning system as well as downloading it.

Free Online IT Certification Training is also provided, by ProProfs, for the following qualifications:
* CompTIA Certification
* Cisco Certification
* Microsoft Certification
* Prosoft CIW Certification
* SAT Test Training

The amount of ads displayed can be a bit of a distraction but, if you can get past this, there is lots of useful content included! This is a little spreadsheet quiz based on using Excel.

With PostLearn you can become part of an exciting new project aimed at the education sector.

PostLearn is a new kind of education job board which is currently growing a network of edubloggers to help provide more value to educators as they browse blogs and educational resources by also providing links to possible employment opportunities.

PostLearn makes use of different individual personal learning networks (PLNs) to suggest job opportunities and positions to edublog readers and social network members.

In the words of one affiliate “PostLearn is a new an education job board powered by bloggers.”

Direct links to the job posting page (and individual jobs themselves) are spread out across the PostLearn affiliate network. One fifth of all revenue from paid postings will be shared back to bloggers and affiliates who’ve posted the badge/widget which tracks direct traffic and purchases.

PostLearn is currently inviting all bloggers or social networking administrators to join their affiliate network.

Additionally, any organization or individual with an education related job posting can post for free by sending an email to Joe@postlearn.com.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Judy Baxter

Need to know more about using mp3 files in the classroom? Then, tune in for what promises to be a very interesting webinar this Tuesday 22nd September 2009 (5pm to 7pm GMT).

Sean Banville will be speaking on “The use of MP3 files in the classroom – as a management and pedagogical tool”

There is no doubt that the advent of mp3 technology has opened up a wealth of opportunities for teachers to create purposeful recordings and exploit listening in the classroom. During his presentation Sean will demonstrate how he uses mp3 files for a range of purposes, from classroom management and games to providing student feedback and school news.

Sean administers several very useful sites including:
* Breaking News English
* News English Lessons
* ESL Discussions

Webinar Details:
Date: Tuesday 22nd September 2009
Time: 5pm-7pm GMT
Link: Connect via: http://breeze.lpm.uni-sb.de/mp3/
All you need to participate is a headset (no standalone microphones, please and no loudspeakers)! Sound checks should to be made during the 30 minutes before the start of the meeting.

Feel free to join in on the day or confirm your participation by contacting the host Jürgen Wagner by sending an email to JWagnerATlpm.uni-sbDOTde

Update 23/9/09
Link to the full Webinar Recording

Finding interactive multimedia resources online is a great way for educators to enhance teaching and learning in their classroom. From web apps to interactive whiteboard activities, the Internet is loaded with high quality resources that students will enjoy. Here is a list of 20 free resources for educators to try out this year:

TeacherLED – TeacherLED provides teaching resources for use with interactive whiteboards. The interactive whiteboard resources contained on this site are for math, English, and geography. Teachers can also find information on how to create their own interactive whiteboard resources.

Crickweb.co.uk – This free site offers 169 educational resources that educators can use with interactive whiteboards. Educators will also find 15 free games for kids between the ages of 4 and 11. The site also links to more than 100 other free resources online.

What2Learn – What2Learn offers free game-based learning for students. Teachers can also use this site to track progress, access more than 1,000 interactive resources, and create original games.

Interactives – Interactives offers free interactive games and activities that can be used by educators to enhance learning in the classroom. Interactives cover math, science, language, history, and art.

SMARTboard – SMARTboard provides several free online activities that educators can use with or without interactive whiteboards. The activities cover elementary, middle, and high school education.

BrainPop – The BrainPop educational site offers animated and interactive games that students can play online. There are games for science, social studies, English, math, arts, music, health, and technology. * Small selection of free content. Majority of content requires paid subscription. PD

FunSchool – FunSchool offers free online games for K-6 students. Throughout this site, educators will find hundreds of entertaining yet educational games sorted by grade level.

Visuwords – The Visuwords site is a free online interactive graphical dictionary and thesaurus. To use this site, simply type in a word to find a neural network of word associations and meanings.

FunBrain – Within the FunBrain site, educators can find dozens of interactive educational games that younger students will enjoy. The games help with math, reading, and other subjects.

BGFL – The BGFL site offers free online activities and games that can be used with an interactive whiteboard. Throughout this site, educators will find resources for foundation, primary, and secondary education for English, science, mathematics, and other subjects.

SimplyBox – SimplyBox is a free web app that gives you the capability to capture and organize sections of web pages. The web sections you collect are organized into boxes that can be easily shared with students or colleagues.

Rader’s Numbernut.com – This all inclusive math warehouse offers free online activities that students of all ages can use to improve math skills. The activities can be used on your computer and also work well with interactive whiteboards.

ScribLink – ScribLink is a free online whiteboard that can be used to collaborate in real time with students and colleagues. With this site, you can draw, upload images, chat, voice conference, and transfer files.

PrimaryGames – This fun learning site features games for language arts, math, social studies, science, and more. The site was launched by a science and technology teacher who originally created the games for his own classroom.

eField Trips – eField Trips allows students to take virtual tours of exciting monuments and attractions around the United States. Each tour features a virtual experience, field journal, and “ask the expert” question and answer opportunities. To access the tours, you must sign up for a free account.

Tramline – This site is loaded with virtual tours and field trips that students can take to explore the world of science. The tours explore everything from ecosystems to prehistoric life.

Mathsframe.co.uk – Mathsframe offers several free math resources that teachers can use with interactive whiteboards. The resources cover calculating, counting and partitioning.

BookBuilder – With this site, you can create, publish, share, and read digital books to your students. BookBuilder is perfect for teachers who want to customize learning through original books that will interest students.

Classtools.net – Classtools.net offers free tools that teachers can use to create their own interactive games to embed into blogs, wikis, websites, and more.

Earthtrips – Earthtrips allows students to take a virtual tour into the history of the earth. In this virtual tour, students are presented with raw information so that they can study earth science as professionals.