Using ICT in Further Education

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!!

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.