Using ICT in Further Education

The online tutorial ‘You Quote It, You Note It!‘, produced by Vaughan Memorial Library in Canada shows students how to avoid plagiarism and also identifies some good research tips in the process.

This is a good little interactive tutorial that should get the students thinking about the whole plagiarism issue and it only takes about 10min to complete.

WinPenPack provides a suite of applications that have been modified to run from your USB drive. WinPenPack is an Italian site but an English version is also provided, just reset the language option.

Several different editions of WinPenPack are provided ranging from web applications only upto all the essential applications.

There is also a specific school version provided, which includes all the applications that any student would need.

WinPenPack is really versatile as you can create your own peronal combination of applications by following the given guidelines.

There is, definitely, a wide choice of applications to select from!

WinPenPack is very like PortableApps, which was reviewed in an earlier post.

Microsoft Digital Literacy provides eLearning in five distinct courses:
* Computer Basics
* The Internet and the World Wide Web
* Productivity Programs
* Computer Security
* Privacy and Digital Lifestyles

Although the courses are heavily text based, useful videos and practical interactive simulation labs are also included and they can either be taken online or downloaded for offline study.

The recommended time to finish each course is 2-3 hours after which time you can take the corresponding online assessment.  There is also a Certificate Test, covering topics from all five courses, which leads to a printable personalized Digital Literacy Certificate if you pass.

Despite much of the material being based on Microsoft products, it is a very useful resource for a ‘beginners ICT’ class.

andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system which runs seamlessly in any Windows 2000 based system (2000, XP, 2003, Vista; 32-bit versions only).

andLinux is easy to download and install so you can, literally, have a Linux system up and running in minutes. I installed the 653 MB KDE version and it works perfectly.

All the standard application packages, including the educational programs, are provided with the full version so you can start experiencing the KDE desktop right away.

andLinux also provides wiki and forum support.

I am not sure if there would be any advantage in having both systems installed in a classroom setting but andLinux certainly provides you with an easy way to experience Linux if you are contemplating a change.

Kwik Surveys lets you create, deliver and analyse surveys/questionnaires/polls online.

There are lots of nice features provided by Kwik Surveys including: instant results, customizable Logo’s and themes and email notifications. You can also download your survey results in csv format.

Your questions can include:
* Multiple Choice (choose One/choose any)
* True or False and Yes/No
* Single Text Box
* Multiple Text Boxes (name, address)
* Presentation (No Answer)
* Rating Question (Matrix)
* Ordered List (Ranking)

You can also add multimedia into the question part of your survey. In fact, it is very easy to add/delete or duplicate questions as well as whole surveys.

This is one I will be using with my new students in September. Have I left out any important questions?

 

As with Roxer, which I reviewed earlier, Weebly lets you create multimedia-rich websites by just clicking and dragging. No downloads or HTML coding required.

With Weebly, you can select from over 40 templates to get you started.

You can then add all sorts of multimedia content including videos, pictures, maps, audio, contact forms, feed readers and text by simply dragging them from the Weebly bar to your web page.

Also, Weebly lets you add your own custom HTML content, unlike Roxer, so you can add as many widgets as you please. In fact, you can also set up a blog using Weebly.

Looking forward to trying Weebly with my ‘Introduction to Web Design’ class next term to see how they get on!

The added advantage of Weebly, is that the students can publish their web pages immediately - no need for any FTP or signing up for separate hosting. This just might just provide some extra motivation!!

At Zunal you can use zWebQuest to create a WebQuest without the need for any HTML coding. You are restricted to creating one WebQuest only.

However, you can also make use of any of the 5,000 WebQuests that have already been published. There are nearly 10,000 users registered, three quarters of which are female!

With Zunal you can upload an image related to your WebQuest for each section and you are allowed to upload up to 3 external files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc) to the process page.

Zunal have recently added zPortfolio which allows you to create unlimited online portfolios.

Thinkfinity is a wonderful site providing over 55,000 educational resources including:
* lesson plans
* student materials
* interactive tools
* reference materials
* other online resources

In fact, Thinkfinity does provide a “wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs“.

The advanced search system provided by Thinkfinity  definitely helps you to find suitable resources quickly and painlessly!

Many thanks Miguel for pointing this one out