Using ICT in Further Education

Format Factory is a one stop shop for many of your file conversion needs. Easily convert graphics, audio and video files.

All to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.
All to MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV.
All to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA.

Format Factory also includes features for repairing damaged video/audio files, reducing file size and conversion for iphone & ipod multimedia file formats.

For some concrete advice and examples check out Miguel’s review of Format Factory.

Shawn Brandt has produced some excellent tip sheets to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms.

The tip sheets, downloadable in word format, deal with many useful software packages and website that can be used to enhance learning.

Shawn has also included a Digital Storytelling project page, which details all the steps necessary to use storytelling to promote project-based learning in the classroom.

Thanks for a  great resource Shawn

I have already writen about Ghotit in a previous post and recently received an updated comment to that post from the Ginger Team giving details about their own “text correction technology“, which would also be of great benefit for anyone with dyslexia.

In their comment, the Ginger Team explained exactly what you get with their software:

• Automatic correction of entire sentences
Ginger automatically replaces incorrect words with accurate alternatives. Other spell checkers require users to review each individual error and manually select an alternative.

• Correction of unusual spelling mistakes
With a single click, Ginger automatically corrects unusual spelling mistakes at a level unmatched by other spell checkers. For example: “phisik is my faverd sudgekt” is automatically changed to “physics is my favorite subject“.

• Correction of misused words
Ginger identifies and automatically corrects misused words that other spell checkers do not pick up. For example, “Which which is which” is automatically corrected to “Which witch is which”.

• Accurate results that make your point
Ginger’s unique technology corrects words by analyzing their context. Other spell checkers perform limited, if any, contextual analysis. Ginger makes accurate word replacements by taking your intention into account.

• Successful Beta trials
Ginger is used by schools, universities and dyslexia organizations in the US and the UK.

Once registered, you can download and use the software as required. Definitely looks very promising. Has anyone had been using this software? Would love to know how well it works.

UNESCO’s Open Training Platform is fantastic resource providing links to over 3,000 training resources within 293 categories.

The purpose of the platform is to “empower trainers or/and trainees with free resources, offer them a structured collaborative space to share their training but also to promote and value the “open” training materials, which are freely and openly accessible for trainers and self-learners to use and re-use for non commercial purposes such as teaching, learning and research“.

Could be well worth your while checking out the resources on the Open Training Platform. 

Blist is an “online database that is visual and intuitive” allowing you to organize different types of information.

With Blist you can make and share simple to-do lists or complicated CRM solutions. You can import/export your data, use templates and copy/modify shared blists.

Blist have just recently added the form and grid widgets, which allow you to easily embed your Blist in your blog or website. This enables you to collect information and share your results with others – even if they do not have a Blist account.

The Blist widgets are great for providing immediate feedback and added interactivity – your site visitors can search and sort the data within the grid widget. Data can be added through the form widget or directly into the grid widget.

Try it out for yourself on this little example:
NB: For some reason sometimes the grid widget does not behave properly – it appears and then disappears leaving a blank white space! The results can be seen at Sample Blist.

Ask500People is a polling service that allows you to “gather input and opinion data in minutes“.

The results may be viewed in chart format or by country (list or Google map). For Ask500People members, who vote, the results are also broken down according to gender, age, income and education.

Great for immediate feedback in Social Studies, Geography, Maths etc.

Try it out. You can vote and view the results here:

View all the result options (gender, age etc) and some interesting comments on the voting page.

Twittersheep produces a nice ‘wordle‘ type tag cloud from the “bios of your twitter flock“.

Neat little application.

Girlebooks provides a collection of ebooks, written by women, with the intention of making “classic and lesser-known works by female writers available to a large audience through the ebook medium“.

The texts are gathered from Manybooks.net and Project Gutenberg and then “professionally formatted“ providing a table of contents and text reflow for small reading devices. In fact, Girlebooks offers the ebooks in several different formats accommodating most ebook readers.

Girlebooks also includes contemporary female authors, who submit their work for inclusion.

Thanks Pilar for finding this one!