Using ICT in Further Education

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:

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.

The iLearn ezine created by Kelly Tenkely is a wonderful resource for all Mac Users.

Great layout and design and filled with lots of really useful information and links. You can keep up to date with the latest release through RSS. What a brilliant resource and productive use of the publishing platform Issuu.

Get your copy now!! Thanks for sharing Kelly

NECC, the National Educational Computing Conference, running from 28th June – 1st July in Washington DC is rapidly approaching and promises to be a great event not to be missed.

But, don’t worry if you can’t travel because, the good news is that, you will be able to attend many of the presentations virtually.

You can even present virtually on any topic of your choice, if you so wish. Check out the NECC Unplugged wiki for all the details. Book your slot now!!

Likewise, you can attend Edublogger Con virtually. It runs all day Saturday 27th June. The schedule will be continually updated as the conference approaches.

THE CONFERENCE DATES AGAIN! – Sat 27th June to Wed 1st July

Apture, reviewed earlier, just keeps getting better and better and now includes a new Twitter Viewer that lets you embed the whole Twitter experience right on your website next to relevant content. 

Visitors to your site can view live Twitter streams without having to leave the page – pdonaghy’s twitter. This also includes Twitter search results – mathematics search.

In fact, from within the Twitter Viewer, you can also view any multimedia content that people are twittering about – without leaving your page!

Exhibit lets you easily “create web pages with advanced text search and filtering functionalities, with interactive maps, timelines, and other visualizations“.

With Exhibit you can create dynamic visualizations of your data collections without having to resort to complex database and server-side technologies. Your data can be searched and browsed using faceted browsing. Various different views including tiles, maps, etc can also be provided.

To keep things really simple, the data can easily be created and accessed from a google spreadsheet.

Although not necessary, a rudimentary knowledge of HTML and CSS is beneficial and will enable you to enhance the basic appearance of the webpage. Several examples are provided to help you get started.

Exhibit would be an excellent tool to support an integrated project involving spreadsheet/database and web design modules.

This website was created with a little data from the International Edubloggers Directory.

NB: Best viewed in Firefox or Chrome. Some formats appear to be lost when viewing in Internet Explorer and sometimes the page is redirected!!

Prezi lets you “create maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, drawings and present in a nonlinear way“. Prezi is a great tool for creating stunning presentations, performing completely differently to OpenOffice Impress and PowerPoint.

Just have a look at the two examples to see what I mean! You can click on the second button from the left to view the presentation in full screen. Follow the order of the presentation by using the direction arrows or simply click and drag to move about the presentation screen and zoom in and out as you choose.

1) Book Quiz – See if you can spot the name and author of each of these books!
from the HappyHippy

2) Learning with Technology at SAS – A presentation about how we use technology across the curriculum at Shanghai American School.
from U Tech Tips

Obviously, Prezi is a great tool for creating controlled presentations that will impress an audience. I think, perhaps, it also has potential as a self-directed learning tool.

Prezi is still in Beta development, but inspired by these great examples, I have now signed up and am in the middle of creating my very own first Prezi due for release shortly.