Note: For an audio version of this blog visit http://drop.io/wdlihblog to listen and/or download and/or subscribe to an RSS Feed or for iTunes downloads.
Items included in this blog are also included in my website, http://www.acljohn.com/.
A big thank you to all of you who watched/listened/emailed etc., during our live broadcast yesterday (Monday 12:45 to 13:15); in answer to your questions…
· a recording will be made available a.s.a.p. for those of you who were unable to watch
· the Functional Skills Resources will be available to delegates at Functional Skills workshops; watch the events page on our website or subscribe to the eMagazine
· Smile Box, that was used for some of the video clips, can be found at http://www.smilebox.com/; it’s not the software it is what you do with it!
· Please contact support@rsc-northwest.ac.uk if you can host a ‘Functional Skills Workshop’; this will entitle you to 2 free places on the workshop as well as the resources.
· Sound was an issue for a few of our listeners, the ‘live elements’ quieter than the pre-recorded. We will be trying to improve that for next month’s “In-Touch”.
I must also thank Keith (Technical Adviser) and Colin (WBL Adviser) who helped in the planning and delivery of the broadcast. There were 25 IP Addresses online for the broadcast but we know that some involved a number of viewers.
Today’s Finds include…
1:
Sketchfu is a website where practitioners, learners etc., can communicate with each other through 'another drawing media'.
Visit http://sketchfu.com/ to view a sample, try it out or browse the gallery etc.
To reach the standard on view I would suggest visitors try a drawing tablet!
2:
Musopen is an online library classical music of music recordings and sheet music that are in the public domain.
All of the recordings on Musopen can be downloaded and or be embedded into a blog or website. The sheet music offered by Musopen is hosted by Scribd from where visitors can download or print the sheet music.
Musopen could be a good resource for practitioners/learners of music theory and music performance; visit http://www.musopen.com/ to find out more.
3:
Myna is an audio recording and editing tool and is the latest addition to the Aviary family of web applications; Aviary is best known as a suite of online image creation and editing web applications which allows users to manipulate images to very high standard within their browser.
As you are all aware, browser based applications offer practitioners and learners alike the opportunity to freely access creation and manipulation tools which are generally otherwise unavailable to them, because they usually come with a hefty price tag or have to be installed by network administrators or both.
Because these, and other web applications don't need to be installed (they may need to be unfiltered in some cases), they provide practitioners and learners with an affordable and sustainable way to bridge the gap between home and coursework: they can start a project at home and finish it off in their learning environments or vice versa.
Myna will look familiar to those of you already using audio recording and editing software such as, my favourite, Audacity but, I'm informed by Apple colleagues that it is more like Apple’s GarageBand, because of its drag and drop interface and its library of audio tracks, clips and loops which allow you to quickly whip up professional sounding recordings. Myna’s main features include...
- Powerful Clip Editing - Trim, Loop, Stretch and Reverse your audio clips, width editable loop points, and interactive time stretch capabilities.
- Automation - Easily add fade-ins, fade-outs, pan from left to right, and modify gain over time, with editable control points.
- Effects - Add non-destructive effects to your audio clips including Pitch Change, Reverb, Delay, Parametric EQ, and more.
- Import / Export - Import your own audio files, or search one of our provided libraries. Mix it down and export directly to your desktop or publish back to your account.
- Share and learn - Collaborate with other users. Follow step-by-step tutorials to learn new skills.
Accessibility is often all that’s necessary to promote creativity and independence in learners. Provide access to the tools, show them how to use them and let them get on with it!
Take a closer look at http://aviary.com/tools/myna#.
4:
Many Things is a website offering Functional Skills/Key Skills/ESOL/EFL/ESL etc., practitioners and learners an extensive collection of...
- Word games,
- puzzles,
- quizzes,
- exercises and
...other online learning activities.
Many Things provides materials appropriate for beginners through to advanced ESOL/EFL/ESL learners.
In addition to the games and quizzes, Many Things provides...
- listening activities made possible through the use of MP3 recordings.
- video lessons on speaking and writing English.
Find out more at http://www.manythings.org/.
5:
Brain Flips is a nice, free, option for learners and/or practitioners to create flashcards and study them.
Brain Flips is interesting because it offers graduated modes of studying.
Brain Flips, a relatively new flashcard service, allows users to create and share flashcards about any topic.
- To create flashcards users must register (it's free),
- To use the publicly shared flashcards does not require registration.
Brain Flips is unique because it offers three ways to review the flashcards...
- introduction mode - the flashcard's question and answer appear side by side
- traditional mode - the flashcards display the question on one side and displays the answer on the other side when clicked and
- response mode - the user is prompted to put in an answer before the correct answer is displayed.
Visit http://brainflips.com/home.html to find out more and/or to try out a publicly shared set of flashcards.
6:
Microsoft Project is, in my humble opinion, one of the most powerful project and task management applications available for PCs. The problem is that most learners/practitioners/administrators/manages can’t usually afford the Office package that includes Microsoft Project. The majority of home computer users will have the standard office package, such as the 2007 Home and Student edition which has Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Project management software could help learners tremendously with managing their time between coursework, projects, social events and everything else life dishes out upon a vibrant and busy learner.
Let me present a free and creative online project management tool called Gantter.
When visiting the Gantter website, you will find yourself staring at what looks like Microsoft Project. The website itself is the application, and once there, users can instantly start creating their own project management file.
Users can create Microsoft Project compatible files for any project that they are working on. Gantter lets them save those files (or even PDF exports) onto a USB flash drive. Later, when they want to make changes to their project, they just go to any computer, pop in their USB drive and visit Gantter, where they can open that file and modify it however they wish. It doesn’t matter whether the computer they’re using has MS Project or not. And if users already use MS Project at work? Even better – now they can take their work anywhere with them and edit those MS Project files remotely, whether working on a computer at a Cafe, a library or anywhere else.
If you are already familiar with Microsoft Project, just visit http://gantter.com/ and off you go!
If you need some help, it can be found at http://gantter.com/about.html.
7:
One of the things I do whenever I write an eMagazine article is to include it in a blog article (http://acljohn.posterous.com/) and in an audio version of the blog (http://drop.io/wdlihblog); I also add it to the appropriate blog in my blog portal (http://www.acljohn.com/). By doing this I feel I'm offering choice to 'my readers' as, I'm sure you will agree, "one size doesn't suit all"!.
I also promote the choices through Twitter and Facebook, using Ping.
During my usual research for new and emerging technologies, I discovered yet another relatively quick way to distribute the very same article, using video. I’ve considered using video but decided that the time taken couldn't be justified however, I've just found an application called the 'Article Video Robot', which lets users automatically convert any article into a video with background and foreground images, titles and subtitles and even background music and voice-over audio.
There is one important issue to cover – whether or not this software is really free. Downloading it from CNET <http://download.cnet.com/Article-to-Video-Converter/3000-2650_4-10912741.html?tag=mncol> it’s labelled as free, and I was able to install and run it without registering or offering any identifying information. With that said, when users run the application they will see that it’s powered by ArticleVideoRobot, which offers the same functionality from its website with a limited 14 day trial.
As far as I can tell by experimentation/testing, the downloaded application does works for free for anyone, but I can’t promise how long that will last or how long the videos created will remain active and/or online. With that said, the software is easy to use and pricing, at the time of writing is...
$47.00/month - 50 Downloadable Videos per month
Find out more at http://www.articlevideorobot.com/.
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