Oxelon Media Converter - Stereo Mood - Green ICT - Fruits - Great Grub Club - SparkleBox - WordPress.TV
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/.
Booking for the on-line workshop on eXe is going so well that we may have to run it again in December; details and booking on our events page on our website.
Today’s Finds include…
1:
Oxelon Media Converter is a must have "audio/video file converter software".
It meets all I've been looking for...
- neat,
- clean interface,
- integrated with the Windows Explorer context menu allowing me to convert media files directly in Explorer by right clicking on them.
It's not often I fall in love with an application at first sight but this is an exception.
Things I like...
- Oxelon Media Converter supports a wide range of audio and video formats allowing conversion from one to the other. Supported formats are:
- Video Formats: 3GP, ASF, AVI, DV, DVD MPEG2, FFM, FLV, GIF, MOV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2 TS, NUT, PSP, RAW YUV, RM, SVCD MPEG2, SWF, VCD MPEG1, VOB, YUV4MPEG, M1V, M2V, M4V.
- Audio Formats: AC3, AAC, AIFF, AMR, AU, FLAC, MMF, MP2, MP3, OGG, VOC, WAV.
- Oxelon - Convert to Video or
- Oxelon - Convert to Audio from the menu.
- video size,
- video bitrate,
- frames per second,
- audio channels,
- audio bitrate and
- sampling rates
- "Direct Stream Copy" that lets end users convert media file format without re-encoding; allowing faster file conversion;
- drag and drop from Windows Explorer for conversion; I found this by accident.
Things I don’t like:
- Every time Oxelon Media Converter is closed it directs users to its homepage; very annoying but, to be fair, understandable.
Oxelon Media Converter is free and works with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and can be downloaded at http://www.oxelon.com/media_converter.html.
2:
Stereomood is a free emotional internet radio that suggests to visitors the music that best suits their mood and/or their daily activities.
It's much more than an online radio, it's a tool to create playlists for every occasion, a tool to share 'emotions' through music.
Try it out at http://www.stereomood.com/.
3:
Lady Jane, as our Second Life users will know her, (Jane Edwards is from RSC West Midlands) has set up a page on RSC West Midlands' Wiki that brings together a number of key resources.
Jane has been looking at ways that learning providers can...
- save money and
- work more efficiently
...by thinking more about sustainable computing; something also referred to as Green ICT.
It is a large area and one that is currently attracting a lot of funding and is the subject of much research.
On this wiki page visitors will find information on...
- green agenda government papers,
- green ICT events and
- other useful links for the education sector
Find out more by visiting http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Green_ICT.
4:
Fruity words is from the Birmingham Grid for Learning.
There are 3 Levels...
- Matching Fruit: Match the fruit to its picture by dragging and dropping it onto the matching one; names are under the fruit in English.
- Counting Fruits: has three numeracy activities...
- Making 10: Put 10 pieces of fruit into the bowl by dragging and dropping the fruit of the users choice; watch the counter change from 0 to 10
- How many fruits? Count how many fruits are in the bowl, choose the correct number from those shown and click and
- What's the number? Count how many fruits are in the bowl, type in the correct number and check if you're right
Ideal for ESOL, ESL, EFL etc. as well as Family Learning.
Go to http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/fruits/index.html to try it out.
5:
The Great Grub Club has plenty of free ideas and downloadable resources to get family learning practitioners and their learners learning about healthy living.
Encourage Parents, Guardians and Carers to find out more about the work of World Cancer Research Fund UK and download free recipes and activity sheets to enjoy with their child/children.
The Great Grub Club includes...
- Games
- Quizzes
- Fun
- Food facts
- Olivia's Garden
- Cook it! and
- Fitness Fun
Plus sections for...
- "Your stuff"
- Parents and
- Teachers
Take a look at http://www.greatgrubclub.com/Home_page.
6:
Back in February 2006 SparkleBox.co.uk was launched as a means of sharing useful downloadable resources with other teachers around the UK (and beyond).
Since then the SparkleBox has grown dramatically but the fundamental aim of sharing resources remains. Every resource on the site is FREE to download - no payment required at all!
The main sections are...
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Topics
- Signs & Labels
- Class Management
- Miscellaneous
- Sharing Zone
- Photo Gallery
- Books
- Welsh and
- Parents
Visit http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/ to find out more.
7:
If you and/or your learners are new to blogging AND WordPress in particular, there are some things to learn before progressing too far.
For instance, what are...
- widgets?
- Sidebars?
- Headers and footers?
For veteran bloggers, these terms are second nature but for a newbie, they have lots to learn.
Enter WordPress.TV video tutorials! Learning Providers need to be able to help learners, and many of their staff, get started with new technology. Many create video tutorials but with websites like Wordpress.tv, with some of the best WordPress tutorials out there, their job is so much easier!
Wordpress tutorials include...
- How to sign up at Wordpress.com…
- An introduction to the dashboard…
- How to create a static page…
- How to write and publish a post…
The tutorials are professional, high quality video, and it is easy to turn subtitles on or off. It’s is also very easy to embed and share the videos. There are tutorials for novices and the more experienced. I think that for those of you who use or choose to use WordPress for blogging that you’ll be pleased by what you find at Wordpress.tv.
Go to http://wordpress.tv/ and click on the How To link, across the top of the page, to find out more.
