Posts Tagged: HIAS

CPD and INSET / Digital Learning / RSS — No Comments
15
Mar 10

#9 5 Minute Meals for ICT

Allows me to pick which pulses I have my finger on. Ian Usher

Topic or Tool: An RSS Reader. Do you really care what RSS stands for? Me neither.

What does it cost? FREE.

How it could be used for teaching? Too many to list but let me assure you its very straightforward.

Lets start with the very basics. One of the best tools for managing information flow is an RSS aggregator or “feed reader.” Should you desire more information then RSS in Plain English should do the trick. There are lots of feed readers to choose from, but you can’t go to far wrong with Google Reader. Later, when you are comfortable with RSS, by all means be picky, but for now, I only have 5 minutes.

Step one – sign up.

Step two –  subscribe to your favourite news sites, blogs and other RSS content and be notified when new information is posted.

That is it but be warned RSS will have a significant impact on how you consume online content. From now on the flow of information is now towards you.

FYI – Google Reader has appeared in Jane Harts (C4LPT) Top Tools for Learning since she started polling educators in 2007. RSS personally delivers to you an endless source of whatever I want to read! This is one of the most powerful professional tools you will ever use.

Please don’t think that is all Google Reader has to offer. But for now, that will get you started. For desert there is starring, sharing and following, just waiting to be discovered.

(This post was written for Helen Caldwell, Vital.ac.uk Regional Manager for the SE.)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Curriculum / Digital Learning / e-Tools — No Comments
21
Mar 09

#8 5 Minute Meals for ICT

Topic or Tool: Creative Common Images on a BIG scale. The reason for the post is the result of two unique events. During a recent school visit I saw an example of a block poster / rasterbator on the wall in the tech office, a reminder, and today I was introduced to some great eduart.

Take great creative common images and blow them up. Useful for ICT, but also any curriculum area as wall art.

Take an image from one of the create photostreams on Flickr -such as Interesting Snippets – Lynetter, Quote Cards from the Learning and Change Pool or michaelmarlatt and blow it up big using Block Posters or rasterbator.

What does it cost? For the most part FREE. Just you have to print out the A4 sheets.

How it could be used for teaching? Well the content is education in itself. We have laminant the sheets and used them as giant visual puzzles in the past. Without doubt the easiest impact is as wall art.

If you do make use of the art, I would to see a photo….

Image attribution to Bill Gracey on Flickr under this CC Licence

Popularity: 3% [?]

Curriculum / ICT — No Comments
2
Jan 09

#7 5 Minute Meals for ICT

Topic or Tool: Online Polling. This overview looks at when and how polls can be used. Polls are embedded in our College webpage but there are also web options. We use polls to monitor opinions from students and parents but also to encourage students to engage with the website. For example our students recently correctly predicted the outcome of the X Factor final.

What does it cost? For the most part FREE.

How it could be used for teaching? There are a range of options here.

Most Web polling software are free and they require no technical knowledge. Lets take a look at a few, but there are plenty more than that. Note the key differences are HOW users vote and How you interact with the site.

1. The very first polling software I used was SurveyMonkey. I used it to gather student feedback about the course. I then used this information to develop and steer the course. In the post 16 sector, gauging and responding to the students was very important. Still a very powerful tool, basic subscribers (FREE) are limited to a total of 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. So good for a cohort or group but if you want to go beyond 100 respondents, and up to 1000 or gain access many more features, there is a cost. 8/10

2. Micropoll- This web poll service doesn’t require registration and you can create a quick poll by simply typing all the possible choices in a text box separated by new lines. Great for quick hit question. Micropoll provides a variety of colored themes and you can embed polls in websites either as JavaScript or a Flash movie. You get to see poll responses on a world map and the paid version also supports SMS polls.

3. Google Docs – Simply fantastic. Create a new form in Google Docs with a range of questions styles. Its already been used to gather cross college data in our establishment. With the help of some online colleagues, we have added the function of instant grading. Here is a highly developed spelling test formwith extras, marked instantaneously – now I have your attention don’t I. Or how about lesson review forms for students to feedback to teachers. Here is a form for Unit 4 from the OCR Nationals, two groups in two separate rooms competed against one another. Tom Barrett does a great job with Google Docs. With the pros, come the cons. Poll embedding options in Google Docs aren’t very convenient and users can’t see the results after voting but you can convert answers to gadgets….. but that’s another meal.

4. PollDaddyis the most popular online polling software focused as an online solution. A free account from PollDaddy allows you to create surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network profiles.

5. StrawPoll – This is an interesting service that lets you run live polls on Twitter. Good for your PLN not necessarily for school.

poll-everywhere6. Poll Everywhere – This could be a student poll, but also good for conference or staff CPD participation. I hope to work with Poll Everywhere in the New Year. Although fine as a web poll, Poll. Poll Everywhere also offers SMS Polls where people can vote though text messaging on mobile phones just like polls conducted on TV or radio. The basic plan is free though it only allows 30 votes per poll.

There are more, Notifu, Vizu Polls and Toluna. The question is, what works for you.

imageWhich polling software is right for me?

All the services discussed above offer some unique options. For instance, Notifu allows polling via email while Micropoll lets you create polls even without asking for your email address. So, if you are doing a poll with students and want to use the result instantly or present the results go with Poll Everywhere, their ppt integretion is very neat.

If you are a doing a presentation in a conference room and need opinions of participants over a certain topic, try Poll Everywhere again, hoping everyone has either a phone or laptop they can join in with.

If you need polls for embedding in web pages, Poll Daddy, the free version of PollDaddy offers unlimited polls and unlimited number of votes, however you will need the Pro version for if you want to prevent fraudulent multiple votes from the same IP address.

For use with students and staff responses, I dont think you can beat the ease of Google Docs. Certainly if you want the students to fill in data, then Google docs rocks. Bring the data to life with Google Gadgets or Many Eyes.

Polling in action….

 

Popularity: 3% [?]

Curriculum / Digital Learning / SLD — 2 Comments
21
Dec 08

#6 5 Minute Meals for ICT

‘Finding the right way to view your data is as much an art as a science.’

Topic or Tool: Many Eyes. A project and website set up to enable anyone to share data and data analysis. More importantly it allows anyone to create, edit, share data visualizations.

What does it cost? FREE.

How it could be used for teaching?

Anywhere you use data, Many Eyes can help. Sharing data, presenting data, investigating and evaluating data. This resource includes over 16 different visualisation tools so if its data you need to check out Many Eyes.

If you can not find a novel use for Many Eyes then I would be very surprised. We will be using Many Eyes to target and explore the large data sets now mandatory for the new curriculum. Combine this with the statistics available at the OECD (organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and you have a powerful lesson in the making. Or perhaps you may decide to use a Google Form to collect data not solely from one group of students but a whole year, school, county, country? Is that large enough? As an example, we researched and sourced over 291  unique movie titles (any imperfect entries or duplicates were deleted, 611 total entries were recorded) from 4  groups working collaboratively and simultaneously in preparation for Unit 7, ‘Use and Design Databases.’ The data set was certainly more comprehensive and current than the measly 30 the board provided. If you want to add to the list, please do. We add some fun challenges, like the oldest film, long Directors name. If you want a copy of the list, you only have to ask.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Digital Learning / SLD / VLE and Moodle — No Comments
17
Nov 08

#5 5 Minute ICT Meals for ICT

Topic or Tool: Ancient Rome in Google. Wow. Google has released an “Ancient Rome 3D” layer for their popular Google Earth browser. The new layer shows many of the buildings and structures that made up the city during the rule of Constantine the Great. Some of the buildings even have interiors.

What does it cost? FREE as part fo the Google Earth tool. Another great amazing tool.

How it could be used for teaching?

I recently read about hi tech 3D immersive education at a school costing serious investment and although not fully immersive, it is free. This product allows you to;

  • Fly into Rome as it looked in 320 A.D.
  • Tour the interior of famous buildings.
  • Visit the sites in 3D such as the Roman Forum, Colosseum and the Forum of Julius Caesar.
  • Learn about how the Romans lived.

Dont expect me to tell you how to use this tool, be imaginative, but Google also announced a curriculum competition in conjunction with the release. Educators who create the most interesting curricula based lessons around the Ancient Rome 3D layer will receive a range of goodies. Maybe HIAS can offer goodies for the best shared resources? Would that encourage educators to share?

Watch the Youtube press video here.

How it could be used for learning?

Not having spent that long in ancient Rome, you could certainly set an orienteering task, a Roman treasure hunt. As the competition gaunlet has been laid down, can we put forward an offering to compete with our Amerian counterparts? Post your ideas here of contribute to the Google Doc.

I hope to send out the invites real soon.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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