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Dr Linda Hefferin suggested this tool for a Pick of the Day, saying:
Here's a video about Readability:"This tool transforms a Web page into something clean and legible. It also puts the text in large print. Easy to install, easy to use, free!"
Readability - Installation Video for Firefox, Safari & Chrome from Arc90 on Vimeo.
Sarah Price, the Manager of the Scotland and North East England JISC Regional Support Centre emailed me about this report:
"Today we've released a report on what people in further education think about using technology. At 120 pages it's not a light read, but it's comprehensive and highly suitable for dipping in and out of, according to interest. All types of staff groups are surveyed, plus a chapter on students, plus a synthetic overview of 'distance travelled' with technology over the past decade.
We have no commercial interest here - we work for JISC - and the report couldnt be better value 'cos it's a FREE download from www.etna.org.uk."
Today I am posting about three completely different resources that readers have emailed me about:
E-Learning Technology Network
Omer Oz told me about the E-Learning Technology Network that he has created for e-learning professionals from around the world.
TeacherZone
Andrew Joseph emailed me about TeacherZone; this is a free resource for teachers, and has thousands of free math video lessons for Grades 3-10.
Sortfix
Arya Schellemberg wrote to tell me about SortFix, and explained that this is a " new search engine that combines a very friendly and easy-to-use interface with powerful algorithms that help improve the search and lead you to accurate and relevant results. Also, it gives you the possibility of retrieving results from Google, Bing, Youtube, Twitter and Image Search all in the same place".
Do you have a free Ning network and not want to upgrade it to a premium site? Then SaveMyNing might be of interest to you. This is what they say about their service
"Save My Ning is an archive service that will allow you to backup your existing Ning Network on our webservers for free. We will host ads on the sites in order to cover the cost much like your Ning Network had ads. However, you will not be able to post to your archive, only read it."
Ben Betts wrote to tell me about their new piece of e-learning software, Curatr, that they've just launched to beta. Anyone can sign up to help test it out as they'd love as much feedback as possible. Ben writes ...
"Curatr touches on a number of key emerging themes in E-learning - social, personalisation, gaming - and helps to bring them together into a handy bit of software that instructors can use in a range of different styles to bring online learning up a notch. We also advocate using just about any digital asset as a learning object, so hopefully this could be a cost effective solution to bringing E-learning to a wider audience."
The website has lots of information about Curatr and there also some useful videos that explain the concept, including this one
"explore is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. Both educational and inspirational, explore creates a portal into the soul of humanity by championing the selfless acts of others.
explore’s growing library consists of more than 250 original films and 30,000 photographs from around the world. We showcase our work at film festivals, on over 100 public broadcast and cable channels, and on numerous online destinations including explore.org, Snag Films, Hulu and TakePart."
explore.org has recently launched a set of lesson plans which are written for the K-12 classroom, and fulfill grade level national standards.
The plans accompany explore's films, which document people who have made a difference around the world.
You can check them out at explore.org/education/
Suki suggested Poster Street as a Pick of Day.
This is what they say about themselves.
"We developed Poster-Street.com to provide you with motivational, funny and thought provoking wall art that makes a difference. After scouring the web we realized there was a need for high-quality posters that were well-designed and easily accessible. Feel free to use these wherever you like and make sure and tell all your friends."
At Poster-Street you can download free posters as PDFs. Here are some examples:
Following Techcrunch's posting on Thursday, Ning's bubble bursts ..., that the new CEO of Ning had written to its staff to tell them that it will phase out their free service and that "existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning", there has been a lot of blogging activity about Ning.
Some have suggested that this has been a big PR disaster for Ning, others that this could mean the end to free social media, whilst many more have focused on the alternatives to Ning. I wrote a blog posting on my Social Media in Learning blog about how I thought Elgg might be a good alternative. However there have been many other suggestions, some of which I actually don't think would provide the same functionality as Ning, so this is the reason for today's blog posting, as I wanted to remind you about the section in the Directory of Learning Tools, that (currently) lists 115 social networking and collaboration space tools and services. In this list you will find
Clearly the functionality of a tool or service will be important, but other factors will be the cost (ie whether it is free, open source or commercial software), and whether it is a hosted service or downloadable software. When you choose your new platform you may also want to make sure you own the data and content this time, so if this is a consideration, you will need to read the terms and conditions closely.
You may find my comparison of Facebook, Ning and Elgg a useful resource when considering all the factors involved - to ensure you don't jump out of the frying pan into the fire!
Meanwhile, you should also note that Ning has made the following announcement on its blog:
Decisions, decisons .."We recognize that there are many active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals and it's our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will make sense for all of them."
Email: jane.hart@C4LPT.co.uk
Twitter: @C4LPT
Facebook page: C4LPT
